Partridgeberry Jam and Politics Don’t Mix
My wife and I were doing the tourist thing way up on the remote Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland, Canada and had stopped at a cute roadside café selling local delicacies and trinkets.
As we were checking out jars of partridgeberry jam and Christmas ornaments, a friendly vacationing Newfoundlander struck up conversation.
As soon as we told him where we were from America, the conversation veered immediately into politics.
“I’ve been to the States a few times, but I’m afraid to go back,” he said in a thick Newfie brogue.
We asked, “Why is that?”
Before he could answer, his wife shouted from the other end of the aisle, “Trump!” She didn’t even look up from the jars of bakeapple marmalade she was gazing over.
“Yeah,” he said. “I’m afraid we won’t make it back. You know he’s rounding up foreigners.”
My wife helpfully pointed out that Donald Trump was trying to get the illegals OUT of the country — not trap them in.
But his position was immune to logic, and he quickly moved on to Russia, separation of children, tweets…
“And he’s destroying the economy,” interjected his wife from the far end of the marmalade display.
“Umm, actually our economy is booming. The stock market is at a record high and unemployment is near a historic low,” I said.
It was time to change the subject.
But then when we mentioned we lived in Florida, he told some story about how last time he was in Orlando he watched a couple of Walmart shoppers shoot at each other in the parking lot.
Nothing about that story made any sense either. I’m pretty sure he “watched it” on CNN.