When I first met my English great-aunts they enquired how it was living out there on the far flung ranges of the empire and being eleven years old with the perception that I was situated at the centre of the universe I had little ability to answer their question. Fifty some years later I am more able to understand the question, and have a good deal to say to the topic of living on the far flung ranges of the empire. That would be the British Empire you know.
In those fifty years the flag has changed, we no longer say the Lord's Prayer in public schools, and I doubt most of the population knows the words to O Canada, or God Save the Queen. The school Christmas concert is almost extinct. Apparently there is a move by the Politically Correct Gestapo (PCG) to make us all say Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas. I think I'll stick with Merry Christmas,as it is in fact Christmas I am celebrating. I'm going to eat suet pudding and have Christmas cake too, even it has become fashionable to slag the best cooking in the world...English cooking! All the things we really like; roast beef, mashed potatoes, gravy, fish and chips, shortbread cookies, bannock, bacon and eggs and beans for breakfast... the list goes on are now made the brunt of rude comment. Back in the days of portion control rather than calorie counting people didn't have to pretend they were living on carrot sticks and tofu burgers even they have a girth like John Bull.
Here in my small place in the Empire our priest is 78 years old and came to Canada at age 65 after doing full service in Birmingham. He came out for midnight mas last Christmas and gave all our students First Communion at Easter. Who will take his place for the coming generations? My students say the Lord's Prayer every morning in Carrier but who is saying it in English? The people who are paying for private schools so their children don't grow up without culture, morals, and beliefs. That is what it is like living here on the far flung ranges of the empire.
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