You May Live in the Maritimes IF…

People often ask me what it’s like to live in Canada, and that’s a very difficult answer.  There are things you can say that generally apply to all of Canada, like the people speak English or love hockey, but when it comes down to day to day life and the people you interact with, that largely depends on where exactly in Canada you are coming from.

A while back I did a photo comparison Google style of my hometown and the current city I live in, to show people the vast differences between where I come from and where I live now.  I think that gave people a pretty good idea of how different life is for me now than it was growing up… but it didn’t really tell people about what life in that small town on the east coast of Canada was like.

When you come from the Maritimes, it’s a completely different experience than in a lot of the rest of the country, and it’s often very difficult to describe.  Today I saw something a woman from my hometown put on her status message on Facebook and it made me laugh, because it sums up what life in the Maritimes is like perfectly.

This is life in the Maritimes according to Jeff Foxworthy (edited into a proper list for blog-friendly reading)

You may live in the Maritimes if…

Your local Tasty Treat is closed from September through May

Someone in a Home Depot store offers you assistance and they don’t even work there

You’ve worn shorts and a jacket at the same time

You’ve had a lengthy telephone conversation with……………… someone who dialed a wrong number

“Vacation” means going anywhere south of Saint John for the weekend

You measure distance in hours

You know several people who have hit a deer more than once

You have switched from ‘heat’ to ‘A/C’ in the same day and back again

You can drive 110 kms through 2 feet of snow during a raging blizzard without flinching

You install security lights on your house and garage, but leave both doors unlocked

You carry jumpers in your car and your wife knows how to use them

You design your kid’s Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit

Driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow

You know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter and road construction

You have more kms on your snow blower than your car

You find -12C degrees “a little chilly”

You actually understand these jokes!!

I can relate to every single one of the jokes on that list.  As I was reading it on my friend’s profile I was laughing to myself and thinking of home, and it really is like that!

People who don’t work in shops actually will help you, they are friendly and there’s a true sense of community.  I wore Halloween costumes over snowsuits!

I don’t even know what I was in this photo, a rabbit? a cat? a pink marshmallow?  Regardless, I may have been a chunky kid but you can bet your ass there was a snowsuit under there!

I knew if I looked I’d find a photo of my father wearing shorts and a jacket when all the sane people have the sense to wear actual pants.  He is living, breathing proof that these jokes are not just jokes, but facts.  Crazy, crazy bastard.

I have actually made friends by talking to random strangers who have dialled the wrong number, or having dialled one myself, I shit you not.

I admit, this did make me a little homesick but after all these years I’m used to it.  I just consider myself lucky to grow up in a place that is so unique and full of charm that makes me laugh like this when I think back on the time I spent there.  The Maritimes is such a great place to live, especially Cape Breton Island. It may not be great in the way a lot of people would like, there’s not a lot of money and not always a lot to do either, but the crazy friendly people and the beauty of the surroundings give it something no amount of money could ever buy, something I’m yet to find here in the Netherlands.