When I was growing up, we made frequent trips to my father’s village in Italy. At the time, in the 70’s and 80’s, there was a lot of fascination with all things American (presumably that has diminished somewhat with George Bush). We saw many instances, even in the small village, of America’s influence. American music played on jukeboxes in bars and cafes while American television played in everyone’s homes (dubbed in Italian…imagine The Cosby Show in Italian!).
The other thing we noticed was the fascination with American fashions. Kids were scrambling to be seen with Nikes or Levis. The funniest thing is that we saw many T-Shirts with English words on them. These words or phrases never really meant anything, but I think the kids were happy to just show some sign of Americanism.
I don’t remember any of the specific words, but they always had a common theme of sport, fashion, speed and movement. They went something like this:
Club Sport
Super Play
Queen Princess
Well, on Monday, my cousin, his wife and their 13 year old daughter arrived from Italy. They are visiting my parents for three weeks. It turns out that this is a bittersweet visit as it is clear they are here to see my dad as he battles ALS.
When the plane landed, we waited anxiously as they survived customs. When they emerged, I saw my cousin first, then his wife. Taking up the rear, was their daughter. She was wearing one of “those” T-Shirts. As she paraded through the gauntlet of waiting families, we all stood, jaws agape, at what was emblazoned on her chest:
…with a picture of two cherries. Did I mention that she is 13!? I have no idea whether to tell them that there is a double meaning with this because I actually believe they know that there is a different way to take it. I wanted to take her to my son’s basebal