The morning is just so pretty. The sun is bright. The sky is a lovely blue. The air is calm, nothing is moving. The dogs have been out for the longest time. They came in, got their biscuits and went right back outside. They love these mornings and their romps in the yard. They also love their biscuits.

My dance card is filled this week, all uke related. I have my usual practice and lesson and I also have three concerts. We are playing our book Songs Across America with Kansas City, Old Cape Cod, Walking in Memphis and similar songs about places here. We end it with a Patriotic medley.

I live in Massachusetts. People make fun of our accent, the old Harvard Yard bit. When I first got to Ghana, we had a full group sort of assembly where we were told about customs, the different tribes in the various parts of the country and Ghanaian English. I had been asked ahead of time to stand up and say a sentence they had given me. It leaned heavily on my Boston accent. I got laughed at. The speaker, an assistant director, stopped the laughter when he said I would be the first to be understood by Ghanaians. My accent, with remnants of a British accent, mirrored the Ghanaian accent.

I’m going to give you a language lesson in case you visit Massachusetts.

My mother would walk up town. We take the subway to go in town. We drank tonic. My father used to take his shirts to the cleanser. We buy liquor at a packie. My father was a townie. We drink water from a bubbler. We bang a u-ie. The best mornings start at a Dunks. We wore dungarees. We drink frappes. I hosied the front seat. Regular coffee comes with cream and sugar. Cars on the rotary have the right of way. We ate supper every night. My mother carried a pocketbook. We put jimmies on our ice cream cones. My father always said so don’t I. I could care less is also common. Staties hide hoping to catch speeders on the highways. Wicked and very are interchangeable.

I buy subs. Other people buy grinders. I live on The Cape. Here we drive up Cape or down Cape. My brother-in-law wanted to know how far way something was. I told him about twenty minutes. We don’t talk miles here.

You are now well versed in English as it is spoken here. Enjoy your visit. You’ll fit right in.

Yesterday I was awake so early, at least for me, you’d think it was Christmas, and I was six. We had a uke concert at ten at the Chatham Airport open house, and we were supposed to be there by nine. I needed coffee first, hence the early alarm, and I wanted a good parking space. It all worked out just fine. We played The Beatles, and the audience sang along. I had lunch and then wandered around the old cars and the planes. It was fun.

We are expecting rain. It is 67°. It is windy and not windy. The morning feels chilly. I’m staying home today. I have nowhere I need to go, and I am where I want to be.

When I was a kid, we never drank tonic, which is Massachusetts for soft drinks like Coke. We drank Zarez, a sweet syrup which came in a small glass jug and was mixed with water. Mostly we drank orange. My mother used to keep a pitcher full in the fridge. They don’t make Zarex any more.

We were not a big salad family except for potato salad, that was a barbecue staple, and maybe Waldorf salad at Thanksgiving. I thought the grossest salad was Ambrosia. It didn’t even look appealing. Some were a disgusting green in color and some had little marshmallows.

My mother always bought Oreos. The best way to eat them was to split them and save the cream side for last. When they were young, my sisters used to feed the plain side to Duke, our dog. The three of them would sit on the back steps to eat their cookies. My father loved Hydrox so my mother bought those too. My father was a dipper. He dipped his Hydrox in milk. Oreos are great the same way. Cookies never lasted long in our house. I still like Oreos, but I eat them whole. I am partial to the original though I’d never turn down double stuffed.

In summer all the rules changed. Bedtime was later. If we stayed close, in the neighborhood, we could play outside even after the street lights had turned on. I remember the circle of light on the ground. I remember the shadows. I remember the excitement of being outside in the dark.