by Bette Wayne

Created on: September 18, 2008

Cultural Influences

Most of us never give much thought to the effect of other cultures on our way of life. We are all our own persons, or are we? How often do we think about the way we do things, the foods we eat, the clothes we wear, or the places we chose to live? How do cultural influences affect our choices?

More pointedly, we seldom recognize that cultural differences exist within the boundaries of the United States until, for whatever reason, someone points a finger at the way a person from another area speaks or does things.

Having lived most of my life in Western New York, I was considered a native New Yorker. There are many implications connected with this neighborhood, some factual, while some are distorted facts, but the least recognized factors are the various nationalities.

With a large influx of Germans, Italians and Irish into the Buffalo area, it soon became obvious that they were leaving their mark on their adopted home. Neighborhoods became dominated by one ethnic group or another. Some of these new citizens established businesses. The most notable in Buffalo probably is The Anchor Bar, famous for its Buffalo wings. I remember when people from other areas laughed if you mentioned eating chicken wings; today they are served in restaurants from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific coast and probably in other parts of the world.

Such things as Buffalo wings and German potato salad were accepted by the community as easily as we accepted their creators as neighbors, but the word neighbor took on new connotations when my thirteen year old daughter and I moved to a town near Atlanta, Georgia.

We rented a house in a residential neighborhood. There were only nine houses on our street, but we soon met most of the neighbors and became friendly. Yes, they spoke with a Southern drawl, said ya'll and hey, but basically they were friendly, outgoing, solicitous neighbors. I fell in love with the south, as did my daughter.

Several years after moving south, two Buffalo friends came for a visit. Unfortunately my car had an undiagnosed malady which rendered it inoperable. One of my neighbors saved the day when she tossed me the keys to her van and said "use it". My northern friends were astonished when I told them what had happened, however, after a short shopping trip in town, and talking with some natives, one of them told me that now she understood why I had said that I would never return to Western New York. There was a different way of life in Georgia reminiscent

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