Driving home last night, my husband, daughter, and I listened to Dick Gordon's "the story" on public radio. For anyone who hasn't listened to this program, Dick Gordon interviews people from all walks of life and unique experiences that they have had. The program last night was about a New Jersey family that swapped houses for the summer with a French family from the south of France.
Here's the link. The mp3 button is at the bottom of the page. Bit of a spoiler to follow below the fold.
This was one of those sit-in-the-car-idling-in-the-driveway to listen to the end of the public radio program moments. We live in a very suburban type of house and neighborhood, although definitely not by preference, so we completely identified with the New Jersey mother and daughter.
The New Jersey mom decided to swap houses with a family in southern France for the summer. The French family came to the American Family's house first. The French parents were interested in knowing where good restaurants were, where the shopping outlets were, and were especially impressed with the house in general and the appliances in particular, (which the mom said was all pretty average by New Jersey standards). Then the New Jersey family headed to Southern France.
The house in France had only three closets, no basement, no attic, and quite small appliances. So not the volume of "stuff" that the American family had taken days and days to clean, organize, and store from their own house in preparation for the swap. They shopped daily and the produce was much higher quality, and although there was a big "Costco"-type store they could go to, they didn't because there wasn't much room to store things anyway. The daughter spent a lot of time gardening, picking strawberries, etc.
During their vacation, the American mom got really sick with a sinus infection and the French family left a list of phone numbers the family might need, so they called the "medic" and were flabbergasted that rather than having to go to an emergency room for many hours to get treatment, the doctor was on his way to make a home visit. This cost a little more than if they had been French citizens or guest workers. About 30 dollars. The fist full of prescriptions were another 15 dollars or so. A French citizen would have spent about half and have been able to submit the bill for reimbursement.
When they came home, the Americans talked about how little they actually needed all the "stuff" they had. This part of the interview is kind of funny because the daughter sounds like a young teen or "tween". She keeps saying, "I just have all this "stuff" I know I'm probably not going to use". She can't even elaborate what this stuff actually is. Dick Gordon says, so tell me what is in your closet. She says, "just all this "stuff"". And her mom ends up elaborating, well, toys, and clothes, and games....
The American mom ends up saying, more or less, "We have all this "stuff" and they,(the French), have so many things that just make life so much better, in a lot of ways". She also said that there was routinely a lot less waste in France. When they got back home, the Americans had a huge garage sale and donated a bunch of leftover stuff to charities. The Mom says they still have too much "stuff" and are going to have another yard sale soon.
So what did the French family do? This cracked me up. They hit every outlet store up and down the East Coast, and spoke well about the quality and cost of the copious amount of "stuff" that they bought. (!!!!)
So, a highly recommended interview for anyone that has the time to listen to it. It's a good time of year, for me, at least, to hear that sort of message.