More Beaver Stories....

See below for the original beaver story, but the most inspirational story was one told at my house one Thanksgiving dinner....

I'm not the only sibling with international connections in my house - which can make some meals a little unusual....

One of my brothers still lives in Canada, but his international connection is his wife - she was born and raised in Spain but moved to Canada when she married my brother. I know that her assimilation into Canadian culture has been difficult at times, but my family - or more specifically my mother - has always done their (her) best to smooth the way - and if not make the difficulties or misunderstandings go away - at least explain them. Which brings me to my original story....

Seeing as Thanksgiving is all about the food (at least that's the way I see it - or more accurately, all about the pumpkin pie...) the conversation turned to food. My sister-in-law noted (and I tend to agree with her) that there doesn't seem to be any traditional Canadian meals - the Spanish have paella and some other foods that are identifiably Spanish, but there isn't really a specific meal that says 'Canadian'.

Unless, you're my mother.....

Now, a little background for you - my mom has lived in a major city for the last 50 years, but still considers her to be a 'northern' girl (country girl). Her childhood was spent in a northern Ontario town and her summers were spent by a lake with the extended family (cousins, aunts, uncles, etc) and occasionally the local native tribe. One of my favourite stories she used to tell was that as a little girl she used to sit and stare in awe at the 100 year old tribal chief eat corn on the cob with no teeth - I can almost visualise her 6 year old self staring...

So, my mom, based on her childhood experiences and her ready nature to defend all things Canadian, offered some traditional Canadian dishes: deer, moose, maple syrup... But whether my mother thought my sister in law just wasn't buying what she was proposing - or maybe she just felt the need to have a big closer, she then blurted out:

"And once a year, at the traditional corn roast, we all eat beaver."

My brother nearly wet himself.

My mom didn't get it.

My brother refused to enlighten her.

My mother even went so far as to re-tell the story to her friend's kids in the hopes that they could explain what was so funny. Despite promises that they would - after the story - once they finished laughing - they wouldn't tell her either. In fact, her friend had to take her aside into another room to fill her in.... She was shocked. What makes that even funnier - she used to teach sex-ed in the schools - but then again, maybe that's just scary....

So it's a Canadian tradition to eat beaver eh? Well, maybe for half the population.....