Old Girls Go Global

To mark the recent Bolton School Alumni dinner in New York, here we find out what motivated these US-based Old Girls to move across the Pond, what they enjoy about their lives there … and what they still miss about the UK!

Carol Taylor (Class of 1962) I have lived in the US now for over 50 years, since I married the American year-abroad student I had met on my first day in London, four years earlier. We lived in New Orleans LA, then in Indiana, before moving to the Boston MA area, where I still live in Brookline. My career was mostly in education, primarily college level teaching and later administration, at Harvard, MIT, and other universities. I gained a Master’s degree (German) from Tulane University in New Orleans, a PhD in Comparative Literature (Medieval) from Harvard, and an MBA from MIT. A broad education indeed! Retirement has continued work with non-profits in education and the arts, and the company of my husband, three children and three grandchildren. Over the years I have returned regularly to the UK and keep up with British media. Two of my children hold British as well as US passports (very useful especially for the journalist specialising in the Middle East in the days when he could travel in the region). My first impression of the US was, perhaps obviously, the scale of the place: distances travelled, the horizon is further away. But I think scale applies to comparisons between the two, even while the differences have narrowed over time. UK commentators often regard ‘American’ opinions as homogenous. Just overlay the geographic US over Europe: it extends into Russia and encompasses all the EU. Hardly an area where you would expect standard opinions! In the US the differences in regions (North vs South; East vs West) are rooted in history and often persist. Urban vs rural, race, economics, social position (not class in the UK sense), political ideas yield widely divergent attitudes. The issues may be more shared in both countries than they were 50 years ago, but the scale of their expression may seem stronger in the US. Far less ‘keep calm and carry on’ here, though Boston is an island of comparative calm and common sense!

Ann E Knight (Class of 1983) I live in Houston, Texas – I have lived here since I emigrated from the UK back in 1987. My father, who is a metallurgist and graduated from Sheffield University, was offered a job in the oil and gas field in Houston to design and market heat exchangers (he originally worked for Hick Hargreaves, a company that was located in Bolton). I don’t know where to start with the differences between the US and the UK! Firstly, the weather – it took me a couple of years to get used to the humidity and heat in Texas. Then there is the food and the servings – definitely, what I would call Texas-sized portions! People tend to work longer hours here and do not take as much vacation. And while we all speak English, different words are used to describe the same thing (gas/petrol; trunk/boot, hood/bonnet; cookie/biscuit; attorney/barrister, solicitor; rubbish/garbage, and injection/jab; panty hose/tights etc) and some words are spelt differently (color/colour). And, of course, while the British and the rest of the world love football, the Americans love their ‘American Football’. The best things about living here are the people and lifelong friends that I have made. I really enjoy the wonderful holiday of Thanksgiving. I also appreciate the ability to play sports all year long without the weather interfering! And cheap gas (petrol) is a bonus. I do miss certain things about the UK though: pubs, traditional British ‘pub grub’, a full British breakfast, public transport (pretty much non-existent in Texas), National Health, the British countryside (Texas is flat!), British historical buildings and architecture, Christmas and the Christmas holidays (in the USA you have Christmas Day off and then it is back to work the next day), Bonfire Night and treacle toffee, football/soccer … and British weddings – the Brits know how to have a party!