I'm a Vietnam era vet who met and married my first wife here in the UK while serving in the USAF back in '69
My experiences with local culture in Suffolk was limited owing to the polite but unwelcoming feelings I picked up on with my sociable attempts. Toleration of Yanks seemed to be the order of the day. Over paid-oversexed-and over here also seemed to be the local narative.
I brought my new wife to my last four month assignment at Laredo Texas before my separation and back to my job awaiting me on my return to New York City. We lived with my folks for a short stay while house hunting. I soon found a one-bedroom flat in a large apartment block complex in another Brooklyn neighborhood. I returned to the job I loved as a telephone repairman working Central Park east to the East River. My wife Jill found a receptionist job at Bache & co. then the second-largest stock brokerage in the
world. (Merrill Lynch was the biggest)
We had a good life, frequent nightclubbing, restauranting, Broadway shows, etc. Then she got pregnant.
Jill came from a small Suffolk town and was very naive. She allowed herself to get ripped off big time losing most of our joint account savings. She decided she could not tolerate NYC anymore, so I quit the job I loved and we emigrated to Suffolk UK living with her widowed mom until we found our own place.
I fortunately had enough savings left to buy a cheap terraced house in the midst of incedible UK wide social, economic, with high unemployment, and political turmoil---this was 1971. I thought what the hell did I land ourselves into! I had no father-in-law for some guidance, and only a naive wife and kind-hearted, but also naive mother-in-law. There was no one to confide in or to mentor me on how it all works here. I only found polite small minded obstruction and prejudice in my quest for factual input. My attempt to register with the "Dole" for unemployment benefits was met with: "not a bloody Yank sponging off us?" (overheard behind a partition). When my wife was near to the end of her pregnancy I went to her Mom's local GP. He flately rejected me and my request for NHS assistance! That same week she went into labour. I rushed her to the local hospital. They obviously had no medical records of her---owing to my earlier rejection---which also caused further delay. They eventually took her in for a "C" section delivery. The surgeon said I almost lost both her and my son owing to the delay.
To shorten a much longer story, after twelve years of marriage, two sons, and our own house, Jill decided to walk away to her newfound love and abandon us. My job required my absense during a work week while she developed outside relationships. The divorce split up my boys. I ---yet again was forced quite an interesting well paid job to work locally. I met my second wife-to-be. I took on her own two kids as well.
They're all grown up now and we are still together. It's been a rough old ride---and I'm still treated like an outsider after all these years here. Jeremy Clarkson once coined the phrase "It's normal for Norfolk"---it's so true
