Striking a cord with foreigners
To separate tough canucks from the rest of the world, just mention two words at this time of year: block heaters.
While we’ve had unseasonably warm temperatures for most of this fall and winter, we are never too far away from extension cords that serve almost as umbilical cords for our vehicles.
We take for granted the winding, stiff, snow-covered cords leading to an electrical outlet on the side of a house or garage. We don’t blink twice at seeing the cord wrapped around our sideview mirrors. We don’t question why we each have bought our 15th cord (since the other 14 from past years have mysteriously disappeared into what we can only guess is the same twilight zone that pairless socks have vanished.)
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We only smile sympathetically when we see 40 feet of extension cord trailing a car down a road after someone forgot to unplug it.
We understand. We can relate.
But head to the United States or a foreign country and these images will draw bewildered looks.
A former Producer staffer moved to Detroit. One day she approached her car and found a teenager staring in awe at the block heater cord sticking out of the grill.
“Wow, cool, an electric car! Never saw one of ’em before!”
While doing a slide show in Chile a few years ago, my peers and I showed a winter picture of a car. We attempted to explain the temperatures of the Canadian Prairies.
Before we could stumble through our limited Spanish to explain the cord, one of the Chileans loudly remarked, “Why do you tie the car up? So it doesn’t run away?”
We lost the audience for the rest of the speech.
They were tougher to regain than my 40-foot extension cord abandoned somewhere on a snowy highway.
