Erica Vetsch and the Minnesota Goodbye

I’m so pleased to introduce my friend Erica Vetsch. Her first Love Inspired Historical novel debuted this month, and it’s fabulous.  At the end of the post, stay tuned for a giveaway.

Erica Vetsch: You can take the girl out of Kansas…

Thank you ,Dana, for inviting me to blog here at your online home!

One question I am asked from time to time is “Are you like your heroines?”

The answer is, “I write the heroines I WISH I was. They are prettier, smarter, and braver than I will ever be. But in my latest release, my Love Inspired Historical debut, His Prairie Sweetheart, the heroine, Savannah Cox is probably as close to me as any of the 20+ heroines I’ve written.

No, I was not jilted at the altar, but like Savannah, I am a transplant to the state of Minnesota. I was born and raised in the great state of Kansas, but I met and married a Minnesota boy who brought me to his home state to live. I can tell you, much like Savannah’s experience, that first year was a HARD adjustment!

I was far away from the known and familiar. Everything seemed different. Here were just a few of the things I noticed that first year:

Winter was not over on the first of March. When I brought this up, Minnesotans laughed, since March is actually the snowiest month here, if not the coldest.

The grocery store carts had little license plates on them, which the teller wrote on your receipt. You left your groceries at the checkout counter and got your car, driving up and showing the attendant your receipt, and they found your cart of sacked groceries and loaded them in the car. (No more cart corrals and rolling carts through slush!) Sadly, this practice has gone out of favor in the 20+ years I have lived in MN.

Pickled herring will be on a lot of the salad bars at restaurants. EWWW!

There is no such thing as too much snow gear.

Hockey is close to a religion here.

I also learned about the “Minnesota Goodbye.” Here are the stages:

Visitors look at the clock and say “We really must be getting home.” Host/hostess protests that it is early yet.

Half an hour later, visitors say “We really must be getting home,” and they rise and head for the door, where the host/hostess spend another twenty minutes or so chatting with them as they don coats or gather their belongings.

Just as the visitor puts his hand on the doorknob, the hostess says “You can’t leave without a bite to eat.” Everyone troops into the kitchen where she produces a feast! I am not kidding, my husband’s great aunt used to pull out a roasted turkey and a chocolate cream pie, even though we just casually dropped in with no warning!

Finally, everyone is outside, talking all the way to the car. The host and hostess split up here, going to opposite sides of the car with their visitors. Visitors get in the car, but the host and hostess stand in the open doorway, arm on the roof of the car, foot on the running board, for at least another ten minutes.

Goodbyes are said, and everyone leaves, happy! The whole thing, from the first “Time to go” to pulling out of the driveway can take a couple of hours!!!

There are some words that I was unfamiliar with when I moved here, but now I use them all the time.

Davenport. In Kansas we call this a couch.

Hotdish. In Kansas (and the rest of the world) this is a casserole.

Uff da. This expression can mean anything from “Whew” to “Holy Buckets!” It is not considered swearing, and lots of folk use it, though the more polyglot the state becomes, the less I hear it.

My heroine, Savannah, has a similar, if heightened, culture shock when she leaves her beloved Southern home and family for the wilds of western Minnesota.

Her first job, teaching, and she is expected to haul water, scrub floors, and arrive early to light the stove.

Her students don’t speak English.

The local wildlife is out to get her.

She has to live with strangers who also speak no English.

The food is wildly different from southern cuisine.

The sheriff thinks she won’t last a week.

She is out to prove him wrong in spite of being a fish out of water!

So, my question for you: Have you ever experienced culture shock, moving from one place to another? Is there anything quirky about where you live, like the Minnesota Goodbye?

Erica Vetsch is a transplanted Kansan now residing in Minnesota. She loves history and romance, and is blessed to be able to combine the two by writing historical romances. Whenever she’s not immersed in fictional worlds, she’s the company bookkeeper for the family lumber business, mother of two, wife to a man who is her total opposite and soul-mate, and avid museum patron.

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Erica Vetsch – Faith, Love, & History-Ever-After

 
Thank you so much,  Erica! I love this. And the Minnesota goodbye made me smile.

Erica’s book is now on shelves. Isn’t the cover lovely?  And she’s giving one print copy away to one commenter. So feel free to leave a comment for her.