re: Gavin Newscum is on board and says "Democratic Socialists of America will be DOMINANT!!

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it's like watching lawrence welk reruns from the late 70's on pbs, "you know the kids today like a the rock and roll music, here now is a bobby and sissy dancing to sweet child of mine by guns and roses"

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Making fun of Lawrence Welk? You bastard.

I think there are still some Democrats who are in denial, their Democratic Party no longer exists, it's now the DSA.

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I have a daughter who lives in Nottingham with her English husband and three little ones. I bought a house in Litton to have a place to stay while visiting and to give them a weekend getaway in the Peak District.

Yesterday’s weather sucked so we went to a goofy golf right there in Matlock. We take them to the Heights of Abraham every summer, too.

Are you English, or have American parents who happened to be in Wirksworth?

Is it a coincidence that the numerals in your alias are the year of the Norman Conquest?

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On the Norman conquest thing - you nailed it.

I'm 66 and have been posting on message boards for 30+ years, and that is the first time anyone has asked me about that.

My parents were / are English. Dad passed away in 2003. Mom is 94 and lives in a suburb of Tulsa, OK.

My dad worked half his adult life for Rolls Royce. They have an aircraft engine manufacturing plant in Derby. He started there as an apprentice when he was 14. He was too young for WWII, but joined the RAF right after the war ended. Spent several years in occupied North Africa and Italy before going back to work for Rolls. He met and married my mom in the mid 50s.

In the mid 60s, American Airlines was buying aircraft engines from Rolls. American's primary maintenance facility is in Tulsa. They offered my dad a job, so the whole family packed up and moved there. I have 2 younger brothers. They are now both residents of Texas, but I still live in OK.

During my teen years, we used to go back and visit every couple of years. Employees of American can fly for free on stand-by if there are seats available, so we took full advantage of that.

After me and my brothers started college, we stopped going back, but I was fortunate in 1985 that the company I was working for sent me on a 3-week business trip to Holland. On my way home, I stopped and stayed a couple of weeks with my relatives in Derby. At that time, I had two uncles / aunts and one cousin. One of my uncles also worked for Rolls. One of those sets of uncles / aunts lived in Nottingham. My 19-year-old cousin took me out for a night on the town there (I was 25). That was pretty wild.

Did not go back again until 2017. But that time, all of my relatives were dead except for my cousin. My wife and I took my mom. Flew into Heathrow and rented a car. My first time driving on the "wrong" side of the road. We got a hotel in Derby and used it as our base for the first week, and drove around all over the place - Liverpool, York, Stratford, Cornwall, Stonehenge, etc. We also went by to see the hospital in Wirksworth where I was born (it is not a hospital any longer) and the house that my parents bought when they first got married.

For the 2nd week, we had rented a "flat" in central London. My mother's younger sister, who has lived her entire adult life in Italy, joined us.

The first morning, my wife and I got up early, told the old folks we'll see you later, and we just took off walking around London. We got lucky and arrived outside Buckingham Palace right when the changing of the guards began. We must have walk at least 10 miles that day. We found a barge on the Thames that was a working pub called Pub on the Thames. Drank a few pints there. One of the coolest experiences of my life.

ETA: my brothers and I all got naturalized when we turned 21.