You might be of French Canadian decent if....

[Daniel Boucher]

*Here's something from my music page. All true, and just for laughs!*

If you are of French Canadian decent but feel as if you have no memorable traditions passed down from your family, i’ve provided a check list of some traditions for you to see how many you find yourself still doing today.
*Inspired by a franco friend that says she has no traditions that were passed down in her family* (don’t overlook even the smallest of things) Enjoy!


You might be of French Canadian decent if...

_you know what a Cabine à Sucre is.

_you think that everything could taste a little bit better with some Maple Syrup!
(Merci à Dieu pour les Érables à Sucre!/ Thank God for Sugar Maples!)

_even snow could taste better with some syrup - La Tire!

_you have ever had La Sucre à Crème, and lots of it! (Maple Fudge)

_you have ever eaten La Tarte au Sucre! ( Maple Sugar Pie)

_the thought of drowning a meat pie in ketchup sounds heavenly! (MMmm.....)

_you have ever eaten Ketchup chips. (Yum Yum)

_you know what Pâté Chinois is! (Why "Chinois"?)

_you have ever crossed les Gâteau Vachon over the border into the states because they don’t exist here. ("Caramel" are my favorites!)

_you have ever had Québec’s great fromage en grain. (squeaky cheese)

_you have ever had Granache Caramel spread.

_you have ever had a Bûche de Noël with the little plastic axe!

_your shoes were meant to be left at the door.

_you were greeted at the door with a basket of Pantouffes.

_you grew up with a wood stove.

_you have had to split and cord firewood. (I still do today)

_your mother screams your name outside as if she stills lives on the farm she grew up on where neighbors were far in between. (I’m not joking! My friends have even experienced this and still haven’t forgotten it!)

_your parents english includes the silent "h" of the french and "bathroom" sounds like "Batroom" and "forth" sounds like "fort"

_you were brought up doing manual labor like construction!

_you are fully capable and knowledgeable about sheetrocking!

_you know what "Taping" means.

_you find it difficult to part with an empty compound bucket.

_every where you look there is yet another compound bucket!

_you can spot a compound bucket a mile a way!

_you find a compound bucket to be your new "Duct Tape". (1000 uses)


More to come....

[Joseph Theriault]

Giggled at a lot of these, but really identified avec l'un de Gerard "français comme une langue secret". Je me fâchais ma mémère pour parler français à la téléphone ... joke's on me now that I've had to move to Québec to learn to speak it haltingly :-P

[Gerard R. Bourassa]

You may be of French-Canadian descent

. . . . if you call a winter woolen hat "a tuque", a word that your

non-Franco friends find agonizing to pronounce properly.

. . . . if one of your favorite novels for young adults is

"The Chocolate War" by Robert Cormier

. . . . if when you were a youngster, the older men in

the neighborhood addressed you as "ti gars"

. . . . your favorite childhood memories include visits

to memere and pepere's house where warmth was

derived not only from the closeness of the family but

from the cozy Humphrey Heater and cast iron radiator where

mittens were thawed out in winter.

. . . if your pepere taught you card games like "high, low,

jack and game" and board games like pichenotte.

. . . if when you were a little kid you thought all adults

spoke french as a secret language that little kids

could not understand.

. . . .. .if along with "White Christmas" and "Deck The Halls" your

folks tried to teach you carols like "Il est ne le divin enfant"

"nouvelle agreable" at Christmastime.

. . . . if the tough as nails principle at your grammar school

was also the mother superior of the convent

. . . .if several of your ancestors labored in New England's brick

or granite cotton mills and you grew up hearing stories of the

extremely frugal Yankee mill bosses.

. . . .if your folks prayed to St. Antoine to recover some article

that was lost in the house.

. . . .if images of Le Sacre Coeur, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, was

featured prominently throughout your parents' and grandparents' homes.

. . . If two of your favorite Christmas CDs in your collection are by Josee Vachon

and by Father Pat(Andre Patnaude) of laSalette Shrine.

[Roger Chartier]

How about eating that pork spread "Gorton" or Creutons" or as my mother says the proper name was des "Rillettes"...especially on Christmas Eve. Tonight my Chinese wife is making french meat pie. I had to teach her and she loves it.