The Limited Subculture I Grew Up In

This was a small part of the US, in the corner of Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri - with an emphasis on Kansas City. This Wikipedia entry describes this, in detail.

We did not realize we were culturally limited, and would have resented being told so - but we were anyway. And my family still resists knowing this. They believe they are Americans, in the fullest sense of the word - not in a limited sense.

One example of our limited culture, was Poetry - of which, we knew nothing. And the rest of the Fine Arts. We were ignorant, and determined to stay that way. This was also true of Americans, in general - they had little interest in the rest of the world. In that way, we were the most ignorant of the ignorant.

We were dimly aware of this - we had heard of the Ugly Americans - but had little idea what this meant. Our family did try to expand our horizons - we drove all the way to Mexico, during the Fifties, at the end of every year - and enjoyed being there. The natives were friendly, and everything was so cheap!

Our RLDS church had missions in Mexico and Honduras - but these did not last long. And the church itself did not last long. The world was changing very fast, and we could not keep up with it.