The past few times I've passed by the Richmond Hospital Auxiliary Thrift Store in Steveston the line-ups have been at least a dozen people deep -- many of whom look like vacationing families. What does a vacationing family look like in Canada? It's less in what's seen than in what's heard. For example: the southern U.S. drawl. Longer, slower vowels and melismatic diphthongs delivered by faces whose eyes are dead and the mouth does all the work.
