Being a kid in Birmingham is like being a kid in a bad American neighborhood. You would expect prejudice against Americans. But if you are not from Texas and don’t sound like a country western singer, they won’t even believe you are American. If you don’t sound like a cowboy and you’re from North America you must be Canadian. I don’t know how many times I had to convince people I was American. You eventually just settle for being Canadian. Since I was only there a year that is my biggest impression; that I was in this place where virtually everyone believed that the place I came from was in TV land.

The schools are simply horrible and there are no parents. I suppose getting picked on there was no worse than being picked on anywhere else. Seriously, you see eight-year-old kids walking down the street chain smoking at three a.m.—parents are like some lost race. Things were very strange over there. I suppose if I had come from someplace like Baltimore it would not have seemed so surreal.