1. You have at least one relative who wore a black dress every day for an entire year after a funeral…or their entire life!
2. You spent your entire childhood thinking what you ate for lunch was pronounced “sangwich or samich.”
3. Your family dog understood Greek. (mine actually does)
4. Every Sunday afternoon of your childhood was spent visiting your Yia Yia and Papou (grandparents) and extended family.
5. You’ve experienced the phenomena of 150 people fitting into 50 square feet of yard during a family cookout. (Easter and Names Days)
6. You were surprised to discover the FDA recommends you eat three meals a day, not seven.
7. You thought killing the lamb each year and having feta, tsatsiki and olives on your dinner table was absolutely normal.
8. You grew up thinking no fruit or vegetable had a fixed price and that the price of everything was negotiable through haggling.
9. You were as tall as your grandmother by the age of seven.
10. You thought everyone’s last name ended in “is” or “ous”
11. You thought nylons were supposed to be worn rolled to the ankles.
12. Your mom’s main hobby is cleaning.
13. You were surprised to find out that wine was actually sold in stores.
14. You never knew what to expect when you opened the margarine, after all you thought washing out and reusing margarine containers was normal.
15. You thought Greek Orthodox was the only religion in the world.
16. You thought every meal had to be eaten with a hunk of bread in your left hand.
17. Your grandmother never threw anything away, you thought seeing washed plastic bags hanging on the clothes line was normal.
18. You learned to play backgammon before you went to school.
19. You have at least one relative who came over on the boat.
20. You have at least six male relatives named Nick, John, Peter or Kosta.
21. You have relatives who aren’t really your relatives.
22. You drank wine before you were a teenager.
23. You grew up in a house with a yard that didn’t have one patch of dirt that didn’t have a flower or a vegetable growing out of it.
24. You thought that talking loud was normal. We ALL still do!
25. You thought everyone got pinched on the cheeks and money stuffed in their pockets by their relatives. (And we loved the money part but hated the cheek part, boy that hurt)
26. Your mother is overly protective of the males in the family no matter what their age.
27. There was an icon in every room of the house, including the bathroom.
Thanks to Kyriaki – who is natural-born Greek!!
