We landed in America today, the 4th of July.
Last week, Sophie and I donated or sold just about everything we’d accumulated over 30-odd years living in Australia. The stuff we kept was crammed into two bloated suitcases before we jumped on a plane to start a new life. No plan, no job waiting for us, and no idea what we were going to do when we got there.
I have mad respect for anyone who has ever tried to emigrate to the United States and understands the deep, profound relief of getting your passport stamped, and stepping past the customs desk for the first time as a newly minted resident.
When you land in the US and pass customs, there’s a huge escalator that takes you down to baggage claim. Right overhead as you descend is an enormous American flag and a picture of the incumbent Commander in Chief off to the side.
It is 2014. Barack Obama is president, ‘Gas’ is $3.63 per gallon, and my arm is still swollen from the 8 vaccinations I had to get before flying to the US. Is Polio still a thing? And what the hell is Pertussis?
Full story (and all the laughs and drawings) at Jason Chatfield’s New York Cartoons substack.
His work has been published in magazines and online, and in books published by Penguin Random House and Harper Collins. He is a past President of the Australian Cartoonists’ Association and the current President of the National Cartoonists’ Society and an internationally syndicated cartoonist, writing and drawing the iconic 100-year-old comic strip Ginger Meggs, published daily through Andrews McMeel Syndication.
Jason works as a stand-up comedian and appears on the Food Network as a Judge and Host on the TV Series, Buddy Vs. Christmas with Buddy “Cake Boss” Valastro.
He wrote all of this in the third person.
He would have preferred to be drawing.
