Dora Wilson had been in Texas for 23 years when she was interviewed by Dr. Lana Rings on April 2, 1990. She had come from Hamburg twenty years earlier at the age of twenty. By the time Dr. Rings interviewed her, she was somewhat "americanized."

She came to this country in 1967 at the age of twenty, leaving her parents, sister, brother, and relatives behind in Northern Germany. She's been back at least five times in the last twenty years or so, and receives "lots of visits from relatives." Unlike many who have been in the United States for a shorter period of time, she feels more American than German, and talks of Germans as "them" and herself as one of "us," an attitude that is reflected in some of her opinions of Americans and Germans. Thus, her attitudes are also somewhat different from other German speakers'. It may also have to do with the fact that she is from the North.

Ja, zum Beispiel, wo meine Mutter wohnt -- es ist in ein'm Haus -- es ist ein Vierfamilienhaus, und die wohnen da seit über dreißig Jahren, in dem gleichen Haus. Und die Frauen, die kennen sich jetzt seit über dreißig Jahren, und anstatt die sich bei dem ersten Namen nennen, Hella und Frieda, oder was immer -- wie immer die heißen, da sagen die immer noch zu einander Frau Schultz und Frau Schwarz. Die sind so formell da dran, und nach dreißig Jahren würde man denken, dass man zu seiner Nachbarin endlich mal Frieda sagen kann, oder . . .

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