"No-one is from here"

Had one of those head-nipping, moral-rattling situations earlier. I think I once read somewhere that everyone finds themselves in at least one such situation in their lifetime. Whatever, it has stuck with me since.

I'd just picked up my green station wagon from a garage, where I'd just had a petrol pump replaced, still reeling from the sting in my hip-pocket. Given it was low on petrol (part of the reason the fuel pump gave way) and dirty I decided to take it to my local servo for a clean. Give the neglected old thing a complete makeover.

This place has two cleaning stations, one of which has been out of service for what seems like an eternity now. This almost always means a delay. No problem; I live in a city where patience is a pre-requisite for survival. Whilst waiting for the incumbent occupier to finish, I filled the wagon up, and cruised inside to pay.
I recognised the moustached guy behind the counter: he was one of two friendly men of hard-to-pin origins. As I swiped my bank card and hit the digits on the EFTPOS holder I casually asked him, "Is that other car wash ever going to be operational again?". He almost cut me off answering, like he'd been asked this a zillion times before.

"Soon. We have been waiting for part from Germany."

Fair enough, I thought. I guess it's not an issue unless you have twenty cars lining up when there could only be ten.

Then he fixed upon me a strange look. "Are you from Germany?"

I shook my head. "No, I'm from here."

He gave a tight, crackly laugh. "That what everyone say. No-one is from here."

A flashbulb went off in my head as I considered that my game was up. Perhaps this stocky little retail assistant, whose broken English had a rolling accent that leant towards Israeli, or, for the sake of hedging my bets, somewhere else in the Middle East, was some sort of prophet. I understood what he was getting at, though: the distant German ancestry of my mother's side, and the shape of my nose. Maybe my girlfriend had it on the button early on in our relationship when she said my nose gave me away. Although she guessed wrong. Poland is a galaxy away from Germany.
I screwed my nose up slightly, as if to rid it off its 'German-ness' and stated simply: "I was born here." I wanted to say: so were my parents, grandparents, Great-grandparents, and, I think, Great-greats... it was either the 'greats' times two or three that made the trip over. On both sides. But he cut me off.

"Don't matter. No-one is from here."

I didn't know what to say. It was an abrupt reach-around from left-field. He tore off a receipt and wished me a good day, a look of stoicism still on his face.
I walked out and moved my car into the now-empty car wash and thought about what had just been said.

Had this guy been on the receiving end of racism one too many times? Was this a backlash of sorts? What disturbed me most, was his comment that 'no one was from here', regardless of where they were born. Effectively he was saying there was no such thing as an Australian! This was racism in reverse!

As I scrubbed off month-old bird turds off my car bonnet I considered how lucky it was that I didn't care about the whole racism/multi-cultural thing. My groove is: let as many in as possible, provided it's value-added, and we can live together harmoniously. Imagine if I'd been some disgruntled, out-of-work hulk with right-wing, red-neck tendencies. Someone who'd have him up against the wall for a comment of far less poignancy. Someone who'd demand more respect for a country who had taken him in. Perhaps he saw me as an easy test target.

I wanted to walk back in there and declare that I'm from here because I'm Australian. I wanted to say: Just as you're Australian, sir, because you immigrated here. Just as you may have picked my German nose, I pick your accent as someone who arrived not long ago, probably in the past twenty years. It goes back to old-fashioned geography. This continent is Australia, and we live on it. We two. You're originally from somewhere else, but I'm not. I'm a fifth-generation Aussie. I accept – and encourage – your culture, and wish you all the best in this land of opportunity. And that's what Australia still is. That's why you're here isn't it?

I don't think respect is too much to ask for in return for the opportunity to be sworn in as a citizen of one of the world's most liveable countries.

But still, I didn't say any of those things. All I did was finish cleaning my car, then got in and drove off. And not even a burn-out on departure.