I turned the TV on while I was sorting through some papers in boxes and up popped one of those reality shows that have become the staple of The Learning Channel – one about Gypsy weddings. Quite frankly, I thought, “Oh, rats, I don’t want to see this,” but the remote was over by the TV itself and my lap held a bunch of papers and so I figured I’d just wait a minute until I could get up and change the channel.

In that time period, however, I realized there was a lot of information about Gypsies I had never been even slightly aware of. For instance, I had no idea there are basically two distinct groups of Gypsies in the United States and they have different cultures. It got confusing, so I turned to the Internet and tried to sort everything out. It was not as easy, at least for me, as one would expect.

Origins and migration routes and were intriguing and I found out, much to my surprise, that Gypsies came from Northern India – the Punjab. Depending on how much mixing with locals occurred as they moved across Europe, the culture varied or stayed somewhat the same. I also found out, much to my chagrin, that they were first called Gypsies because of the mistaken notion that they came from Egypt. I use the word “chagrin” because had that been a question on a multiple choice test, I would have thought it a trick question.

Needless to say, between researching Gypsies and catching glimpses of the really fancy dresses worn by those who came though Britain, I didn’t get much sorted. So, my grandson put in a movie I had rented – Manchester on the Sea. I found it incredibly depressing. Halfway through, I couldn’t take it anymore and checked the spoilers for the plot and was not encouraged. I turned it off.

Now I am sitting here depressed, with unsorted papers and a probably confused concept of Romani genetics. Come to think of it, if the Roman Empire had been listed as an answer to the above question, I don’t know if I would have chosen it or not.