Things I adore about the USA and Americans

[PermanentTemporary]

No special reason... and it doesn't have to be things other people all agree with.

We're planning a holiday there in a couple of years to see some family so the wonderfulness of the USA is particularly on my mind. But am just thinking about how much I love it.

I'll bring up Senator George Mitchell, who gave years of his life to somehow bring the best out of every politician in Northern Ireland and made it possible for the Good Friday Agreement to be made.

I'll bring up American health care. Because although I don't want to change our system to theirs, the fact is that if you either have good insurance or nothing at all, you can have the best care in the world.

And the Grand Canyon. Not sure I've ever been speechless the way I was the first time I saw it.

I'm wondering if we can drop in to see some distant cousins of my partner's who live in Ohio. We've met once at a wedding. Of all the countries in the world, we can be pretty sure that they will be welcoming and happy to see us. ❤️

I didn't know that about UK maternity care and Black women, knitnerd, what a shame.

More generally, my reservations about America don't have to do with American people (I am one!) but about broader social inequalities. Of course no country is perfect in that regard.

There are many different Americas. My sense of MN is that the Americans who post on MN tend to be from quite a privileged demographic and therefore to have a more positive view of the US.

I could also make a list of great things about the US, things I miss. But growing up without health insurance isn't something you ever forget, especially when you move to a country where health care is free at the point of use. It was a revelation to me and it's not something I will ever take for granted.

OK, I kinda feel like I went against the spirit of the thread. So just to prove that I AM American, here's a list of things about America I miss. Stream-of-consciousness style, in no particular order. Lots of things people have mentioned already.

Waffles, pancakes, Mexican food. American church hymns. People being friendly and striking up conversations with strangers much more easily. The politeness (Midwestern politeness is almost courtly). People being less self-conscious in general, less guarded and less reserved. A kind of egalitarian mindset (despite the gaps between rich and poor). Informality. Accents being more indicators of region than indicators of social class. The huge diversity of microclimates (there are loads of different microclimates in California alone). Lots of people speaking Spanish in many American states. In some states at least, a really fabulous state university education system, that is accessible to the poorest (starting with junior colleges and community colleges). BIG houses. Big fridges, big orange juice cartons. Big restaurant portions and restaurants happy for you to take the leftovers home. Enthusiasm. Parents openly talking about how great their children are. People openly talking about how great everything is. In general, less sarcasm and more earnestness. Bagels, cookies, fried okra and fried green tomatoes, black bean chili, cornbread, enchiladas with green sauce, Cheetos (not the same as UK Cheetos!), Cheerios (not the same as UK Cheerios!), Fig Newtons, pecan pie made with corn syrup. Actually, just pie! Any pie that is sweet and not savoury. Blackberry pie, peach pie, pumpkin pie, chess pie, lemon meringue pie. Big picnic tables in the park, 4th of July fireworks, tailgate parties, lake swimming. A Puritan work ethic, but also a lot of hedonism. Pride in your local region. People oversharing about their personal lives. Supermarkets and coffee shops that are open late at night. Coffee. Country music. Powerful showers and mixed taps. Warm central heating in winter and air conditioning in summer. A widespread belief that anything is possible.

I'm sorry but British Cheerios and Oreos are disappointing. US ones only!

Also, I love the flexibility of the American higher education system. It made career change much easier. I had to take some pre-requisite courses as my BA wasn't related to my master's, but I didn't have to redo my entire undergraduate degree. The flexibility is working out well for my oldest too since she has varied interests.

Agreed on all counts! It's a good point about the flexibility of the US higher education system. I also like the fact that the range of subjects studied at high school and at uni is broader. Students in the UK have to specialise much earlier. And don't get me started on how much I hate A-Level exams and not knowing until the very last minute whether you have the exam marks needed to get into your uni of choice. Watching my DS go through that took years off my life 🙄

@cassandre OMG Cheetos, US Cheetos. Take me and turn me orange 😆

Not all orange things from America are bad 😂

Americans really are brilliant at salty cheesy snacks. Cheez-Its, Goldfish crackers, Utz cheese balls in the giant barrel… all dyed flaming orange 🤣🤣 (I do believe it’s natural colouring though. Just annatto)

It’s true. You know what I really miss are those big jars of spicy orange nacho cheese that you can heat up in the microwave to dip your tortilla chips in. Like the kind you can get sometimes at British cinemas, but tastier.

Often the label reads, ‘Contains real cheese!’ Because that’s not a given I guess 😂

My love for orange cheese was so passionate that friends once gave me a ten pound can of it as a joke. I’m ashamed to say that I eventually opened the can and consumed most of it. Happy days.

Ah the first time my husband learnt to make queso by putting a block of Velveeta and a can of ro-tel together in a bowl in the microwave...

Apparently you can make real cheese melt like Velveeta if you add a bit of sodium citrate! I read about it on Serious Eats, it's how velveeta doesn't seize up when it melts.

I think tastes in junk food / comfort food are very culture specific.

i do love real Mexican food but I also loved Taco Bell. Was very excited when Taco Bell came to a few UK cities. Tried it and it was absolutely nothing like American Taco Bell. They don’t even do the basic bean burrito 😢😡

Fascinating about the sodium citrate!

Bagels, cookies, fried okra and fried green tomatoes

Fried okra is food of the gods, and fried green tomatoes is a close second, as long as they are fried in the traditional Southern way with a light coating of cornmeal, never flour.

that all sounds delightful! Unfortunately I've never been (yet)

Yes, quite so.

What a super thread!

Waves to @CheerfulYank

Favourite things big and small in no particular order, from a midwest perspective -
Seasons.
Conviviality.
Block parties.
T-ball.
Schools with all sorts of bells and whistles - fantastic facilities for sports, art, performing arts, music, all sorts of academic and vocational options, drivers ed, and great special ed provision.
No uniforms in schools.
Four-way stops.
Steak 'n Shake.
Showers - wedding, baby - so nice.
Nobody does weddings like Chicagoans do weddings.
High school marching bands.
Local supermarkets and small chains.
Public facilities - parks, libraries, pools.
Volunteering is a big part of the culture.
Practical approach to life, willingness to try new ways.
Gorgeous scenery, varies regions, great highway system, vast.
Different cuisines.

*Sorry to devotees of all other regional BBQ, but Kansas City BBQ is the absolute best.

Great things about the US.....

Don't know if it's been mentioned yet, but Friday night high school football games. The whole town turning out to cheer on the team. Afterwards 'parent approved' pizza parties or 'the other party parents don't know about'. I will not divulge which I attended back in the day. Or that fact that I know which one my sons attended thinking we didn't know.

Major league baseball games. We sat next to a British couple at a Dodgers' game and we all had a ball explaining the finer points of the game and teaching them the cheers and little songs the crowd sings along with the organ. If you visit 'us' and get a chance, go to a baseball game. Or if you're ever in Yorkshire and hear a couple singing 'Take Me Out to the Ballgame' and singing 'root, root, root for the Dodgers!' well, they learnt it from us.

Small town and big city parades; homecoming, 4th of July, Veterans' Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, or a town's 'Founder's Day' parade. Everyone setting out their lawn chairs on the curb and sharing drinks and snacks from coolers.

Cheez-its and goldfish crackers are unusual for American snacks, they're not sweet or spicy but almost taste burnt? Especially Cheez-its.

Every toddler in my family went through a period of being covered in Cheerios, which could be found pasted with saliva (or any kind of moisture) to any surface or crevice 😀 I love them myself, they're so bland but so tasty with it.

Need to add -
Front stoops, neighbours sitting out chatting and sipping a beer.
Open front porches.
Lack of front garden walls and fences.

Major league baseball games.

Oh yes. And this year after a very long wait (43 years) we will have another iteration of the storied match up between the Yankees and the Dodgers.

Oh no school uniforms! It's funny how different the attitude is. Today I picked one of my kids up form the high school and out came a girl in cat-print pyjama bottoms, a hoodie, and furry boots. I would like to mention that today's high temperature was 29C. (Last week it was under 15.) I guess that's a complement to the inevitable preteen/teen boys wearing a hoodie and shorts in January...

This from @cassandre's list A kind of egalitarian mindset (despite the gaps between rich and poor). It affects everything, and is such a good thing for a country to have as an aspiration.

But also those trees, and squirrels everywhere on my only trip to the USA (not that I was in much of it, furthest west was Wichita, south was Dallas, north was Troy NY, east was Boston). Wonderful country, hope I get back to it and its lovely people. Meanwhile I'll enjoy American TV shows and books - looking forward to the next Donna Andrews Meg Langslow mystery, where the crime is second to the overall atmosphere of small town and rural America full of all those things on the list.

Slightly resentful no-one told me about canned cheese.

My one complaint was the lack of proper tea, though towards the end of my trip I found a supermarket with a special exotic Irish foods shelf and got some Barry's teabags, and was okay for the rest of my sojourn.

They even sell PG Tips in my store. But most Americans don't drink hot tea, and are prone to putting a mug of water in the microwave to heat it up, or at best a stove top kettle. You can get electric kettles much more easily here now though, including the fancy ones with presets for different types of tea and coffee. It turns out that coffee snobs who are obsessed with pour-over and Aeropress and French press were what Americans needed to learn about electric kettles.

Oh, speaking of pickup, yellow school buses! That's a North American thing in general not just the USA I suppose. Love them and will praise them on every thread about America. DC were able to walk to one school we went to, but it was too far to walk elsewhere, and high schools are all further apart anyhow so that was always less likely. I was only at pickup today because they needed to go to the orthodontist and wouldn't have made it in time otherwise.

PG Tips is not in the same class as Barry's. That microwave thing though - not great.

We had an electric kettle in our Airbnb in Boston earlier this year (used because we took proper tea bags with us to use 😳) However it was the saddest, slowest little kettle I have ever encountered!