Parts of American culture that have never really been imported outside the US

Circumcision was quite the norm in the 70s, from what I can recall, even outside of jewish culture. It fell out of favour from the 80s due to health/why do it reasons didn't it?

Um, Yahoo Serious is australian.

i know, i was trying to make some nonsensical joke.

My grandpa had to be circumcised when he joined the marines :( Nearly passed out from the pain.

dell: hey you keep him, we dont want him.

leaf peeping?

College sports?

jam bands?

As someone who grew up in a suburban place where I had to walk two miles down streets with no sidewalks to catch the bus, yes those places most certainly exist.

decent mexican food
-- gbx, Sunday, May 25, 2008 6:13 PM (46 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

freedom
-- jhøshea, Sunday, May 25, 2008 6:19 PM (40 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

grits
-- gbx, Sunday, May 25, 2008 6:19 PM (40 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

indian reservations
-- gbx, Sunday, May 25, 2008 6:22 PM (37 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

funnel cake
-- jhøshea, Sunday, May 25, 2008 6:23 PM (36 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

https://www.tootstubing.com/catalog/images/God_Bless_America.jpg

Also, I've never had a problem with my circumsizedness and don't get what the fuss is about it.

I did not travel anywhere on foot until college

Trayce, there was a weird effort to push him here back in the late eighties, when the film Young Einstein came out. Um, he never quite caught on over here, though.

Rev, just the thought that something I relly enjoy could be much better and I didn't get a say in the matter.

relly=really

how do kids in sidewalk-less suburbs get about?

We don't have funnel cakes here but we have very similar friend-batter dusted with icing sugar carny type snacks, like the italian ones which I forget the name of now. They're ususally in a thin square or twisty bowtie shape.

Their parents drive them, unless they're like my parents and say "Ha! Walk." xp

FRIEND batter? lol. Fried batter. o_0

Yeah we walked lots as kids! We used to walk to school sometimes, and always had to walk or bike ourselves to the local park or pool.

i used to ride my bike the 3-4 miles to my friends' houses, but there weren't a lot of bikes on those roads.

Pep bands? Southern Baptism?

Circumcision of non-Jewish boys is a good one. I was with a Scottish girl one time and she sort of freaked out, "I've never seen that before!"

(a few times my mom drove me to an actual suburban bus stop to take the bus in to visit a friend in the city. there were not many people at the suburban bus stop -- mostly elderly folks and housecleaners who took the bus out to do their rounds and then took the bus back in.)

Does anyone call anyone "hon" outside the US?

Weird man, it must've sucked to live in a suburb like that. We walked everywhere ... school ... the German deli down the street... downtown ... to the bus to NYC, etc. The local streets were mainly walking streets, so the neighborhood kids would set up wiffle/stick ball games, street hockey, etc. Not that bad in retrospect.

spirit rallies

On a few occasions I had to walk about 5 miles from school or from the station.

I've def heard ppl say 'hon'.

Carving faces of leaders into cliffs in a part of the country that would rarely be visited otherwise.

like the italian ones which I forget the name of now

ZEPPOLE

Scariest walking = up the hill after dark with no sidewalks, not even shoulders, no street lights and a fucking train crossing. I probably did this at least 50 times.

Shakers.

Quakers.

dumbed-down and/or fast-casual chain restaurants featuring region or nationality-specific foods. i.e. cracker barrel (old-timey american food) P.F. Changs (chinese)

Please feel free to correct me on this topic

There are still Shakers? I think they're orig. from England?

The Electoral College

Fuck! Shakers are from teh England! At least we can claim Mormons, and Abbott.

Although Abbott has been imported outside of the U.S.

Mesmerism!

Looks like the Quakers are, too!

Yeah, I was thinking of the electoral college.

(If Canada counts, then reserves, spirit rallies, funnel cake, and exotic fast-food chains [Manchu Wok, Pizza Pizza, Indian Flavour] don't. I've never been to a spirit rally or eaten funnel cake though.)

Spelling cheques from the bank like "check"?

peanut butter and jelly sandwiches? when i went to school in england my classmates thought this was really really weird.

The first time I lived away from my parents was when I had a summer job in Jasper Natl Park, Alberta. There was at least one day when I ate 6 pb&j sandwiches.

Disnified nu-teenpop.

That's because jelly = Jello in England. Call it jam and you're a totally normal person.

it wasn't cuz i called it jelly, it's cuz they'd never seen a peanut butter sandwich before. (this was in a small town in 1979, peanut butter may have more of a u.k. presence now. although i don't recall it being terribly evident when i lived there in '90-'91 either.)

spirit rallies

is this the same as pep rallies? And fight songs and stuff? US friends always get all o_0 when I mention that no-one used to go to my school's sports games unless they were, like, substitutes.

I'd hide backstage during pep rallies.

Wait, are pep rallies like mandatory?

They were mandatory at my school. You had to find the right teachers who also thought they were bullshit and would let you sneak out.