Chain link fencing is found in Canada. As well and we’ve had yellow school buses my whole life. They are easy to see so you don’t hit children with your vehicle. Our fire hydrants are neon yellow not red.
The color "School Bus Yellow" was created at a conference in 1939. Atendees at the conference included paint experts from DuPont and Pittsburgh Paints. The color was chosen because it attracts attention and is noticed quickly in peripheral vision.
All US public school buses are yellow and if you buy an old school bus, you have to paint it a different color. I didn’t realize that there were places that don’t have water towers….lol In some towns, the post office forces you to put your mailbox beside the street to make it easier and quicker for the mailman. You can have them deliver to a box right outside your front door if you have trouble walking that far.
@@jeffevans8910 One of the black lines is near the location of the floor, but the other does not indicate the top of the seats. The top of the seats are above the windows, which is well above the black bar.
The bottom line is the floor and the middle line is the bench of the seat. It’s for emergency personnel in case they have to cut into the bus. Also, it’s amazing how many people hit school busses who claim they never saw it! I drive one, btw.
What a charming family. It's so refreshing to see fun stuff without vulgarity. Also, as an American, I so enjoy listening to people with melodic accents talk about things that are quintessentially American. The opinions are eye opening. Also, New Zealand, Australian, British, and other accents sound so soothing to my ear. Love it 😂❤
One of the reasons for the water towers to have the city name on it was because of crop dusters in the 30's, 40's etc. They used the water towers to identify what town they were in.
No pump is strong enough to force water through an entire towns water system of pipes including those in houses, but gravity is. However pumps can force water up into a water tower and fill it, then gravity rakes over all the work. Remember water seeks its own level, the height of the water tower forces water into the system. You're welcome.
Also, he says that picket fences and “mesh” (chain link) fences are found around “gardens.” In America, they’re called “yards” (he does mention the word “yard” when describing mailboxes). You have the front yard in front of the house and the back yard behind the house. In America, a “garden” is an area within the yard where flowers, herbs, fruits, and/or vegetables are grown.
HEADS UP ON SCHOOL BUSSES ... when lights on top of the bus are flashing, the bus is picking up or discharging students. In most cases, you must stop for a school bus whenever the driver signals a stop with the flashing lights and the stop sign. Some laws vary by state, such as whether or not you're required to stop when there is a median separating your lane of traffic from the bus; so, be mindful. But, you may NEVER pass a stopped school bus that has flashing lights and the stop sign is out. (Y'all may have already known this; but, just in case.) I'm looking forward to watching the posts of your travels here!
That’s where most people get wrong. If the bus is flashing yellow light, you can pass on the left, just cautiously and slow down. If it is flashing red, absolutely no passing, period.
that is a RED flashing light ,, bus may have on the yellow flashing lights sitting there waiting for the kids ,, but then the RED light are flashing you must STOP ,, and you are right about the median on the road
it’s not just the American flag, you’ll commonly see flags for various sports teams, or flags that represent the seasons, or even personalized flags with family’s names on them 🇺🇸🇺🇸
Much more importantly, POW/MIA flags are Still flying, as well.😢Then there’s the State flags, which may be lowered In Memoriam to a State known or born figure, who Isn’t recognized as a National figure, while Both are lowered for elected officials,& certain select other highly regarded figures, who pass away. Even back in the days when I watched Local news, there were Many times I Didn’t hear of someone passing, but Would see flags lowered, & I would have to ask others if They knew why our state flag,&/ national flag was lowered. Today, the Internet makes it Far more easier to find out, as well as being much more informative about the person’s(s) life, than local or national news, with the exception of Extremely Highly Regarded figures.
You will also see a service flag for a branch of military service like army or marines as well as political flags either showing the candidate you support or dislike
Canadian here - we also have many of those American things all over Canada as well - steel water towers with town names on them, mesh fences, hiway billboards, fire hydrants (red ones and yellow ones) and speaking of yellow, all our school buses are yellow as well - even though the company that manufactures them is ironically named Blue Bird.
actually, a garden is where Americans grow vegetables or flowers. Who the fuck are you to tell someone else what they should have in their garden? The rest of the world doesn't necessarily have the resources to have large patches of grass surrounding their houses. They have every right to call it a garden. If you're going to "correct" someone, do it correctly.
Agreed. Garden is only for growing fresh food. I'm in Atlanta and am curious about school buses in states like Wyoming. How in the world do they collect the kiddos in such a massive state with tiny populations? No offense Wyoming but metro- Atlanta currently has 6.2 million peeps. Doesn't Wyoming have something like 300,000 populous?
You'll definitely will see a lot of American flags and also state flags fling sense all of the kids are back in school and we Americans are very proud of our flag and country
Most definitely. Proud of our country and state we live in. We are a military family so have moved all over the US and seems pretty universal. A lot of friendly rivalry between states and the various sports teams as well. You do see other national flags in communities where different nationalities have settled. Every culture celebrates in their own community way. I enjoy seeing all the variety of culture in different locations. In our current location we see a lot of Scottish pride and festivities. Or small town has Highland Games every year in the Fall to celebrate the various historical sports from Scotland and the dancing and food. I enjoy it very much because my own heritage is very Scottish.
This may have been mentioned before but water towers are used for areas with a relatively flat land surface. Water systems are gravity feed so the water supply needs to be higher than the area it serves. It works like this. If the natural water supply is lower or even with the land all water pressure would have to be "pumped" to every household or business constantly. So water is pumped into the towers which are sized based on the demand to have a storage as well as creating the pressure via height of the tower. I managed a water system for a housing development that consisted of 187 households. The water was supplied by a number of wells and the storage was in a concrete reservoir on a high spot that held 50,000 gallons (189270.59 liters) which was good for two days if for some reason the power was off and the pumps weren't working. Which happened occasionally. That was a privately owned system. In the towns and smaller cities at this point most systems have backup electric generators to run the pumps even if the power grid has a gap in service. So anyplace that had a water system that was part of a community but is on level ground or has an underground water source would have a water tower to act as a virtual higher elevation. Not every place has one. In many places where the population is not very dense each household has their own well giving them a private water system that they maintain.
US has lots of water towers because we use water pressure via gravity to disperse water to lots of the population. Potable water is pumped into the reservoir on top of the tank and gravity distributes it down into people’s homes.
Its usually pumped to the towers at night when water usage is low. Gravity fed is a lot cheaper than having a pump running all the time to pressurize the water pipes.
Flags got major after 9/11. I was on deployment in Australia when it happened and you'd see some before I left the States. But when I finally got back to the US after 8 months even I was surprised by how many more flags there were everywhere. It's been pretty steady even decades later.
We Americans have one flag for every right we gave up as a result of the 9/11 attacks. And for some reason we're proud of it. We'll fucking believe anything.
I don’t think I noticed an addition of flags, but more like an addition of alterations to the flag. Also Tx raised but now I’m PNW. We have a good amount of flags and living near a military base I do my share of that Lone Star flag too!! Even saw Texas State flag on a belt buckle today on base. Lol
I’m from nyc, and you’re right. Flags went up everywhere almost overnight here. There were ppl selling flags in the streets. I think it’s well documented that Flags were selling out all over New York at least, and I suspect much of America too.
My cousin came to visit from Austria a few years ago and I was so surprised how excited she became when a yellow school bus drive by. She was able to get her camera and take a few pictures which made her very happy. :D Just like the video stated, she thought the yellow school buses were a myth until seeing one, ha ha!
Now you and your family know why America needs so much oil... its not just for the military. I noticed too that you said you folks never fly your flag. I encourage you folks to start that patriotism in your country. Not in a divisive way, just a way to hatch a national spirit. You folks have a lot to be proud of. The respect you folks show us here in America in your videos shows good character. If you have a nation with good chatacter that is A LOT to be proud of. Strip America down to its bone and we are just people like you.
School busses are usually because the school is too far to walk. My Highschool was over 20 miles (32 km) away and it took the bus over an hour to get to it. Which was why it was common for morning drives to be silent. All of us kids would put our backpacks on our laps and plant our faces in them for an hour extra nap before class.
The thing about our flag, and our patriotism, is that we recognize how absolutely unique it is to have joined people from every country, culture and corner of the Earth into ONE place, and have it be peaceful amongst us. We have our problems, but we are not, and have not been for almost 160 years, at war with each other. It's the great human experiment, and it's WORKING. We're proud of that. And we know how lucky we are. (Please don't let the news or Hollywood form your opinion of we Americans. They are less than 1% of the 320,000,000 of us.)
I hope this inspires you all to write down a list of unusual things you encounter on your travels through our "fruited plains from sea to shining sea". Please don't gorge yourselves on food while you're here. We want y'all to have a wonderful trip without any illness nor injuries. Safe travels! We love y'all!
Hello, I hope you're safe over there? I hope this year brings happiness, prosperity, love , and peace all over the world 🌏. I would love us to be good friends in honesty and in trust so as time goes on it will bring something great for us in the future, hope you don't mind? I'm Thaoms Gabriel Brooklyn New York, where are you from if I may ask????❤
I get that this family is religious which is not perfunctory. Despite identifying as Christian they would most likely do backflips here in Atlanta where ALL the billboards seem to be Protestant. And if you walk around the tourist area at Centennial park you are destined to be confronted by a street preacher screaming at you or demanding you take a tract. Do they even have tracts in NZ?
Lawrence is always fun to watch. Discovered his channel a couple years ago. It's interesting to see the differences. Things we think are normal like, closets and garbage disposals, and assume they are everywhere.
Guess we just find these things normal. It's cool to hear and see what others call them. Hope you enjoy your stay here. Try as many foods as you possibly can. Can't wait to hear your take on them. Lol.
I Love watching Laurence, he has so much info to share! The American Flag has been a part of my life for 60 years, and it saddens me to see so many people disrespect it.
@@northdakotaham1752 Most Americans don't. But we have a subset of Americans who are ignorant of U.S. flag code. We also have a subset who believe displaying the battleflag of an insurrectionist movement that took up arms against the country that they are so patriotic about is OK, because it's their heritage.
It depends on your definition of disrespecting the flag. Is kneeling for the anthem disrespect? No, it's constitutionally protected speech. Is putting someones image on a flag, or blue lines or turning it into clothing disrespect? Definitely.
@@TomTerrific-vm3qgI’m a born Yankee living in the South - yes, the North did win but I don’t have a single problem with seeing the Confederate flag. South Carolina is still fighting the war😄😄🥴😀.
Much of Lawrence's experiences are in portions of the US that are relatively flat - thus tall (usually) steel water towers are very common - in areas with larger amounts of elevation change, they are not very common.
I grew up in Wyoming, where we often have water tanks, but flatter areas still have the towers. In Cheyenne, our only water tower is at the frontier grounds, and it's fake. It's actually a cell tower. (For cell phone service). In Vegas, these cell towers look like face palm trees. I haven't seen any water towers or tanks here. We do have a big lake and dam, though.
In upstate New York we have water towers hidden on top of the hills in the Forrest so i think they are actually common but there is nowhere to hide them in the region he lives in. On my uncles property there is an old abandoned water tower that used to supply the city but they have since built a new one (which you can actually see a little bit now from the city in the valley) but regardless i think it is more common than we think!
Another famous yellow US vehicle are yellow taxi cabs. Usually found in big cities like New York, Chicago, etc.. I’m surprised Lawrence didn’t cover that in this video.
It's funny he mentions water towers. I moved to a community in NH a few years back and we are on a huge hill where there is a water tower. They just replaced it last year and it took them 8 months to complete the project, this thing is huge. It's all metal and more like a very, very, large oil tank but for water of course.
Hello from Arizona. We are heading to New Zealand for 3 months this Nov-Jan, and are very excited to see your wonderful country. Our kiddo asked, "How do NZ kids get to school?" Now we homeschool, so we walk down the stairs. Best wishes on your upcoming adventure as well.
Hello, I hope you're safe over there? I hope this year brings happiness, prosperity, love , and peace all over the world 🌏. I would love us to be good friends in honesty and in trust so as time goes on it will bring something great for us in the future, hope you don't mind? I'm Thaoms Gabriel Brooklyn New York, where are you from if I may ask????❤
The water towers in the US are tall steel structures because gravity is used to send the water to residences/businesses. In NZ, you said yours are placed on hills---I imagine the reason for that is gravity again. PS: I LOVE your videos and your fam. Y'all are my new favorite Happy Place on the internet.
I've driven by that Elkhart water tower countless times... and I agree with another comment about missing out on so much rural America has to offer by only visiting big cities and urban areas. If you can fit it into your itinerary while in Texas I recommend seeing if any small middle of nowhere towns are having any festivals or fairs. From my experience ones with a food theme are usually the best.
I have also driven by Elkhart's water tower thousands of times! Small world. Had to watch New Zealand Family to read a comment from a local. 😊 I live 2 miles inside MI now, but still....I never think twice about these objects, but they would be very noticeable to someone in another country. I would love to visit New Zealand. Hope your family enjoys the U.S. ❤
@@mandycreeksquad1722 Realistically, the country is way too big to see in one trip (unless it's a 6 month trip). So, they're just going to have to come back to see more of the country.
Hydrants come in various colors and shapes, also. I've seen neon geen ones, too. I've also seen the types that are built into buildings that function similar to the free-standing ones.
@@lauralake7430 And in places that get a lot of snow, they'll have a flag sticking up several feet above the hydrant, so they can find it if it's buried.
Where i grew up the fire hydrants were color coded yellow were the ones fire trucks could connect to and the Red ones you cannot connect the trucks to. They would be in a low lying area between two hills and the water pressure in the water main is too high for the trucks to handle.
The location of mailboxes varies. In some neighborhoods, the box is attached to the wall, right next to the front door. The mailbox at my current house is like this, but the house I lived in before has the box next to the end of the driveway like Lawrence described. And for a third variation, I also lived in a house that had a mail slot, though we never used it and just had a mailbox sitting on the front porch instead.
i live in a neighborhood that has a big bank of mailboxes on the street similar to what you would find in the lobby of an apartment building or like PO Boxes at the Post Office lobby. We all have a key to our individual cubby, and there are bigger bins below for packages in which case the mail-carrier will leave the key for it in your mailbox cubby. I think this is pretty common for suburban neighborhoods in AZ where I live.
What you're referring to are cluster boxes. They're usually installed into newer communities where the main entrance would be. Say in culdisaxs or gated communities.
@@idaslapter5987 We have that in rural (ME) areas too. The PO doesn't want to drive a couple miles just for a handful of deliveries, so we have to drive out to the main road to get mail. Since it's 90% junk mail now, we get ours about once a week.
I would honestly love to live in New Zealand. From what I hear and see it's a beautiful place and the people are as well. I mean, I believe you guys are a testament to that. You are just so real and genuine. I can tell, I will always be a subscriber and fan, as long as you guys have the channel. God bless! 🙂
Knockout u can't stay in nz for more than 30days if u are obese! Because nz health care system treats all and its believed obese people will tax health resources! 100 thous $ can also sometimes buy ur way into the country! Nz often times hires foreigners to manage cafes and in my research seems less hostile to foreign workers than some other countries! So if ur not obese apply for school there that's a good way to get in! Nz from my research isn't as age restrictive as some countries are meaning over 50!
Check the price tag for the cost of living as I've heard it can get pretty high in NZ. I used to live somewhere with a very high cost of living. I met many foreign students and immigrants through work who never bothered to check and they were shocked at how much everything cost once they arrived. More than one felt they couldn't continue living there.
Older neighborhoods still have letter boxes. Some suburban or rural areas have community mail boxes. These boxes are typically at the furthest end of a community so the mailman stops once and fills each of the keyed boxes. Other areas do have the postal worker walk up to the house and drop mail into the front door letter slot or a metal lidded box.
31 years as a city letter carrier...as far as I know, the only houses that are still allowed to have mail boxes on them, are those that are "grandfathered in" or the owner gets temporary permission from the Post Master due to infirmary. It's far cheaper and faster to service curbside and cluster boxes. Most of my career was spent on walking routes. They can be brutal.
My town has a mix of both, and you can choose which you’d like to use. I’ve seen a house with a front yard box one day, the next day, it’s on their house. And the mail persons drive to different routes and either park their vehicle and walk the blocks or drive the blocks depending on what the majority of the street has.
Speaking of the flag. Several are up throughout my new neighborhood. I have mine but I haven't installed the bracket yet on the new house for the flagpole. Depending where you go on your visit here, you may only count up several dozen or you may give up after counting several hundred. 🙂 🇺🇸 UPDATE: The bracket was mounted about a week ago at this point (mid-October). I put the flag out in the morning and bring it back in at sunset when I am in residence.
In Texas, Oklahoma and much of the south, generally in small towns, water towers will have the high school football mascot on them. Some will even have the years of the state championship wins.
Edit: It has been pointed out that this information is not correct for busses currently in use or in many years. My information was based on training from my younger days and I should have verified whether or not it was still true before commenting. Thank you to those who provided the corrections. When you see the yellow school busses in America you may notice they have three black stripes on the sides. Those aren't just for decoration or reinforcing the sides. They provide valuable information for emergency services in the unfortunate case they need to cut into the bus to rescue children after a crash. The bottom stripe indicates the level of the floor inside the bus. The middle stripe indicates the level of the seat bottoms and the top stripe indicates the level of the top of the seat backrests. That way if the top of the bus is crushed down and they can't see inside they know where children may be trapped in their seat and can determine where to safely cut in order to rescue them.
Thank you for your enlightened comment. I see you have quite a fondness for informing people about Wikipedia and leaving negative comments that contribute nothing. What a little ray of sunshine you are. Perhaps there should be a Wikipedia entry of your opinions so people could look them up for themselves if they were interested. Until then, thanks for sharing and have a wonderful day!
As a school bus driver, unfortunately this is a fake "fact" that's passed around a lot. Those strips are not for emergency workers, they are mainly there to help prevent objects from scraping up the side of the bus (they are actually called "rub rails"), as well, help add structural integrity to the bus.
By the way, a different color fire hydrants mean flow rate or gallons per minute red is 500 and the blue tops are 1500+ so the colors of hydrants means something .
Ok y'all, raise your virtual hand if you have ever RELEASED the fire hydrant to play in the street or the sidewalk? In Atlanta we have actual roadside pole's w/ spray so that the visitors do not die in the heat. Honestly, I think they are only used for foot/road races as running is the biggest sport of local participation here. Yes I am fully aware that all of us have a fav college football team and are willing to go to prison if you disrespect our team.
it's so funny, I'm watching this and noticing right outside we have our mailbox at the end of the yard, with the fire hydrant a couple feet away from it; no fence though, but sometimes wish we did have one to keep our the neighbors' dogs from making a mess in our yard lol.
If you look closely, at the school buses, you'll notice they have three wide horizontal stripes on the side. This is for first responders, in the event of an accident. The lower stripe is level with the "floor" of the bus. The middle stripe indicates the seat height. The top stripe indicates the top of the seat back.
Californian here, and we mostly have water tanks like you are describing. There are some towns in the central valley that have water towers because the land is flat. I think the water tower thing is mostly common in areas that aren't hilly. The water is stored (like in the tanks on hills) above the town's elevation so gravity can assist in creating the water pressure in an emergency where there may be no electrical power and therefore no working water pumps. They are often used to store water for emergency firefighting efforts and connected to the fire hydrant system.
I'm new to your channel and binged watched several of your videos. What a Lovely Family you have. I enjoy watching Off the Pond videos he's so funny. Please keep the videos coming. Love From Michigan and it's a beautiful, warm evening.
A construction crane company here in Minnesota have a huge billboard along the freeway that’s all black and just says “Quality Erections” with their phone number below. 😂
I always have thought that Lawrence would be a wonderful narrator for animal documentaries like a new Richard Attenborough...I love his voice and his dry wit...it's so awesome to see you guys and I hope the best for you ...Alex in Orange County California.
Tip on the fire hydrants. Northern hydrants (areas that reach freezing temps) are called "dry hydrants" Their water source stays further down in the ground until needed and has to be pumped. Southern hydrants (areas that don't reach freezing temps) are called "wet hydrants" Their connection to the water source is immediate. That's why is some tv shows and movies wet hydrants will immediately spray up in a gusher when the vehicle hits one. If it don't gush, it's dry.
Water tanks are in our farmland states. You won’t see them in Los Angeles as we have what they call basins, which are basically huge cement lakes that are for water use or Hyperion plants which basically filter the water so we can use it. Mailboxes as he mentioned used to be like that in more rural areas so the mailman can just drive instead of walk to deliver the mail. But it’s different all over the place. Funny thing is I don’t remember seeing many fire hydrants anymore but maybe I’m just used to seeing them and they just Belind into the landscape. Billboards are everywhere and you just get use to them. Lots more in the cities and less as you leave the bigger cities. You’ll be here soon and I hope the rain we’ve had won’t put you off. The surf will probably be pretty high on Monday, Tuesday of this week so make sure you hit the beaches. I see Anaheim is on your tee shirt so I’m sure you’re heading to Disneyland, so have so much fun at Mickey’s house as my family calls it.
Water towers are usually used for small towns and farms water supplies. It's high-up on a tower to help keep water services functional using hydrostatic pressure - even during power outages.
Come to America. We would love to show you our country. Thank you for showing the differences between our countries. You would be welcomed with open arms. We live in the southeast part of the United States. We kept two precious girls from Ireland for 6 weeks and fell absolutely in love with them. We cried like a baby when we took them to the airport to fly home. You have a beautiful family. God created us as individuals, in different countries to learn from each other. Putting our flags out means we love our country. I do agree we have to many billboards. Some are needed. Thank you so much for posting your channel. Enjoyed it very much. Sincerely, Linda
Japan has school busses too they are just not yellow. The reason for the water towers is a throwback to when the railroad went everywhere and needed water to cool the engines and the tank would generally have to be filled from above. If the town has one that means back in the 1800s it was probably established or updated by one of the original railway companies and the reason for the town name on it was so the whole train could see what stop, they were at. You can learn a lot of this at the at the Sacramento railway museum in old Sacramento in California they even run some of the old trains and you can ride them; they also have an old paddle boat you can have dinner on as it cruises the Sacramento River. Sutters Fort where the California Gold Rush started is right there as well and a lot of fun you can even have a sleep over and live like they did back then for a night and if you want to dress up Evangeline's is a three story possibly haunted historical costume mansion, and it still has the first elevator in California located in Old Sac near to the old one room schoolhouse and across from Cany Haven a great place to try old fashioned candy, salt water taffy, and gummies from around the world. I apologies for the Visit Sacramento Commercial but it's fun and educational you don't even realize you're learning something. I also recommend visiting Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, Miur Woods, and maybe stop off at Disneyland. Costco has discounted family packages for the park you just have to put in your membership number. My Costco card gives me up to 1000 dollars American cash back if I book through Costco travel and you can get like a 245-dollar gift card for food and merch as a gift. I recommend a hopper pass so you can enjoy both Disneyland and California Adventure on the same day, and if you stay on property, you can enjoy early entry to both parks. DCA or California Adventure, is a lot less crowded in the morning with most of the rides being walk-ons. And in Disneyland the magic is in the Details there is a lot of hidden magic including secret menus that are often not as expensive as other menu items. There are jewelry stores and shops that give away free stuff for those who pay attention to details and know to ask. Also check with World of Disney to see if there is a scavenger hunt, they are around 10 dollars, and you get a prize when you complete it. There is also a carnival game that is like 5 dollars you catch a floating star, and the color of the sticker is what size prize you get I believe it's in DCA by the pier and everyone wins. love your videos hope this give you some helpful ideas on what to do on your trip to the US and take advantage of the Costo card it can save you thousands.
I'd love to see more videos from y'all about New Zealand culture. I loved the ones you did about home prices and some of the fast food places you have there.
Too many roads here so each house has a post box in the street for the mail truck to deliver letters. Those that have the round tubes are for the local newspaper. Houses in the denser parts of town have letter boxes mounted next to the front doors…their postal workers have to walk.
9:11 As an American (Puerto Rican) living in the south, I’m laughing extra hard at this one! Yes, they are everywhere and on pretty much every thing. Also, sports flags, organization flags and basically any flag. I guess the majority of us just love flags. 😅😂😂 🇵🇷 🇺🇸
The roadside letter boxes are a relic of what used to be called RFD (rural free delivery) routes. The postman would ride a horse-drawn wagon through the farm districts outside a town and place the mail in the boxes while still sitting in the wagon. This saved time because he didn't drive down long driveways to deliver at the house. In-town deliveries were made at the front door. (To this day, post office delivery vehicles are the most common right-hand-drive vehicles in our left-hand-drive country.)
I believe the town names on the water towers were important back in the early 1900s because at the beginning of genetal aviation, that was a part of early navigation. The pilot could identify the town below by the name on the town's water tower. We will have many water towers in the rural water districts. There id a largevwater tower in my neighborhood because its right on the Illinois River. Water is drawn from the river, and stored in the reservoir and up in the tower(s). The tower in my neighborhood has the name of the local State university. The tower in the middle of town has the town's name.
The mesh fences are referred to as chain link fences or hurricane fences. It allows for strong winds to pass through as opposed to the taller wooden fencing that can be knocked down fairly easily during storms.
If you visit some of the northernmost states in the US you will find an interesting variation to the fire hydrant. They will often have long poles attached to them so that they can still be found under the snow.
Someone else may have already pointed this out, but even in the US, the mailboxes USED to be on the front door, or at least on the wall right beside it. They only moved them out to the curb for the ease of the postman. Mail routes were by FOOT- and the postman would walk door to door dropping off your mail. To get the job done FASTER and more efficiently (and to hire less workers), they moved the mail boxes out to the curb right along the road so they could put the postmen in vehicles that could just drive down the street and put everyone's mail in a box right by the curb. This cut mail delivery time exponentially. Your family is adorable!
When I lived in England (my mother's homeland) as a kid in the 1960s, I had a Sunday newspaper route (working for a local newspaper/magazine/convenience store called a newsagent, not for a newspaper publisher) in which delievering Sunday papers (mostly the London ones) in the neighborhood I lived in involved getting off my bicycle to push massive mounds of paperthrough letterboxes (which we Yanks call mailboxes) in front doors. Sometimes some ripping of pages ensued because the papers were so thick. U.S.-style street mailboxes would have been appreciated (glad to have one now). Throwing papers onto lawns would also have been easier, but there would have been (as there is here) the risk of he papers blowing away in strong wind.
Another interesting bit about fire plugs: We have these round porcelain white dots that mark our roads in between lanes. If you pay attention you'll see blue reflectors that appear to be randomly placed. Actually these blue reflectors mark the presence of a fire plug so firefighters can easily find the fire plugs while driving in the dark.
Water towers are on every New York building at least the older ones. The reason they exist is a lot of older buildings are not connected to the city water supply and they are older buildings. Usually filled by oddly city water now. It’s the entire building’s water supply for maybe a month. Gravity fed and it works. LA uses the same method of a large water tower on the roof to provide water for the building. But the city water towers are actually there for overflow and storage purposes. They help control the amount of water in a city’s system if it rains a lot cities store the extra water in underground chambers and is pumped up to the tower for storage if needed. If it’s too dry they can divert the stored water to the water purifier system and use that for city water. It’s how Florida has done it forever. Miami unfortunately cannot do this because of how the city sits. It’s literally right on sea level and any digging instantly will uncover water in the ground. The city of Miami then has to call a company to drain the water out, call a separate company to reinforce the ground, then start adding underground timber to shore up everything, then concrete before even starting on the ground floor. It takes several weeks and often projects don’t start because of the construction company cost/ profit margin being so low. That’s why builders have to know laws here.
This is the second time I’ve watched this and I remembered a couple of other things I wanted to comment on. Fire hydrants-There is one at the curb just a couple of feet from my driveway. Only the firemen who come to fight the fire are the ones who use them. Water towers-I have two favorites: Florence, Kentucky has one that says, “FLORENCE Y’ALL!” There is one in central Minnesota not far from a cabin owned by relatives. It looks like a red fishing bobber, a tribute to all the fishing done in Minnesota lakes.
I am happy you finally get to come to America. It is unfortunate that you will basically only be in big cities and urban areas. You will miss so much by not seeing the more rural side of America.
I was disappointed to see their first stops. I pray it doesn’t turn them off. Our country is in such a struggle now that going to huge cities can be dangerous. Missing the midwest and rural areas is like missing a whole different country
It’s a big, diverse country. You’re going to miss a lot no matter where you go. And obviously you’d miss more overall in a certain time frame if you focused on rural over urban areas than vice versa.
@@JustMe-dc6ks I didn't say to focus on rural and exclude the urban. I just think that you need to see both to truly understand a bit more about this country.
Agreed! I'm from rural NY, and it sucks that so many people think they're "been to NY" when all they've seen is NYC. We actually have the largest state park in the US as well as two mountain ranges!
One of the oldest highway signs you will see on your travels could be on a proper billboard or it could be painted on the side of an old barn. It has big white letters over a black background sometimes with bright red trim. It says, "See Rock City". It refers to an exhibit of unique rock formations located just outside Chattanooga, TN. You might also see the lesser known "See Ruby Falls" which is also near Chattanooga and features an underground waterfall. My advice? Go in the spring right after the snow has melted. Rock City is also a must visit for families. Visit while your kids are still young! :)
Just love lost in the pond ❤ you all should fo a challenge in America. See how many flags you can count in a 10-15 min drive. I'd bet you could easily get to 100 in the right areas. (Texas etc.)😊safe travels and blessed weather
*❤️Only God knows how much grateful i am. After so much struggles I now own a new house and my family is happy once again everything is finally falling into place!!*
Wow...I know her too she is a licensed broker and a FINRA agent she is popular in US and Canada she is really amazing woman with good skills and experience.
We were brought up to fly our flag as long as the weather permits and that typically means every day. I am from an immigrant family (my parents brought us here in the early 50’s) and we are extremely grateful for what this country represents to us and has done for us. We fly it out of respect for those who are or have served in our military throughout this country’s history and to remind people of the sacrifices they have made for us and many others across the our world. I thank the American solders who looked after my father after WWII when he was a young boy with nowhere to go. He was so impressed with them that he vowed that he would become an American citizen one day - and this is why I am here and enjoying a wonderful retirement with my wife, three children, and five grandchildren. 😊😊😊
So beautifully stated. So many, no make that ALL, Americans need to read this comment. Too many people are forgetting the TRUE meaning of our Grand Ole Flag.
People have already mentioned water towers being used for a few purposes but one I didn't see mentioned is antennas. I used to climb towers for a living for various maintenance purposes but also to run new antennas and cables as well as decommission old ones, mostly for radio. Now they're also used for cellphone antennas, which are called sectors. I once, well my crew and I (not just me), took down two radio antennas and all the cable that ran up to them from the Ashwaubenon water tower, a steel tower a couple blocks from Lambeau Field, home of the Green Bay Packers. That was a fun day! 🙂🙂🙂
Fun, weird fact. I grew up in a small town in southern IL and the local water commission put a water tower up about 50 yards from my parents' place when I was in junior high school. A bunch of high schoolers got the bright idea to camp out in the thing before they put it to use. We got up one morning and about half a dozen teenagers were descending down the ladder toward the ground. This tower is 90 feet high, and the access hatch to get inside it was on the TOP of the thing. There was a ladder to tank, then a walkaround at the top of that ladder, and apparently a ladder to descend down into the tank. Now, knowing MY luck, had I tried that, the water commission would have decided that when I was camped out that it would be a GREAT time to fill the thing up. One of the craziest things I have ever seen anyone do.
my brother had once told me he work for a temp agency and they had to clean the tanks. He was saying that the supervisors would rush them because some of the tanks are on timers to be filled. For safety reasons, they would have to be done for about 2 hours before they start filling.
water towers are used so you always have water under pressure but most have tanks now on hills or buildings , and fire fighter hats and fire hydrants where designed to look similar to each other.
I live in Washington state and the same could be said about one county, i.e. King county, north/south of King county you’ll more, but any areas west of the Puget Sound or east of the Cascades you’ll see far more. King county (Seattle area) has had numerous homeowners flags burned on their front porches.
Mailbox Baseball use to be a popular pasttime until some savvy Dad's got fed up and started securing the mailboxes with concrete and teenagers started getting injured. Also when I was in high school in California, a popular prank was pouring laundry detergent on the underground water sprinklers. When the sprinklers would come on it would turn the front yard into a giant sudsy mess.
In some rural areas a bunch of families living off the main road will have one stand of mailboxes for everyone, and the key is to put dummy mailboxes on each end filled with concrete. That'll make the vandals think twice.
It isn't just limited to rural areas. Greater Nashville area has almost 2 million people in it. And for the past 5 years we've been dealing with an epidemic of mailbox baseball. Kids with nothing to do. Drive around whacking other people's mailboxes with baseball bats while driving at high speeds. It is illegal as anything, since your mailbox is considered federal property, but that doesn't stop them.
@@Ozarks4Larry Nope, still legal. There was a court case last year about them. Guy missed a corner, hit a steel reinforced mailbox causing the car to flip, eject him an he ended up paralyzed. He sued the mailbox owner. The court ruled that the mailbox was legal. All the "rules" about not doing that to mailboxes are not binding laws. An the mailbox was perfectly safe for anyone who drives down the road. The driver has no expectation of safety when he leaves the roadway. The mailbox owner who had had several mailboxes destroyed did nothing wrong by reinforcing it an held no liability. It was an interesting case.
Teens would smash mailboxes at night for their entertainment. An elderly gentlemen was a repeat target. It was difficult for him to replace the box. The teens didn't care. One night, someone got the truck identity doing the smashing. A little detective work discovered where they lived. A few weeks later (at night) 20 guys paint balled their house and vehicles, and mailed a letter to the parents asking them not to allow their kid to smash mailboxes. 🙂
The mail boxes at the curb allows the mail carrier to drive by in special vehicles to deposit mail. These boxes are mostly in suburbs because the houses are so far apart. The boxes are usually next to the driveway, allowing the homeowner, upon coming home, to pull up to the box and get the mail without having to get out of the car…at least that’s why mine is where it is!
People fly all sorts of flag from the poles on their homes. Flags of other nations/territories (more often Mexico and Puerto Rico), different identities (various LGBTQ+ flags, BLM, Confederate) and flags of universities (usually the local one or one that is a national sporting champion) .
@@brewdogg77 I get that here in the states. In NZ they don't fly it much. My question was more towards there patriotism towards NZ like we have in the US. There neighbors may find it offensive. Idk as I don't live in NZ I live in Pennsylvania.
Water towers are very common, my town has two, water is pumped up so that at peak times of the day, there is adequate water pressure. Will be very interested to see what you see and what you think of us. Hope you have a very safe and fun trip.
Have you guys seen the video from some Australian Karen talking about her being "triggered" over the amount of American Flags flying in the USA and how we need to calm down.. She does have a home to go back to right? Figured I'd share.. enjoyed this channel for a long time.. right after the name change I think.. A bright ray of sunshine in this grey woke world! A family that loves each other and has real values. God Bless Y'all
Mate there are Karens all over the world and they are going to say dumb things just watch a few Utube videos on stupid things US citizens have said when they have been abroad or when interacting with foreign visitors. As an Aussie I dont really care how many flags you display particuarly when its in your own country if anything I am happy to see there is a sense of pride and unity compared to only the deep political divisions being reported by Fox News and CNN. Blowing this up into a major event or suggesting that it is some sort of a Woke conspiracy just gives it oxygen and results in more airtime. Look on the bright side her tourist visa will run out, she will go home to Australia and we will get to put up with the air head.
The tube on a mailbox is for the newspaper if you have one delivered but it is rare it will actually be put in there. Most newspaper delivery drivers just throw it near the porch or in the yard.
I hope and pray that this family and there trip to America isn't being affected by Hurricane Hilary about to hit the SoCal area. Hopefully they got out or left early before it hits that area. Can you just image, there first time visiting America and one of the first places there going to visit gets hit by a Hurricane the first time in 84 years, crazy!
Fences make good neighbors! :) (PS On a previous post - Do servers pay taxes on tips - Yes, if they claim them as income. Paying via credit card does force them to claim it and taxes are paid on the wages. The servers make $2 and change per hour... Some servers claim the cash to keep their vacation pay (yes a week sad but still) - it keeps their vacation checks higher. Best of luck to you all and safe travels!
Water Towers they work as both a water storage space for the town to ensure they don't run out of water when water flow is lower, and they also work to produce water pressure in your pipes. think of it this way. lots of water is heavy there is tons of it above a narrower pipe below the main tank and that line feeds all the homes. this produces water pressure, and then it can also be reduced in pressure at your individual homes or controlled at the main line before entering the home. this ensures a more equal pressure throughout the town.
I promise you guys will get to see yellow school buses, American flags, and fire hydrants. Depending on what time of day you're driving you may even get slowed down by a yellow school bus.
You'll also discover that everyone refers to everyone else as "a guy", "guys", you guys". Men, women, children, couples, entire families, grandma, etc. This 30 - 50 year trend being just another sign of a degrading culture. And don't be too offended if you inerrantly "piss off" someone. Ugh.
![Twenty One Pilots - The Line (from Arcane Season 2) [Official Audio]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/XCz7WUotXs8/mqdefault.jpg)
The "mesh" fences are called "chainlink" fences.
Not that l ever thought about it, but l assumed chain link fence was a worldwide thing.
@@GilaMonster971never heard that. But I'm a southern chick😂🤷♀️
There are mesh fences that are green or black as well.
Chain link fencing is found in Canada. As well and we’ve had yellow school buses my whole life. They are easy to see so you don’t hit children with your vehicle. Our fire hydrants are neon yellow not red.
@@momD612 "Cyclone" is a brand. It's like calling a refrigerator a "frigidaire" (which was more common when I was growing up) or a tissue a "kleenex".
Laurence is the man who got me started on all these videos, eventually leading to New Zealand.!!
The color "School Bus Yellow" was created at a conference in 1939. Atendees at the conference included paint experts from DuPont and Pittsburgh Paints. The color was chosen because it attracts attention and is noticed quickly in peripheral vision.
And maybe because the color yellow is used for signs of caution.
All US public school buses are yellow and if you buy an old school bus, you have to paint it a different color.
I didn’t realize that there were places that don’t have water towers….lol
In some towns, the post office forces you to put your mailbox beside the street to make it easier and quicker for the mailman. You can have them deliver to a box right outside your front door if you have trouble walking that far.
@@jeffevans8910 One of the black lines is near the location of the floor, but the other does not indicate the top of the seats. The top of the seats are above the windows, which is well above the black bar.
I had an aunt and uncle that bought a school bus painted it blue and lived in it with 3 kids . In Florida of course !
The bottom line is the floor and the middle line is the bench of the seat. It’s for emergency personnel in case they have to cut into the bus. Also, it’s amazing how many people hit school busses who claim they never saw it! I drive one, btw.
What a charming family. It's so refreshing to see fun stuff without vulgarity. Also, as an American, I so enjoy listening to people with melodic accents talk about things that are quintessentially American. The opinions are eye opening. Also, New Zealand, Australian, British, and other accents sound so soothing to my ear. Love it 😂❤
I love the female Irish accents.
you'd love Chris from "Abroad in Japan" then! He lives in Japan, and is hilarious! Though, he does curse.
One of the reasons for the water towers to have the city name on it was because of crop dusters in the 30's, 40's etc. They used the water towers to identify what town they were in.
In my town the water tower has Charlie Brown on it LOL. The city painted over it once but the people wanted and got it back
Crop dusters, and mail planes ….. Charles Linberg was a mail pilot
No pump is strong enough to force water through an entire towns water system of pipes including those in houses, but gravity is. However pumps can force water up into a water tower and fill it, then gravity rakes over all the work. Remember water seeks its own level, the height of the water tower forces water into the system. You're welcome.
Some of our towers are famous landmarks for being shaped like "The World's Largest ________."
@@robertsrodulski9438 Plenty of pumps are strong enough. Gravity is just cheaper for less houses.
Also, he says that picket fences and “mesh” (chain link) fences are found around “gardens.” In America, they’re called “yards” (he does mention the word “yard” when describing mailboxes). You have the front yard in front of the house and the back yard behind the house. In America, a “garden” is an area within the yard where flowers, herbs, fruits, and/or vegetables are grown.
Sometimes the yard is a garden though for some homes
Yea it took me a while to "translate" garden to yard 😂
Being from Florida my entire yard is given up to tropical fruit trees. From mangoes to avocados to bananas.
@@Emigail True, but rarely would a front yard only consist of a garden. In almost every case a 'garden' is merely a tiny piece of an actual yard.
HEADS UP ON SCHOOL BUSSES ... when lights on top of the bus are flashing, the bus is picking up or discharging students. In most cases, you must stop for a school bus whenever the driver signals a stop with the flashing lights and the stop sign. Some laws vary by state, such as whether or not you're required to stop when there is a median separating your lane of traffic from the bus; so, be mindful. But, you may NEVER pass a stopped school bus that has flashing lights and the stop sign is out. (Y'all may have already known this; but, just in case.) I'm looking forward to watching the posts of your travels here!
That’s where most people get wrong. If the bus is flashing yellow light, you can pass on the left, just cautiously and slow down. If it is flashing red, absolutely no passing, period.
@@IdioticTrolling " .. flashing lights AND the stop sign is out."
@@IdioticTrollingAt least where I live our school buses don’t flash yellow, only red with a stop
that is a RED flashing light ,, bus may have on the yellow flashing lights sitting there waiting for the kids ,, but then the RED light are flashing you must STOP ,, and you are right about the median on the road
Yes! Even if you coming from the opposite way the bus is going, if the stop sign is out, you must stop
it’s not just the American flag, you’ll commonly see flags for various sports teams, or flags that represent the seasons, or even personalized flags with family’s names on them 🇺🇸🇺🇸
Much more importantly, POW/MIA flags are Still flying, as well.😢Then there’s the State flags, which may be lowered In Memoriam to a State known or born figure, who Isn’t recognized as a National figure, while Both are lowered for elected officials,& certain select other highly regarded figures, who pass away. Even back in the days when I watched Local news, there were Many times I Didn’t hear of someone passing, but Would see flags lowered, & I would have to ask others if They knew why our state flag,&/ national flag was lowered. Today, the Internet makes it Far more easier to find out, as well as being much more informative about the person’s(s) life, than local or national news, with the exception of Extremely Highly Regarded figures.
You will also see a service flag for a branch of military service like army or marines as well as political flags either showing the candidate you support or dislike
and pride flags, military flags, or just plain flags with happy cartoons or w quotes on them. we like flags i guess lol
Canadian here - we also have many of those American things all over Canada as well - steel water towers with town names on them, mesh fences, hiway billboards, fire hydrants (red ones and yellow ones) and speaking of yellow, all our school buses are yellow as well - even though the company that manufactures them is ironically named Blue Bird.
The school buses here in America are also built by bluebird.
@@Blueknight1960 I was just about to say that
And We’d kick Trudeau to the curb… Sound Good ??? Do it Now !!!
Too I believe the bluebird bus co is an American co!
The US also has red and yellow fire hydrants
By the way, a “garden” is where you grow vegetables. The rest of your lot is either the back yard or the front yard. 😊 This is pretty funny.
actually, a garden is where Americans grow vegetables or flowers. Who the fuck are you to tell someone else what they should have in their garden? The rest of the world doesn't necessarily have the resources to have large patches of grass surrounding their houses.
They have every right to call it a garden.
If you're going to "correct" someone, do it correctly.
yard is also called a lawn
@@wayneherl1442 A lawn is mowed grass. The words are used in the same way a lot of times, but they are slightly different.
Some of us also have flower gardens.
Agreed. Garden is only for growing fresh food. I'm in Atlanta and am curious about school buses in states like Wyoming. How in the world do they collect the kiddos in such a massive state with tiny populations? No offense Wyoming but metro- Atlanta currently has 6.2 million peeps. Doesn't Wyoming have something like 300,000 populous?
You'll definitely will see a lot of American flags and also state flags fling sense all of the kids are back in school and we Americans are very proud of our flag and country
Only the conservative Americans fly the American flag. A far left liberal democrat hates America and everything it stands for.
The Maryland State flag is EVERYWHERE and on EVERYTHING in our state. My kids wear Md flag clothing often.
@@buzsnyder DMV 👍
Most definitely. Proud of our country and state we live in. We are a military family so have moved all over the US and seems pretty universal. A lot of friendly rivalry between states and the various sports teams as well. You do see other national flags in communities where different nationalities have settled. Every culture celebrates in their own community way. I enjoy seeing all the variety of culture in different locations. In our current location we see a lot of Scottish pride and festivities. Or small town has Highland Games every year in the Fall to celebrate the various historical sports from Scotland and the dancing and food. I enjoy it very much because my own heritage is very Scottish.
I'd be willing to bet they're very proud of their country too. We Americans are just over the top when it comes to patriotism.
This may have been mentioned before but water towers are used for areas with a relatively flat land surface. Water systems are gravity feed so the water supply needs to be higher than the area it serves. It works like this. If the natural water supply is lower or even with the land all water pressure would have to be "pumped" to every household or business constantly. So water is pumped into the towers which are sized based on the demand to have a storage as well as creating the pressure via height of the tower. I managed a water system for a housing development that consisted of 187 households. The water was supplied by a number of wells and the storage was in a concrete reservoir on a high spot that held 50,000 gallons (189270.59 liters) which was good for two days if for some reason the power was off and the pumps weren't working. Which happened occasionally. That was a privately owned system. In the towns and smaller cities at this point most systems have backup electric generators to run the pumps even if the power grid has a gap in service. So anyplace that had a water system that was part of a community but is on level ground or has an underground water source would have a water tower to act as a virtual higher elevation. Not every place has one. In many places where the population is not very dense each household has their own well giving them a private water system that they maintain.
US has lots of water towers because we use water pressure via gravity to disperse water to lots of the population. Potable water is pumped into the reservoir on top of the tank and gravity distributes it down into people’s homes.
Tbh, as an American, this makes me thirsty especially for water. Haha
@@MrTomSpencer 🤤🤤🤤🤣
Its usually pumped to the towers at night when water usage is low. Gravity fed is a lot cheaper than having a pump running all the time to pressurize the water pipes.
Where I live in United States there are no water towers
@@jeffhampton2767 Do you live in the plains or in a hilly/mountainous section of the USA?
Flags got major after 9/11. I was on deployment in Australia when it happened and you'd see some before I left the States. But when I finally got back to the US after 8 months even I was surprised by how many more flags there were everywhere. It's been pretty steady even decades later.
I didn't notice an increase but I'm also from Texas, so we've always been big on flags
We Americans have one flag for every right we gave up as a result of the 9/11 attacks. And for some reason we're proud of it. We'll fucking believe anything.
@@Nuadin
I agree with this as a native texan, moving to Colorado i was surprised by the lack of American flags lol
I don’t think I noticed an addition of flags, but more like an addition of alterations to the flag. Also Tx raised but now I’m PNW. We have a good amount of flags and living near a military base I do my share of that Lone Star flag too!! Even saw Texas State flag on a belt buckle today on base. Lol
I’m from nyc, and you’re right. Flags went up everywhere almost overnight here. There were ppl selling flags in the streets. I think it’s well documented that Flags were selling out all over New York at least, and I suspect much of America too.
My cousin came to visit from Austria a few years ago and I was so surprised how excited she became when a yellow school bus drive by. She was able to get her camera and take a few pictures which made her very happy. :D Just like the video stated, she thought the yellow school buses were a myth until seeing one, ha ha!
Take her to a town where the grade and high schools are next to each other in the morning at starting time. She will go crazy.
Now you and your family know why America needs so much oil... its not just for the military. I noticed too that you said you folks never fly your flag. I encourage you folks to start that patriotism in your country. Not in a divisive way, just a way to hatch a national spirit. You folks have a lot to be proud of. The respect you folks show us here in America in your videos shows good character. If you have a nation with good chatacter that is A LOT to be proud of. Strip America down to its bone and we are just people like you.
Mesh fence is commonly called a "chain link " fence.
Hurricane fences as well.... in some places.
Or to by the... lazy? metal fence...
School busses are usually because the school is too far to walk. My Highschool was over 20 miles (32 km) away and it took the bus over an hour to get to it. Which was why it was common for morning drives to be silent. All of us kids would put our backpacks on our laps and plant our faces in them for an hour extra nap before class.
We are anxious to show you our hospitality during your stay. I hope you enjoy every cram-packed minute of your visit! Cheers....
The thing about our flag, and our patriotism, is that we recognize how absolutely unique it is to have joined people from every country, culture and corner of the Earth into ONE place, and have it be peaceful amongst us. We have our problems, but we are not, and have not been for almost 160 years, at war with each other. It's the great human experiment, and it's WORKING. We're proud of that. And we know how lucky we are.
(Please don't let the news or Hollywood form your opinion of we Americans. They are less than 1% of the 320,000,000 of us.)
I think more people flew flags after 911.
I hope this inspires you all to write down a list of unusual things you encounter on your travels through our "fruited plains from sea to shining sea". Please don't gorge yourselves on food while you're here. We want y'all to have a wonderful trip without any illness nor injuries. Safe travels! We love y'all!
Hello, I hope you're safe over there? I hope this year brings happiness, prosperity, love , and peace all over the world 🌏. I would love us to be good friends in honesty and in trust so as time goes on it will bring something great for us in the future, hope you don't mind? I'm Thaoms Gabriel Brooklyn New York, where are you from if I may ask????❤
He is hilarious, I love listening to his channel. Many of these things he mentioned we Americans take for granted.
I get that this family is religious which is not perfunctory. Despite identifying as Christian they would most likely do backflips here in Atlanta where ALL the billboards seem to be Protestant. And if you walk around the tourist area at Centennial park you are destined to be confronted by a street preacher screaming at you or demanding you take a tract. Do they even have tracts in NZ?
Lawrence is always fun to watch. Discovered his channel a couple years ago. It's interesting to see the differences. Things we think are normal like, closets and garbage disposals, and assume they are everywhere.
In northern Michigan, the fire hydrants are often 4-5 feet tall so they can be seen above the snow in the winter.
Guess we just find these things normal. It's cool to hear and see what others call them. Hope you enjoy your stay here. Try as many foods as you possibly can. Can't wait to hear your take on them. Lol.
I Love watching Laurence, he has so much info to share! The American Flag has been a part of my life for 60 years, and it saddens me to see so many people disrespect it.
The majority of Americans dont...
@@northdakotaham1752 Most Americans don't. But we have a subset of Americans who are ignorant of U.S. flag code.
We also have a subset who believe displaying the battleflag of an insurrectionist movement that took up arms against the country that they are so patriotic about is OK, because it's their heritage.
It depends on your definition of disrespecting the flag.
Is kneeling for the anthem disrespect? No, it's constitutionally protected speech.
Is putting someones image on a flag, or blue lines or turning it into clothing disrespect? Definitely.
Or use it to beat their chest and say only people who share their political views are patriotic.
@@TomTerrific-vm3qgI’m a born Yankee living in the South - yes, the North did win but I don’t have a single problem with seeing the Confederate flag. South Carolina is still fighting the war😄😄🥴😀.
Much of Lawrence's experiences are in portions of the US that are relatively flat - thus tall (usually) steel water towers are very common - in areas with larger amounts of elevation change,
they are not very common.
He lives in Chicago or the Chi suburbs...which is close to me. So everything in the North/Midwest is flat.
I grew up in Wyoming, where we often have water tanks, but flatter areas still have the towers. In Cheyenne, our only water tower is at the frontier grounds, and it's fake. It's actually a cell tower. (For cell phone service). In Vegas, these cell towers look like face palm trees. I haven't seen any water towers or tanks here. We do have a big lake and dam, though.
In upstate New York we have water towers hidden on top of the hills in the Forrest so i think they are actually common but there is nowhere to hide them in the region he lives in. On my uncles property there is an old abandoned water tower that used to supply the city but they have since built a new one (which you can actually see a little bit now from the city in the valley) but regardless i think it is more common than we think!
Another famous yellow US vehicle are yellow taxi cabs. Usually found in big cities like New York, Chicago, etc.. I’m surprised Lawrence didn’t cover that in this video.
It's funny he mentions water towers. I moved to a community in NH a few years back and we are on a huge hill where there is a water tower. They just replaced it last year and it took them 8 months to complete the project, this thing is huge. It's all metal and more like a very, very, large oil tank but for water of course.
The mesh fence is actually called chain link fence
Hello from Arizona. We are heading to New Zealand for 3 months this Nov-Jan, and are very excited to see your wonderful country. Our kiddo asked, "How do NZ kids get to school?" Now we homeschool, so we walk down the stairs.
Best wishes on your upcoming adventure as well.
Hello, I hope you're safe over there? I hope this year brings happiness, prosperity, love , and peace all over the world 🌏. I would love us to be good friends in honesty and in trust so as time goes on it will bring something great for us in the future, hope you don't mind? I'm Thaoms Gabriel Brooklyn New York, where are you from if I may ask????❤
The water towers in the US are tall steel structures because gravity is used to send the water to residences/businesses. In NZ, you said yours are placed on hills---I imagine the reason for that is gravity again. PS: I LOVE your videos and your fam. Y'all are my new favorite Happy Place on the internet.
Laurence is a joy to watch. Very funny outlook on the differences between the US and the UK.
UK?
Yeh! That's where he's from, there is no country named Britain, just an island.
@@juliaforsyth8332 United Kingdom
He comes from New Zealand not the UK.@@horsepowerandtalk1033
IT SHOWED A WATER TOWER FROM ELKHART, INDIANA!!!
I LIVE IN THAT TOWN!!!!!!!!
I've driven by that Elkhart water tower countless times... and I agree with another comment about missing out on so much rural America has to offer by only visiting big cities and urban areas. If you can fit it into your itinerary while in Texas I recommend seeing if any small middle of nowhere towns are having any festivals or fairs. From my experience ones with a food theme are usually the best.
County fairs are fantastic.
I have also driven by Elkhart's water tower thousands of times! Small world. Had to watch New Zealand Family to read a comment from a local. 😊 I live 2 miles inside MI now, but still....I never think twice about these objects, but they would be very noticeable to someone in another country. I would love to visit New Zealand. Hope your family enjoys the U.S. ❤
Yeah, it's kinda sad that they're going to be missing practically the entire country. Miami isn't going to tell you a thing about the US as a whole 😅😅
@@mandycreeksquad1722 Realistically, the country is way too big to see in one trip (unless it's a 6 month trip). So, they're just going to have to come back to see more of the country.
Hydrants come in various colors and shapes, also. I've seen neon geen ones, too. I've also seen the types that are built into buildings that function similar to the free-standing ones.
White ones in places with no snow, red in places that do have snow…
@@lauralake7430 And in places that get a lot of snow, they'll have a flag sticking up several feet above the hydrant, so they can find it if it's buried.
Where i grew up the fire hydrants were color coded yellow were the ones fire trucks could connect to and the Red ones you cannot connect the trucks to. They would be in a low lying area between two hills and the water pressure in the water main is too high for the trucks to handle.
Hope you guys had a safe flight!
The location of mailboxes varies. In some neighborhoods, the box is attached to the wall, right next to the front door. The mailbox at my current house is like this, but the house I lived in before has the box next to the end of the driveway like Lawrence described. And for a third variation, I also lived in a house that had a mail slot, though we never used it and just had a mailbox sitting on the front porch instead.
i live in a neighborhood that has a big bank of mailboxes on the street similar to what you would find in the lobby of an apartment building or like PO Boxes at the Post Office lobby. We all have a key to our individual cubby, and there are bigger bins below for packages in which case the mail-carrier will leave the key for it in your mailbox cubby. I think this is pretty common for suburban neighborhoods in AZ where I live.
@@idaslapter5987 Same here
What you're referring to are cluster boxes. They're usually installed into newer communities where the main entrance would be. Say in culdisaxs or gated communities.
@@idaslapter5987 We have that in rural (ME) areas too. The PO doesn't want to drive a couple miles just for a handful of deliveries, so we have to drive out to the main road to get mail. Since it's 90% junk mail now, we get ours about once a week.
I would honestly love to live in New Zealand. From what I hear and see it's a beautiful place and the people are as well. I mean, I believe you guys are a testament to that. You are just so real and genuine. I can tell, I will always be a subscriber and fan, as long as you guys have the channel. God bless! 🙂
Knockout u can't stay in nz for more than 30days if u are obese! Because nz health care system treats all and its believed obese people will tax health resources! 100 thous $ can also sometimes buy ur way into the country! Nz often times hires foreigners to manage cafes and in my research seems less hostile to foreign workers than some other countries! So if ur not obese apply for school there that's a good way to get in! Nz from my research isn't as age restrictive as some countries are meaning over 50!
@@oldfogey4679what a contrast to the U.S.! ..where millions are streaming over the southern border every year! Who are they? Nobody has a clue?
I want to move there, honestly.
NZ fruitgrowers and farmers hopefully treat foreign labour better than they used to.@@oldfogey4679
Check the price tag for the cost of living as I've heard it can get pretty high in NZ. I used to live somewhere with a very high cost of living. I met many foreign students and immigrants through work who never bothered to check and they were shocked at how much everything cost once they arrived. More than one felt they couldn't continue living there.
Older neighborhoods still have letter boxes. Some suburban or rural areas have community mail boxes. These boxes are typically at the furthest end of a community so the mailman stops once and fills each of the keyed boxes. Other areas do have the postal worker walk up to the house and drop mail into the front door letter slot or a metal lidded box.
31 years as a city letter carrier...as far as I know, the only houses that are still allowed to have mail boxes on them, are those that are "grandfathered in" or the owner gets temporary permission from the Post Master due to infirmary. It's far cheaper and faster to service curbside and cluster boxes. Most of my career was spent on walking routes. They can be brutal.
My town has a mix of both, and you can choose which you’d like to use. I’ve seen a house with a front yard box one day, the next day, it’s on their house. And the mail persons drive to different routes and either park their vehicle and walk the blocks or drive the blocks depending on what the majority of the street has.
@@tristinj6551 did you read my comment?
@@tristinj6551 all receptacles are approved by the P.M., you don't just get to choose unless your carrier isn't doing their job.
Have an amazing & safe trip!! Cant wait for all the content❤️
Speaking of the flag.
Several are up throughout my new neighborhood.
I have mine but I haven't installed the bracket yet on the new house for the flagpole.
Depending where you go on your visit here, you may only count up several dozen or you may give up after counting several hundred. 🙂
🇺🇸
UPDATE: The bracket was mounted about a week ago at this point (mid-October). I put the flag out in the morning and bring it back in at sunset when I am in residence.
In Texas, Oklahoma and much of the south, generally in small towns, water towers will have the high school football mascot on them. Some will even have the years of the state championship wins.
Edit: It has been pointed out that this information is not correct for busses currently in use or in many years. My information was based on training from my younger days and I should have verified whether or not it was still true before commenting. Thank you to those who provided the corrections.
When you see the yellow school busses in America you may notice they have three black stripes on the sides. Those aren't just for decoration or reinforcing the sides. They provide valuable information for emergency services in the unfortunate case they need to cut into the bus to rescue children after a crash. The bottom stripe indicates the level of the floor inside the bus. The middle stripe indicates the level of the seat bottoms and the top stripe indicates the level of the top of the seat backrests. That way if the top of the bus is crushed down and they can't see inside they know where children may be trapped in their seat and can determine where to safely cut in order to rescue them.
Awesome knowledge! Thanks.
This was awesome…thanks….never ever heard this!
oh good.. wikipedia has arrived. Bet they don't have THAT in NZ, either.
Thank you for your enlightened comment. I see you have quite a fondness for informing people about Wikipedia and leaving negative comments that contribute nothing. What a little ray of sunshine you are. Perhaps there should be a Wikipedia entry of your opinions so people could look them up for themselves if they were interested. Until then, thanks for sharing and have a wonderful day!
As a school bus driver, unfortunately this is a fake "fact" that's passed around a lot. Those strips are not for emergency workers, they are mainly there to help prevent objects from scraping up the side of the bus (they are actually called "rub rails"), as well, help add structural integrity to the bus.
By the way, a different color fire hydrants mean flow rate or gallons per minute red is 500 and the blue tops are 1500+ so the colors of hydrants means something .
Ok y'all, raise your virtual hand if you have ever RELEASED the fire hydrant to play in the street or the sidewalk? In Atlanta we have actual roadside pole's w/ spray so that the visitors do not die in the heat. Honestly, I think they are only used for foot/road races as running is the biggest sport of local participation here. Yes I am fully aware that all of us have a fav college football team and are willing to go to prison if you disrespect our team.
Here in Vermont, you will not see a billboard. They were outlawed in this state back in the 1970's.
Welcome to the States!!!!! Enjoy your stay
it's so funny, I'm watching this and noticing right outside we have our mailbox at the end of the yard, with the fire hydrant a couple feet away from it; no fence though, but sometimes wish we did have one to keep our the neighbors' dogs from making a mess in our yard lol.
If you look closely, at the school buses, you'll notice they have three wide horizontal stripes on the side. This is for first responders, in the event of an accident. The lower stripe is level with the "floor" of the bus. The middle stripe indicates the seat height. The top stripe indicates the top of the seat back.
Yellow was chosen as a uniform color for school buses in the U.S. to make them instantly identifiable and distinct from other buses to drivers.
I love your family so much.. I look forward to watching your videos every week!!!!
Californian here, and we mostly have water tanks like you are describing. There are some towns in the central valley that have water towers because the land is flat. I think the water tower thing is mostly common in areas that aren't hilly. The water is stored (like in the tanks on hills) above the town's elevation so gravity can assist in creating the water pressure in an emergency where there may be no electrical power and therefore no working water pumps. They are often used to store water for emergency firefighting efforts and connected to the fire hydrant system.
I'm new to your channel and binged watched several of your videos. What a Lovely Family you have. I enjoy watching Off the Pond videos he's so funny. Please keep the videos coming. Love From Michigan and it's a beautiful, warm evening.
This Michigander agrees
@@cathyward1599 Yes, we've been having glorious weather today.
What’s up my fellow Michiganders! 😊
@@MsAubrey Howdy!
A construction crane company here in Minnesota have a huge billboard along the freeway that’s all black and just says “Quality Erections” with their phone number below. 😂
I always have thought that Lawrence would be a wonderful narrator for animal documentaries like a new Richard Attenborough...I love his voice and his dry wit...it's so awesome to see you guys and I hope the best for you ...Alex in Orange County California.
Tip on the fire hydrants. Northern hydrants (areas that reach freezing temps) are called "dry hydrants" Their water source stays further down in the ground until needed and has to be pumped. Southern hydrants (areas that don't reach freezing temps) are called "wet hydrants" Their connection to the water source is immediate. That's why is some tv shows and movies wet hydrants will immediately spray up in a gusher when the vehicle hits one. If it don't gush, it's dry.
Water tanks are in our farmland states. You won’t see them in Los Angeles as we have what they call basins, which are basically huge cement lakes that are for water use or Hyperion plants which basically filter the water so we can use it. Mailboxes as he mentioned used to be like that in more rural areas so the mailman can just drive instead of walk to deliver the mail. But it’s different all over the place. Funny thing is I don’t remember seeing many fire hydrants anymore but maybe I’m just used to seeing them and they just Belind into the landscape. Billboards are everywhere and you just get use to them. Lots more in the cities and less as you leave the bigger cities. You’ll be here soon and I hope the rain we’ve had won’t put you off. The surf will probably be pretty high on Monday, Tuesday of this week so make sure you hit the beaches. I see Anaheim is on your tee shirt so I’m sure you’re heading to Disneyland, so have so much fun at Mickey’s house as my family calls it.
Water towers are usually used for small towns and farms water supplies. It's high-up on a tower to help keep water services functional using hydrostatic pressure - even during power outages.
I love Lawrence's dead-pan humor! I've been watching him for a couple of years now - always good for a chuckle. But he's spot on!
Come to America. We would love to show you our country. Thank you for showing the differences between our countries. You would be welcomed with open arms. We live in the southeast part of the United States. We kept two precious girls from Ireland for 6 weeks and fell absolutely in love with them. We cried like a baby when we took them to the airport to fly home. You have a beautiful family. God created us as individuals, in different countries to learn from each other. Putting our flags out means we love our country. I do agree we have to many billboards. Some are needed. Thank you so much for posting your channel. Enjoyed it very much. Sincerely, Linda
Japan has school busses too they are just not yellow.
The reason for the water towers is a throwback to when the railroad went everywhere and needed water to cool the engines and the tank would generally have to be filled from above.
If the town has one that means back in the 1800s it was probably established or updated by one of the original railway companies and the reason for the town name on it was so the whole train could see what stop, they were at.
You can learn a lot of this at the at the Sacramento railway museum in old Sacramento in California they even run some of the old trains and you can ride them; they also have an old paddle boat you can have dinner on as it cruises the Sacramento River.
Sutters Fort where the California Gold Rush started is right there as well and a lot of fun you can even have a sleep over and live like they did back then for a night and if you want to dress up Evangeline's is a three story possibly haunted historical costume mansion, and it still has the first elevator in California located in Old Sac near to the old one room schoolhouse and across from Cany Haven a great place to try old fashioned candy, salt water taffy, and gummies from around the world. I apologies for the Visit Sacramento Commercial but it's fun and educational you don't even realize you're learning something.
I also recommend visiting Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, Miur Woods, and maybe stop off at Disneyland.
Costco has discounted family packages for the park you just have to put in your membership number. My Costco card gives me up to 1000 dollars American cash back if I book through Costco travel and you can get like a 245-dollar gift card for food and merch as a gift. I recommend a hopper pass so you can enjoy both Disneyland and California Adventure on the same day, and if you stay on property, you can enjoy early entry to both parks.
DCA or California Adventure, is a lot less crowded in the morning with most of the rides being walk-ons. And in Disneyland the magic is in the Details there is a lot of hidden magic including secret menus that are often not as expensive as other menu items. There are jewelry stores and shops that give away free stuff for those who pay attention to details and know to ask. Also check with World of Disney to see if there is a scavenger hunt, they are around 10 dollars, and you get a prize when you complete it. There is also a carnival game that is like 5 dollars you catch a floating star, and the color of the sticker is what size prize you get I believe it's in DCA by the pier and everyone wins.
love your videos hope this give you some helpful ideas on what to do on your trip to the US and take advantage of the Costo card it can save you thousands.
I'd love to see more videos from y'all about New Zealand culture. I loved the ones you did about home prices and some of the fast food places you have there.
Too many roads here so each house has a post box in the street for the mail truck to deliver letters. Those that have the round tubes are for the local newspaper. Houses in the denser parts of town have letter boxes mounted next to the front doors…their postal workers have to walk.
9:11 As an American (Puerto Rican) living in the south, I’m laughing extra hard at this one! Yes, they are everywhere and on pretty much every thing. Also, sports flags, organization flags and basically any flag. I guess the majority of us just love flags. 😅😂😂 🇵🇷 🇺🇸
The roadside letter boxes are a relic of what used to be called RFD (rural free delivery) routes. The postman would ride a horse-drawn wagon through the farm districts outside a town and place the mail in the boxes while still sitting in the wagon. This saved time because he didn't drive down long driveways to deliver at the house. In-town deliveries were made at the front door. (To this day, post office delivery vehicles are the most common right-hand-drive vehicles in our left-hand-drive country.)
I believe the town names on the water towers were important back in the early 1900s because at the beginning of genetal aviation, that was a part of early navigation. The pilot could identify the town below by the name on the town's water tower.
We will have many water towers in the rural water districts. There id a largevwater tower in my neighborhood because its right on the Illinois River. Water is drawn from the river, and stored in the reservoir and up in the tower(s). The tower in my neighborhood has the name of the local State university. The tower in the middle of town has the town's name.
What is Genetal aviation? 😂
@@clinthowe7629It was when they used planes for crotch dusting.
The mesh fences are referred to as chain link fences or hurricane fences. It allows for strong winds to pass through as opposed to the taller wooden fencing that can be knocked down fairly easily during storms.
If you visit some of the northernmost states in the US you will find an interesting variation to the fire hydrant. They will often have long poles attached to them so that they can still be found under the snow.
😂 yeah. In the UP of MI, that’s how they are.
Someone else may have already pointed this out, but even in the US, the mailboxes USED to be on the front door, or at least on the wall right beside it. They only moved them out to the curb for the ease of the postman. Mail routes were by FOOT- and the postman would walk door to door dropping off your mail. To get the job done FASTER and more efficiently (and to hire less workers), they moved the mail boxes out to the curb right along the road so they could put the postmen in vehicles that could just drive down the street and put everyone's mail in a box right by the curb. This cut mail delivery time exponentially.
Your family is adorable!
When I lived in England (my mother's homeland) as a kid in the 1960s, I had a Sunday newspaper route (working for a local newspaper/magazine/convenience store called a newsagent, not for a newspaper publisher) in which delievering Sunday papers (mostly the London ones) in the neighborhood I lived in involved getting off my bicycle to push massive mounds of paperthrough letterboxes (which we Yanks call mailboxes) in front doors. Sometimes some ripping of pages ensued because the papers were so thick. U.S.-style street mailboxes would have been appreciated (glad to have one now). Throwing papers onto lawns would also have been easier, but there would have been (as there is here) the risk of he papers blowing away in strong wind.
Another interesting bit about fire plugs: We have these round porcelain white dots that mark our roads in between lanes.
If you pay attention you'll see blue reflectors that appear to be randomly placed.
Actually these blue reflectors mark the presence of a fire plug so firefighters can easily find the fire plugs while driving in the dark.
I just learned something new!
It seems like the porcelain dots are only found in places with mild winters. I don't see how they would stand up to snow plows.
They don't. We call them Botts Dots. Even the quadrangular, reflective cats' eyes, in white or yellow.
Such well behaved intelligent children. Enjoy every minute of your trip. And keep up the great wholesome content
So funny! I am in the water industry, my husband built water towers for 35 years. Now we inspect, repair and consult.
I lived right by that elkhart water tower years ago
Water towers are on every New York building at least the older ones. The reason they exist is a lot of older buildings are not connected to the city water supply and they are older buildings. Usually filled by oddly city water now. It’s the entire building’s water supply for maybe a month. Gravity fed and it works. LA uses the same method of a large water tower on the roof to provide water for the building. But the city water towers are actually there for overflow and storage purposes. They help control the amount of water in a city’s system if it rains a lot cities store the extra water in underground chambers and is pumped up to the tower for storage if needed. If it’s too dry they can divert the stored water to the water purifier system and use that for city water. It’s how Florida has done it forever. Miami unfortunately cannot do this because of how the city sits. It’s literally right on sea level and any digging instantly will uncover water in the ground. The city of Miami then has to call a company to drain the water out, call a separate company to reinforce the ground, then start adding underground timber to shore up everything, then concrete before even starting on the ground floor. It takes several weeks and often projects don’t start because of the construction company cost/ profit margin being so low. That’s why builders have to know laws here.
Where I live in United States there are no water towers
San Francisco uses what I guess is the New Zealand method: Water tanks on top of the city's many hills (but they are metal or concrete, not plastic).
@yugioht42 its more of water pressure issue without the water towers they wouldnt have enough pressure to service ane entire high rise above 5 stories
This is the second time I’ve watched this and I remembered a couple of other things I wanted to comment on.
Fire hydrants-There is one at the curb just a couple of feet from my driveway. Only the firemen who come to fight the fire are the ones who use them.
Water towers-I have two favorites:
Florence, Kentucky has one that says,
“FLORENCE Y’ALL!”
There is one in central Minnesota not far from a cabin owned by relatives. It looks like a red fishing bobber, a tribute to all the fishing done in Minnesota lakes.
I am happy you finally get to come to America. It is unfortunate that you will basically only be in big cities and urban areas. You will miss so much by not seeing the more rural side of America.
Hopefully, their next trip to the States will include some rural side quests.
I was disappointed to see their first stops. I pray it doesn’t turn them off. Our country is in such a struggle now that going to huge cities can be dangerous. Missing the midwest and rural areas is like missing a whole different country
It’s a big, diverse country. You’re going to miss a lot no matter where you go. And obviously you’d miss more overall in a certain time frame if you focused on rural over urban areas than vice versa.
@@JustMe-dc6ks I didn't say to focus on rural and exclude the urban. I just think that you need to see both to truly understand a bit more about this country.
Agreed! I'm from rural NY, and it sucks that so many people think they're "been to NY" when all they've seen is NYC. We actually have the largest state park in the US as well as two mountain ranges!
One of the oldest highway signs you will see on your travels could be on a proper billboard or it could be painted on the side of an old barn. It has big white letters over a black background sometimes with bright red trim. It says, "See Rock City". It refers to an exhibit of unique rock formations located just outside Chattanooga, TN. You might also see the lesser known "See Ruby Falls" which is also near Chattanooga and features an underground waterfall. My advice? Go in the spring right after the snow has melted. Rock City is also a must visit for families. Visit while your kids are still young! :)
Just love lost in the pond ❤ you all should fo a challenge in America. See how many flags you can count in a 10-15 min drive. I'd bet you could easily get to 100 in the right areas. (Texas etc.)😊safe travels and blessed weather
I'm a fan, too
I've been watching Lawrence for a couple of years. Glad you discovered him!
*❤️Only God knows how much grateful i am. After so much struggles I now own a new house and my family is happy once again everything is finally falling into place!!*
Wow that's huge, how do you make that much monthly?
I'm 34 and have been looking for ways to be successful, please how??
Wow...I know her too she is a licensed broker and a FINRA agent she is popular in
US and Canada she is really amazing woman with good skills and experience.
I remember giving her my first savings $20,000 and she opened a brokerage account for me it turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me.
He's hilarious; been watching his videos for months. And this NZ family.
We were brought up to fly our flag as long as the weather permits and that typically means every day. I am from an immigrant family (my parents brought us here in the early 50’s) and we are extremely grateful for what this country represents to us and has done for us. We fly it out of respect for those who are or have served in our military throughout this country’s history and to remind people of the sacrifices they have made for us and many others across the our world. I thank the American solders who looked after my father after WWII when he was a young boy with nowhere to go. He was so impressed with them that he vowed that he would become an American citizen one day - and this is why I am here and enjoying a wonderful retirement with my wife, three children, and five grandchildren. 😊😊😊
So beautifully stated. So many, no make that ALL, Americans need to read this comment. Too many people are forgetting the TRUE meaning of our Grand Ole Flag.
People have already mentioned water towers being used for a few purposes but one I didn't see mentioned is antennas. I used to climb towers for a living for various maintenance purposes but also to run new antennas and cables as well as decommission old ones, mostly for radio. Now they're also used for cellphone antennas, which are called sectors. I once, well my crew and I (not just me), took down two radio antennas and all the cable that ran up to them from the Ashwaubenon water tower, a steel tower a couple blocks from Lambeau Field, home of the Green Bay Packers. That was a fun day! 🙂🙂🙂
Fun, weird fact. I grew up in a small town in southern IL and the local water commission put a water tower up about 50 yards from my parents' place when I was in junior high school. A bunch of high schoolers got the bright idea to camp out in the thing before they put it to use. We got up one morning and about half a dozen teenagers were descending down the ladder toward the ground. This tower is 90 feet high, and the access hatch to get inside it was on the TOP of the thing. There was a ladder to tank, then a walkaround at the top of that ladder, and apparently a ladder to descend down into the tank. Now, knowing MY luck, had I tried that, the water commission would have decided that when I was camped out that it would be a GREAT time to fill the thing up. One of the craziest things I have ever seen anyone do.
my brother had once told me he work for a temp agency and they had to clean the tanks. He was saying that the supervisors would rush them because some of the tanks are on timers to be filled. For safety reasons, they would have to be done for about 2 hours before they start filling.
water towers are used so you always have water under pressure but most have tanks now on hills or buildings , and fire fighter hats and fire hydrants where designed to look similar to each other.
Where I live seeing flags outside is kind of rare. On holidays like Independence Day and Memorial Day you'll see more but not during most of the year.
I live in Washington state and the same could be said about one county, i.e. King county, north/south of King county you’ll more, but any areas west of the Puget Sound or east of the Cascades you’ll see far more. King county (Seattle area) has had numerous homeowners flags burned on their front porches.
We use yellow school busses in Canada 🇨🇦 too
Mailbox Baseball use to be a popular pasttime until some savvy Dad's got fed up and started securing the mailboxes with concrete and teenagers started getting injured. Also when I was in high school in California, a popular prank was pouring laundry detergent on the underground water sprinklers. When the sprinklers would come on it would turn the front yard into a giant sudsy mess.
In some rural areas a bunch of families living off the main road will have one stand of mailboxes for everyone, and the key is to put dummy mailboxes on each end filled with concrete. That'll make the vandals think twice.
I think that is now illegal due to injuries it might cause. The same with brick mailboxes, though i still see them in towns.
It isn't just limited to rural areas. Greater Nashville area has almost 2 million people in it. And for the past 5 years we've been dealing with an epidemic of mailbox baseball. Kids with nothing to do. Drive around whacking other people's mailboxes with baseball bats while driving at high speeds. It is illegal as anything, since your mailbox is considered federal property, but that doesn't stop them.
@@Ozarks4Larry Nope, still legal. There was a court case last year about them. Guy missed a corner, hit a steel reinforced mailbox causing the car to flip, eject him an he ended up paralyzed. He sued the mailbox owner. The court ruled that the mailbox was legal. All the "rules" about not doing that to mailboxes are not binding laws. An the mailbox was perfectly safe for anyone who drives down the road. The driver has no expectation of safety when he leaves the roadway. The mailbox owner who had had several mailboxes destroyed did nothing wrong by reinforcing it an held no liability. It was an interesting case.
Teens would smash mailboxes at night for their entertainment. An elderly gentlemen was a repeat target. It was difficult for him to replace the box. The teens didn't care. One night, someone got the truck identity doing the smashing. A little detective work discovered where they lived. A few weeks later (at night) 20 guys paint balled their house and vehicles, and mailed a letter to the parents asking them not to allow their kid to smash mailboxes. 🙂
The mail boxes at the curb allows the mail carrier to drive by in special vehicles to deposit mail. These boxes are mostly in suburbs because the houses are so far apart. The boxes are usually next to the driveway, allowing the homeowner, upon coming home, to pull up to the box and get the mail without having to get out of the car…at least that’s why mine is where it is!
What would your neighbors think if you installed a flag pole and flew the NZ flag out front of your house?
They would think Middle Earth is in America
People fly all sorts of flag from the poles on their homes. Flags of other nations/territories (more often Mexico and Puerto Rico), different identities (various LGBTQ+ flags, BLM, Confederate) and flags of universities (usually the local one or one that is a national sporting champion) .
I fly the American flag, Utah flag and Air Force flag in my front yard. My neighbors don't seem to mind. Plus I don't care what they think anyway.
@@brewdogg77 I get that here in the states. In NZ they don't fly it much. My question was more towards there patriotism towards NZ like we have in the US. There neighbors may find it offensive. Idk as I don't live in NZ I live in Pennsylvania.
@@jesseweaver_fuyt I don't see why their neighbors would mind being proud of where you live. But then, I'm not an NZer either.
Billboards are not allowed in some states. In my state of of Maine they are illegal. We consider them a deterrent to our lovely scenery
Water towers are very common, my town has two, water is pumped up so that at peak times of the day, there is adequate water pressure. Will be very interested to see what you see and what you think of us. Hope you have a very safe and fun trip.
"Lost in the Pond" is a great RUclips channel.
Have you guys seen the video from some Australian Karen talking about her being "triggered" over the amount of American Flags flying in the USA and how we need to calm down.. She does have a home to go back to right? Figured I'd share.. enjoyed this channel for a long time.. right after the name change I think.. A bright ray of sunshine in this grey woke world! A family that loves each other and has real values. God Bless Y'all
James while I understand why Americans fly the flag so much I don't think it's a healthy thing it's too much nationalism!
The Aussie Karen reminds me of Sunny Hostin, a hateful, nasty piece of work.
Mate there are Karens all over the world and they are going to say dumb things just watch a few Utube videos on stupid things US citizens have said when they have been abroad or when interacting with foreign visitors. As an Aussie I dont really care how many flags you display particuarly when its in your own country if anything I am happy to see there is a sense of pride and unity compared to only the deep political divisions being reported by Fox News and CNN. Blowing this up into a major event or suggesting that it is some sort of a Woke conspiracy just gives it oxygen and results in more airtime. Look on the bright side her tourist visa will run out, she will go home to Australia and we will get to put up with the air head.
The tube on a mailbox is for the newspaper if you have one delivered but it is rare it will actually be put in there. Most newspaper delivery drivers just throw it near the porch or in the yard.
I hope and pray that this family and there trip to America isn't being affected by Hurricane Hilary about to hit the SoCal area. Hopefully they got out or left early before it hits that area. Can you just image, there first time visiting America and one of the first places there going to visit gets hit by a Hurricane the first time in 84 years, crazy!
I have been thinking about that too. I hope you guys are safe wherever you are.
I hope they don't become the victim of crime in California. That state in almost no way represents the remainder of the country.
New Zealand gets swiped or sideswiped by Tropical Storms , they're not called Hurricanes in the Pacific Ocean, pretty regularly.
Fences make good neighbors! :) (PS On a previous post - Do servers pay taxes on tips - Yes, if they claim them as income. Paying via credit card does force them to claim it and taxes are paid on the wages. The servers make $2 and change per hour... Some servers claim the cash to keep their vacation pay (yes a week sad but still) - it keeps their vacation checks higher. Best of luck to you all and safe travels!
Our Patriotism is why you hear us say "God Bless America."
No that's religious fanaticism
Water Towers they work as both a water storage space for the town to ensure they don't run out of water when water flow is lower, and they also work to produce water pressure in your pipes. think of it this way. lots of water is heavy there is tons of it above a narrower pipe below the main tank and that line feeds all the homes. this produces water pressure, and then it can also be reduced in pressure at your individual homes or controlled at the main line before entering the home. this ensures a more equal pressure throughout the town.
I promise you guys will get to see yellow school buses, American flags, and fire hydrants. Depending on what time of day you're driving you may even get slowed down by a yellow school bus.
You'll also discover that everyone refers to everyone else as "a guy", "guys", you guys". Men, women, children, couples, entire families, grandma, etc. This 30 - 50 year trend being just another sign of a degrading culture. And don't be too offended if you inerrantly "piss off" someone. Ugh.