In honor of 4th of July. "It's uniquely American"

[eliza61]

On the way to work this morning, I was listening to my usual financial times radio station and they were talking bout charitable giving.

Americans are they most charitable nation on the planet in terms of money and the in 3rd place in terms of time volunteering. Not bad, which got me to thinking of other things that are uniquely "American".

What can you name?

rules: it can be a person, place or thing. It can be silly, funny, sad, quirky, ridiculous. patriotic or any thing.

NO bashing of other countries. no matter where you're from everyone loves their country.


1) In philly we have this NY's tradition called the Mummers day parade. No where else do grown men dressed up in feathers to dance up and down the street.

 

[dbramer]

Thanksgiving is "uniquely American." To the rest of the world, it is just another Thursday.

 

[Sabeking]

Not sure if these are uniquely American"..the Canadians might correct me but here it goes:

Watermelon seed spitting contests
Pumpkin chucking
Ringing doorbells and running/ rolling someone's house

 

[Robinrs]

Not sure if these are uniquely American"..the Canadians might correct me but here it goes:

Watermelon seed spitting contests
Pumpkin chucking
Ringing doorbells and running/ rolling someone's house

Those sound more 'regional' than uniquely American. I'm American and never heard of Eliza's parade or any of these.

 

[BDL]

John Wayne and Elvis

 

[lizabu]

From someone who doesn't live in the USA but grew up in a border city I will say some things that are uniquely American are:

Entertainment....when it comes to TV shows and movies...no one in the world does it better

Variety of products...there is a reason us Canadians cross the border to shop

Patriotism....don't get me wrong. I love Canada and I'm patriotic in a Canadian way. But when an American begins to chant USA, USA you just know the crowd will join in

I'm sure there are others but those are the big ones that jump to mind.

 

[minnie56]

From someone who doesn't live in the USA but grew up in a border city I will say some things that are uniquely American are:

Entertainment....when it comes to TV shows and movies...no one in the world does it better

Variety of products...there is a reason us Canadians cross the border to shop

Patriotism....don't get me wrong. I love Canada and I'm patriotic in a Canadian way. But when an American begins to chant USA, USA you just know the crowd will join in

I'm sure there are others but those are the big ones that jump to mind.

I wasn't going to stick my nose in but I take exception to one point here....
In actual fact when it comes to television/ movies I believe the Brits do the best productions and in fact, the USA copies many many many Brit TV shows and won't deny that.

That's all

 

[luvsJack]

Those sound more 'regional' than uniquely American. I'm American and never heard of Eliza's parade or any of these.

You live in Georgia and have never heard of a watermelon spitting contest???

 

[CaliBear]

American creativity- music, movies, tv, even tv commercials are the best imo

 

[FlightlessDuck]

Using the Imperial system of measurements.

I was in elementary school in the mid 80's, and were taught the metric system because we were switching soon. Yeah...

Although I think technically Commonwealth nations still use some of those measurements.

 

[dbramer]

Another thing that is uniquely American is our politics. N one else in the world practices democracy quite the way we do and it is incomprehensible to others around the world, but hey...it works for us....kinda, sorta....ummmm....maybe?

 

[EMode]

Football

 

[LBIJim]

Using the Imperial system of measurements.

I was in elementary school in the mid 80's, and were taught the metric system because we were switching soon. Yeah...

Although I think technically Commonwealth nations still use some of those measurements.

In the 80s? America was supposed to be fully metric by 1980 at the latest!

Eliza, I'm not so sure about the men in feathers during the Mummers parade being uniquely American. Don't places like Brazil have men dancing in feathered costumes during Carnival?

 

[Jeff in BigD]

Oh yeah, the Imperial measurements. When I was in school, it was imperative that we learned the metric system, because we would be switching any day now...

Sadly, the only metrics I still remember are liquid volumes thanks to booze.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

Football

While "American Football" is, indeed, an "American sport", there are leagues outside the USA.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...ian_football#Leagues_outside_of_North_America

 

[JanaDee]

Thanksgiving is "uniquely American." To the rest of the world, it is just another Thursday.

Canada has Thanksgiving, though on a different date.

 

[Wendy31]

Blue Jeans!!

I know people in other countries wear blue jeans now, but jeans started in America.

Like baseball & apple pie, I think of jeans as "American."

 

[JennaDeeDooDah]

I'm going to try to articulate one of my favorite things about America and I hope that it is clear and not some weird, rambling, jumbled mess.

I love that we love to celebrate the culture of our ancestors here and it no one feels that it somehow takes away from how American we all are. For example, towns that were primarily founded by Germans might have a giant festival in October to celebrate Oktoberfest with traditional music, dancing, and food, but when the Olympics roll around, these people are still chanting "USA! USA! USA!" Families of Scottish descent might have a kilt made of their family tartan, but they still set off fireworks on the fourth of July. From where I am in Texas, I knew many first generation Americans whose family was from Mexico. They held tightly to their culture which always made ti so much fun to visit their houses, but they were never more proud when they told people that they were Americans. I absolutely love it! Because our country is so young, so many of us come from other cultures in Europe, Asian, Africa, etc. and we are able to celebrate those while still being so proud to be Americans.

 

[CaliBear]

I'm going to try to articulate one of my favorite things about America and I hope that it is clear and not some weird, rambling, jumbled mess.

I love that we love to celebrate the culture of our ancestors here and it no one feels that it somehow takes away from how American we all are. For example, towns that were primarily founded by Germans might have a giant festival in October to celebrate Oktoberfest with traditional music, dancing, and food, but when the Olympics roll around, these people are still chanting "USA! USA! USA!" Families of Scottish descent might have a kilt made of their family tartan, but they still set off fireworks on the fourth of July. From where I am in Texas, I knew many first generation Americans whose family was from Mexico. They held tightly to their culture which always made ti so much fun to visit their houses, but they were never more proud when they told people that they were Americans. I absolutely love it! Because our country is so young, so many of us come from other cultures in Europe, Asian, Africa, etc. and we are able to celebrate those while still being so proud to be Americans.

This is so true. Very nice post!

 

[Robinrs]

You live in Georgia and have never heard of a watermelon spitting contest???

Uh, no...

I live in a very urban part of the South. I'm sure my Dad would've known what that was or maybe I would've if I grew up here but I'm strictly a Yankee who MOVED here.

I remember Neil Boortz got mad at me because I didn't know what cow tipping was I told him "why bother a cow? He doesn't have a wallet" (stuck to the stereotype)