I'll accept mesh fence as a term for a group of a variety of mesh like fences, to include chicken wire, and the rectangular wire fences, as well as chain link, etc. Lol. Cyclone fence, isn't that the fencing with little wooden staves linked by wire they use to prevent erosion of sand dunes? Or it may be called hurricane fencing. Though hurricane and cyclone, well, ya know.
Long ago, in the country if you didn't have a stamp you could leave coins and the mailman put a stamp on the letter. There used to be a town in Texas called Dime Box. It didn't have a post office and farmers in the area took their mail and coins to leave in a certain box. Whoever was going to a larger town took everything to the post office for the neighborhood.
@@baskervillebee6097My friend did rural routes in the early 00's and carried stamps for cash left in the boxes. I think there was some understanding she did not have the ability to make change for them.
In small towns and rural areas you must have a mailbox on a post. There are strict rules on how tall, how far from the curb, etc. It’s because mail trucks won’t drive up the driveway and the mailman doesn’t walk anymore.
We often go around putting big googly eyes on them. School children paint them to make them less ugly. It’s hilarious that he thinks they are beautiful 😂
As is delivering items. I've told quite a few amazon drivers that. "I don't want you to get into trouble so please don't put things in the mailbox because it violates federal law" @@CG68810
@@KyleWittencorrect. I used to work for USPS and they have their own police force. Most of the employees try to monitor other employees for mail fraud or whatnot, but your local Postmaster can come in clutch for stalking related issues or keeping your HOA in line. (Can't put unstamped mail in a mailbox, federal crime, yo.)
What Lawrence doesn't mention about American curbside mailboxes is that they serve a _dual_ purpose, handling not only _incoming_ mail but also _outgoing_ mail. When you want to send a letter, you put it in your mailbox and raise a little flag (almost always red) that is attached to a pivot-point on the outside of the box: when the Letter Carrier comes by and takes the letter (and perhaps leaves you some incoming mail), he or she lowers the flag: this is how you can tell, without going to the box, whether the Letter Carrier has come yet (flag up, no; flag down, yes). Curbside mailboxes originated with Rural Free Delivery, a service offered by the United States Post Office when many people lived so far out from the center of town (the location of the post-office) that it would be inconvenient for them to go to town every day to ask for their mail at the post-office (as people who lived in town did). A Letter Carrier in a vehicle (first horse-drawn, later motor-driven) carried mail to all the addresses on a rural route, a service for which the people living on that route were not charged; the Letter Carrier also collected outgoing mail from these addresses. To make the job of rural delivery more efficient, boxes were put on posts beside the road, so that the Letter Carrier could stay in the vehicle while depositing and collecting mail, not having to leave the vehicle and go to each house. Because some of the houses on such routes were set far back from the road, the flag was instituted as the way for the homeowner to tell from a distance whether the Letter Carrier had come, without having to walk all the way to the box. The flag also lets the carrier know whether mail already in the box is _delivered_ mail that the homeowner still has not removed from a previous delivery (if the flag is down) _or_ outgoing mail waiting to be collected by the carrier (if the flag is up). In the older residential parts of older cities, where houses are close to the road, curbside mailboxes are rare. Instead, people use slots in their front doors and, more often, a different design of mailbox, affixed to the front wall of the house, near the front door. In this case, where houses are close together and close to the street, it's more efficient for the Letter Carrier to go on foot, depositing incoming mail and collecting outgoing mail, and returning only occasionally to a vehicle to get the next bagful of mail to carry on foot to the next group of houses.
Thanks for mentioning the wall mounted mail box -- like we had! They're commonplace in older suburbs. The suburb I grew up in was built in the 1920s to 1930s.
@@ellinganderson5434 , when I delivered mail for the U.S. Postal Service, many years ago, I and many other carriers at the station (post-office) that I worked at were classed, for political reasons, as Rural Carrier Associates (RCAs), even though we delivered in the suburbs. This meant a few differences from how things were for City Carriers. One difference was that we didn't have to wear uniforms. Another was that, often (but not always), we delivered mail from our own cars (not Postal Service trucks and minivans), for which we received a Vehicle Maintenance Allowance, which was based on the miles that we drove. There were four ways of handling the tricky question of using your own vehicle to deliver mail to the curbside boxes like the one shown in this video: 1. Try to buy a vehicle with right-hand drive. This was very rare. The only such vehicles I've driven in the U.S. are Postal Service vehicles. 2. In a vehicle with left-hand drive, sit in the _right_ front seat (to be by the right front window) and _reach across the car_ with your left hand and left foot to work the steering-wheel and pedals. I _never_ did this on any of my routes (I thought it too dangerous); but it was part of our training in an empty, private parking-lot. I don't know whether driving like this on public roads is legal; I wouldn't be surprised to find out that it's illegal. 3. Sit in the driver's seat, on the _left_ side of the car, and drive down the right side of the road (as the law requires); at each stop, _lean far to the right, across the other seat,_ to reach out the window to the mailbox. I did this on parts of some routes. 4. Sit in the driver's seat, on the _left_ side of the car, and drive down the _left_ side of the road; at each stop, use the driver's window to reach the mailbox easily. This not only means driving against the flow of traffic on any road that isn't just a one-way street: it also means that, when you 'pull down' your mail after 'casing' it before you go out to deliver, you do it in an unusual order, because you'll be getting to the mailboxes in an order different from the one that the slots in the case are labeled for. I did sometimes do this, on just two little residential streets on one of my routes, because there were curbside mailboxes on those streets and there was very little traffic there; but I only did this when the _main_ carrier for that route, also an RCA, pulled down the mail for me and did it in that special order (when I pulled down my mail myself, I did it in the normal order, drove down the right side of the road, and reached across the front passenger's seat). Only just this moment, all these years later, has it occurred to me that the way my managers decided whether I would go in my own car or take one of the trucks with right-hand drive probably depended primarily on the kinds of mailboxes on the route that I was assigned that day. When the route had many curbside mailboxes (the kind shown in this video), I went in a Postal Service truck (an LLV or a CRV; I don't remember which), so I could sit on the right and reach easily out the window to those mailboxes. When the route was mostly NDCBUs ('cluster-boxes'), I went in my own car: at each NDCBU, I would get out of the driver's door, go around to the passenger's side, reach through the open window to get the bundle of mail for that NDCBU, and start putting it in the individual addresses' boxes.
@@smadaf 1. My mom ordered a right side drive Jeep when she was a sub shortly after she started working at the post office, and eventually ended up as the primary on a route with an LLV. I learned to drive in it as a teenager. She still has it and it has shockingly low milage. They would not let me take my driver's test in it 20 years ago. She had a CDL so was often on one of the bigger trucks early on if not on a delivery route and used her own vehicle rarely. The city I live in now has vans assigned to the routes with clusterboxes. Then it was LLVs in the city and you might have sections entirely on foot. The further out you got the more likely you had to use your own vehicle, but that was more of an exception. Most routes had an LLV assigned to them, but I have no doubt that is going to vary heavily by area and management.
@@smadafMy husband is a rural mail carrier. He drives a little over 100 miles per day, in our own vehicles. None are right hand drive, so I've been screened to go along to help. Putting the mail in from the passenger seat is easier than stretching across the car. We are contracted with USPS rather than being employees of them, so we're responsible for the fuel and maintenance of our vehicles. On the plus side, we wear what we want and can literally do our route however we choose so long as we make the truck with the outgoing and everything gets delivered. It's a great job though. We go way out of town so we see a lot of wildlife.
I have one neighbor with a white picket fence. I talked to him when he was putting it in and he said it was so his children could play out front without poop from our very rude neighbor's dogs. He had to get a permit, but it seems very effective as all the dogs now poop in my yard.
The last few places I've lived have had community mailboxes. It makes it easier on the mailman. Plus people post community flyers on the box- like for babysitting, lawn care or swim lessons.
It is normal to see an American flag flying outdoors at every American post-office and most police-stations and fire-stations. If you see a very big American flag, visible from very far away, it's probably at a car-dealership.
It has been a Treasury Department directive since 1885 that the American flag be flown at every U.S. post office; since 2019 they've also flown the M.I.A. flag as well. The American flag is also required to be on display at every polling location.
Here in Minnesota down in the cities you'll have dueling giant flags from dealerships super close to eachother lmao probably the same in other places but I think its funny. Us Americans love competition
I'm surprised Lawrence didn't hot the car/RV dealership connection when he started on the "see from 5 miles away" bit. I'd be interested to see someone research why and how that started, but it is definitely a "thing."
Never park in front of a fire hydrant! Firemen will not hesitate to breakout the windows of a car to gain straight access to the hydrant with their hose. Fun fact about school buses, the center black line indicates the seat lvl on the bus. This helps in accident investigations and I’m sure there’s more about it. School buses are pretty tough! There’s no seatbelts on these buses which has been debated for decades, but kids generally walk away from an accident. But it is a consistent debate when a bad accident does happen. I’d prefer a letter box because mail theft is definitely easy and a thing that happens, especially during tax season. There’s some people that are just old school and do taxes by mail.
The problem with seatbelts on school buses is that they generally have only 1 adult - the driver - on board the bus. In case of a serious accident, especially a fire, that adult would struggle getting all the kids unbuckled and out safely. And that's assuming that they aren't incapacitated. Scared and panicked kids don't pair well with seat belts. (Even airlines have to spend a minute teaching ADULTS how to use a seatbelt). What I haven't figured out is why don't they put more padding (fireproof, of course) in the buses.
Really fucked up to park in front of a fire hydrant, not to mention stupid. As if your car windows are worth the precious seconds or minutes it would take to run a fire hose around it.
Back in the 90s two my sisters visited a few European countries. They spotted a highly memorable billboard in England which said the following. "Beneath this sign John Brown is stowed. He watched the signs and not the road."
I lived in England late 70s early 80s (I'm a Texan). While there, the term "I need to spend a penny' was a euphemism for saying "I need to go to the bathroom"....because it was common that public toilets required a penny to get into a stall! Which reminds me of the very childish graffiti that was common to see there: "Here I sit, broken hearted, spent a penny and only f@rted". Sorry not sorry :)
Some older neighborhoods have mail slots in their door. Suburban houses usually have mail boxes in their front yards. Chain link fences usually go in the backyard and are good if you have a dog. Chain link fences can be put in frontyards, but they are considered tacky there. When a schoolbus driver puts out stop sign on side of bus to let children on and off the bus, drivers behind the bus cannot pass and must stop. Drivers in other lane must also stop when they see extension of stop sign on bus.
My hubbys parents that live across the street from us have a mail slot next to the door, where the mail falls into a box on the inside wall. Wish that was common on newer houses again, along with ones for packages 😅
White picket fences are common in regular middle class neighborhoods too. Not just the rich ones. The fence you showed was a manufacturered fence. All you have to do is put in the posts and bolt in the pre-fabbed fence units between them. They sell them as a kit at any big box home improvement/hardware store. That entire fence probably only took a single afternoon to install if done by a professional. And probably a single weekend as a DIY project.
The handiest part of roadside billboards is knowing what fast food/gas stations/toilets are coming up on which exit. It's important when in the US to get off the interstates now and then. So advertising a cool museum, or historical center ahead is nice when driving along. I find the aesthetic of white picket fences interesting. They were much more popular in older days, but even my city/neighborhood, founded in 1928, does NOT allow fencing at all in the front yard. The back yard and side yards, yes. But not front. So no white picket fences for us.
White picket fences are not only for the rich. When I was a little girl in the 1960s we lived in a small house in North Carolina with a picket fence. My parents were working class, my father a truck driver and my mother a housewife. Thinking about my neighborhood now in Oregon there area few quite modest homes with picket fences but you don't see them as much as in the past.
When you do see them, I have noticed they are almost always on the front yard. Chained link fences were on the back yard as strong fences that can be tall enough to keep your pet IN the yard.
My husband and I have a white picket fence in our front yard. We live fairly rural and are a modest young couple but it was something I always wanted and my husband and dad made it happen ❤
@@thesimplesaguaro same with my family! I grew up in a rural area, modest income, but my mom always wanted a white picket fence so my dad went to work on it and made it happen for her
"Chain-link fence" is the normal American name for what Lawrence calls "mesh fence". When there's a need to be more precise than just "mailbox", the normal American name for what he calls "front yard mailbox" is "curbside mailbox".
@@garycamara9955 , you wrote "It[']s just a mailbox" _and_ "Nope, never heard those terms. It['s] just the mailbox." A curbside mailbox is not called just "mailbox" when one needs to differentiate it from one on the side of a building, one that takes only outgoing mail (the big blue ones, owned and maintained by the Postal Service), one in an office, a CBU, an NDCBU, and many other kinds of mailbox that are not curbside. The fact that you haven't heard a term doesn't mean that it doesn't exist and that people don't use it. Your statement that you haven't heard "front yard mailbox" is especially strange because that's the term used in the video you're commenting on.
Just to point out, the image that he put up there isn't a mesh fence, it is a chain link fence. A mesh fence is different and is generally used specifically for gardens and are low to the ground and are actual mesh, not metal.
Unlike a lot of other youtubers reacting to American stuff (cough* the brits).. I genuinely believe that you WANT to visit here, and that you WILL visit here someday. I've been watching you awhile now, and I really appreciate how genuine you are.
Water towers store excess rainwater or utility water. They get released once in a while, the water goes to the treatment plant and it enters the water supply which everyone uses. They are painted once a year because it’s a good way to mark the town without looking at a map.
I thought the point of water towers was to raise the water above everything else around it to easily pressurize the water for every building in the surrounding area.
My understanding is that the towers are usually used to smooth out the demand curve for potable fresh water. Water is pumped into them more or less steadily, and fed out by gravity as it is used, That means you don't get huge pressure drops when everyone takes a shower or flushes the toilet at once, This was apparently a significant problem when there were only three TV stations and everyone waited for the commercial breaks to go to the toilet.
Ah, the school bus. You had the same bus (literally) everyday, and your driver knew each kid and their stops. My school bus driver installed a stereo system in her bus, played Led Zeppelin on a 8-track. I didn’t understand the meaning behind the lyrics to “Black Dog” (I was 12), but it was a great time as we all sang along.
That's hysterical. Our buses all had speakers connected to the radio, one driver would always put on smooth jazz in the morning and we'd practically fall asleep.
With the advent of GPS and computers all billboards should be outlawed. You can look up where you want/need to go on the computer and just put it in your GPS. A billboard has never swayed me to stop ANYWHERE.
When Route 66 was big, there used to be sections where consecutive bilboards would display a whole short story or a chapter of a book, which a family could read aloud while driving through the area.
The mailboxes are out in the front yard because they mailman pulls up in his truck and deposits the mail. This is not done so much mow as in the earlier days. Not all mailman are on foot. He can do huge neighborhoods quickly. Postal trucks are the only cars you will see where the driver is on the right side like the UK for this reason .
The water tower is a practical way to have constant pressure in the water mains without having to constantly run pumps all the time. The pump is used only to get water up into the tower in the first place. Then after its up there its just gravity passivley providing the pressure driving the water out to the houses in town. The pump can be run intermittently when the level drops down enough to need topping up. This also means the town has time to get the power back on again when it goes out, without a water suppply crisis if the power can come back on in a reasonable time. Since theyre often the tallest thing in a small town, they double as a signpost with the town's name on it.
A water tower is a battery for water. You pump water in to them, then can turn the pump off. The tower can feed more water per minute than a pump can. That hydrant will flow around 1500 gallons per minute. A full tower can feed it for a while before the water company needs to start turning on pumps. Also, that hydrant is whats called a dry barrel hydrant. The valve is actually underground an is dry inside when not in use. Its used where freezing weather is common. The shape is to support the valve opening system. The boring pipe looking hydrants are wet barrel hydrants used in warmer climates because they are much cheaper. There is also a dry hydrants. It is just a pipe running to a pond an needing a pump to pull from. The color of hydrants usually mark water flow rate. black
Water towers are used to maintain water pressure in the pipes; imagine 50,00 houses all flushing their toilet at the same time. There would be a serious drop in pressure, these towers ensure that doesn't happen.
to add to this, they don't generally need people on the tower for regular operation. There is usually a pump at ground level and some method of sensing water level in the tank remotely (which can vary heavily). The pump will pump water up into the tank when necessary, although they usually are designed so that most of the time there is enough water for a day in the tank and they can get away with pumping once a day in the middle of the night when power is cheaper and there is less strain on the grid, at least when that is possible. Generally there are only people on the tower for cleaning, repairs, or repainting.
This guy is actually better than some of the other videos of people visiting America. Things are different across the country so homes and weather, etc vary widely.
The kind of mailbox you have depends on where you live. Usually homes in rural areas have free-standing mailboxes, homes in the suburbs are starting to switch from having free-standing mailboxes to having the cluster mailboxes where there are several small mailboxes in one large steel box, and in the cities it is usually wall-mounted mailboxes on the houses or letterboxes in the doors. The free-standing mailboxes allow the postal worker to deliver the mail right from the mail truck instead of going door-to-door like they do in the city.
Down here in south Florida, school buses are converted for carrying farm workers and occasionally produce, so they come in every color you can imagine.
the retired/sold ones have to be painted a different color as part of the sale . The only ones allowed to use the "National School Bus Glossy Yellow" (yes that is the official color name) are those carrying students because people notice this color more quickly in their peripheral vision reducing accidents. ...dont mind me i know a bunch of random trivia...lol
Not all fire hydrants are red. In my area they are painted different colors so that when the firefighters arrive, they know what pressure that hydrant is.
In some neighborhoods, there are letterboxes on houses. I have also seen streets where all the mailboxes are at one end instead of in front of each yard/garden. There are also neighborhoods that have a large box or boxes with dozens of compartments, so everyone must go to one place to get their mail. These are ugly. Each household gets keys to unlock their compartment. If you get a key in yours, you can unlock a larger compartment for a package. My mom gets mail this way. She doesn't like having to go to a busy gas station to get her mail. Multi-household buildings also have these types of mail boxes, usually indoors like in the building that I live in. If I get a package that is too large for my box, usually the mail person will leave it in front of my door, but sometimes people have to go to the post office to get packages. There are also large blue boxes to put the mail you want to send.
Those water towers are usually rural water district towers and are gravity fed. I think why its customary to have the town name on them is because, back in the day, when stage coaches or old steam trains entered a small town, it was a high point that could have the towns name on it. It was easy to see. Then, it was super helpful to help small airplanes navigate and know which town they were passing over. Usually traveling by points on a map. My town has a huge water tower in my neighborhood (it's not an eyesore because we have huge trees). We are at a high point on a bluff above the river.
@cp368productions2 actually, the area I live in has RURAL water districts!!! We have at least 16 of them in our county!!! "...... County Rural Water District #16"
Can't speak for other states but Kansas definitely has rural water districts.You can Google 'rural water districts Kansas' to verify. The farm I grew up on had its own well but eventually, rural water pipes were run and we had a choice to hook up or not. Oh, and later I bought 30 acres in the middle of nowhere west Texas. The house was hooked to the rural water system and the rest of the acreage was supplied by our own private well so.....@@cp368productions2
It is also customary (at least in Western Canada) to always find a large pot leaf painted on te side. Some times Piece signs, the middle finger (baddly done pot paint), Kilroy was here, and even "Class of (some year)"
I have recently come across your page . Its nice to see your page . Im am american born but my dad moved here when he was 7 years old from Portugal. I have family in porto and lisboa . If you ever make it this way id love to show you some cool places in new york like the Adirondacks park and some waterways .
Tye meaning is dead on, but there is a LOT of white picket fences still. I guess it depends on the region, and the farther from a city center the more common they become generally, but I think in places where greenery and bushes along the front of a home site are easy to grow the picket fences are also more common.
It's amusing how things you see in American movies are very real and typical in the US. We don't even notice them because we see them every day. We rode on yellow school buses (they are very real), which was exciting in kindergarten but so embarrassing when we were in high school. We got a ride to school to avoid having to ride the horrible yellow school bus when we were teenagers. 🤣 White picket fences aren't for the rich. We have one, and we are far from rich! Mailboxes differ depending on where you live. I don't understand the interest in fire hydrants. Maybe because they are something just normal here. I never described them as 'gorgeous'. It's an American fire hydrant. But speaking of gorgeous, we move on to our amazing flag. The best flag and most cherished. As you know, we are proud of and love our flag. It is outside our house all year.🇺🇸 You should visit on the Fourth of July! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 Great reaction!
@@kittycatmeowmeow963 The age for a drivers license in the US is 16 (you can get it even earlier if it's for farm equipment IIRC), so by high school about half the students are eligible to drive a car (and due to car culture most already do. Drivers education is also part of the currilculum/free in the public school). This means the ones still riding a bus don't have access to an older sibling, are not old enough themeselves, and/or some other reason (parents can't spare a "beater" car for them). That's why it's "embarassing" to rid the schoolbus to school by the time they reach high school age. YMMV. Obviously in denser cities (like where I live currently) students mostly either live within walking distance of school or use municipal transport (so need need for the yellow bus). There's also no room for student parking. I imagine there is no stigma attached to taking the bus to school in those situations. ;)
Fire hydrants are actually quite hard to hit with cars. They don’t actually come off that easily. They are actually bolted down into a water main with some strong bolts. The water pressure is also very high so you could take an arm off if it’s in the way. In the summer in New York City firefighters will loosen the sides and turn the top for the neighborhood to cool off. Kids love to play in the water. It’s because New York gets stifling hot during the summer. It’s not dangerous because the sides are still on burning out most of the pressure and creating a water pad effect.
Jeff Foxworthy once quipped that if you ever had to climb a water tower to defend your sisters' reputation you're a redneck . I'm a redneck from a little place in South Carolina , but I never had to climb the water tower above my town .
Lol! Billboards aren't boring, they give you hope! And info about hotels, food, gas stations and the like when you're driving for hours on an interstate highway.
Chain linked fences are the best for pets and they can last a very very long time, decades. They are also used to keep younger children from wondering. Fencing also often outlines property lines so no one infringes on your property. 😊
The most fun on the yellow school bus-at least when you're a kid is sitting behind the back tires, because you bounce all over the place. At least when it a country bus. City buses likely don't have that issue. There are homes that have the letter slots, some have mail boxes in the front of the yard others have a locked mail box in the small neighborhood in which you live. Meaning the postal worker only has to stop at this one box to deliver mail to several families at the same time.
We used the fire hydrants for water usage in doing underground boring to bury fiber optic cables, etc. You get a permit and pay a fee per gallons. You unscrew a side cap, hook up your fitted hose, then use a water wrench to slowly loosen the top nut.
So, water towers are very interesting, and the way they work is that water is pumped up into the tank before running down into the pipes that distribute it out to the surrounding area. It may seem a little bit silly, but it's actually a clever way of reducing the number of pumps needed to serve an area. Having the water going out to the buildings essentially... powered by the force of gravity from the water tower's tank is actually a very efficient method. Much more efficient than periodically having pumps along the line to keep the water pressure up. As for the mailboxes, a lot of newer developments will have community mailboxes, where the postal workers can open up the back, sort the mail into the different boxes, and then close it and lock it from behind, while from the front, people can go to their little slot and open the door for just that section with their mail key..
17:04 pure joy at seeing the hydrant! On Peddocks Island in Boston Harbor (Massachusetts, USA) there is an old, abandoned fort where Italian POWs were kept during WWII. You can walk around and still see some of the old buildings and infrastructure. There are some cool, old fire hydrants with the same look that are now all covered with ivy or in the trees. Eerie and beautiful. The old firehouse with the hose tower is also still standing.
Another thing: Little Libraries. Boxes, usually on a pole that is about a meter or less tall, that often look like little houses, wirh roofs and glass doors. Take books you have finished reading and place into the box for someone else to take and read. They are also creating these for small toys for children, seeds for gardeners, canned and boxed food for hungry people.
I'm seeing a lot of concrete water towers going up. One went up right next to me last year. Very interesting to watch it being built one tier at a time using moveable forms. Very efficient. Plus no rust or need to paint frequently. The chain link fence is the standard here in Texas. Wood has to be replaced fairly often and painted regularly. Chain link lasts nearly forever. The fences around my childhood home installed in the 1940 are still in place and in good condition. They are actually more useful than you would think as security fence. A wooden fence you can hide behind while you break in. A chain link fence provides no cover and is often much taller than a wooden fence. Some houses here have letter boxes in the door. Many have a box mounted on the front porch wall near the end of the walk. Others have the box near the street. Rural locations, of course, have the classic curved top post office approved rural box on a post. They use those in many cities, too, for the convenience of the carrier who can load the mail from the seat of the car or truck. Official post office delivery vehicles are special ordered with right hand drive. In an increasing number of cities, some neighborhood have to use "cluster boxes", large boxes with a great many locking compartments, and you have to visit it to get your mail. The works of the fire hydrant is deep underground. It is essentially a tube that leads down to a large valve where it connects to the water main. The nut at the top has a shaft to turn that valve. One of our tasks as firefighters was to go around from time to time and flush hydrants, flushing out rusty and dirty water at that point and making sure the the valve still opened smoothy and sometimes repainting the hydrant. Frequently, you house insurance rate partly depends on how far you are from a hydrant. We had a dummy hydrant used for training. Just the above ground part on a stand. People would as what that was, and we would tell them that was our "country plug" for when we were where there were no hydrants and we could throw it out and hook up to it. A pathetic number of people were satisfied with that explanation.
The thing w the billboards is that our roads tend to be long and mostly straight where billboards are present. Its a freeway/interstate w not a lot to look at. A lot of American interstates are next to open fields so its easy to just glance at the signs. Like signs telling you what exit to take or what town is coming up.
a teacher in an advertising /marketing class i attended at art school told us that a driver should spend no more than 3-5 seconds to read and understand a well designed billboard before it becomes a road hazard. Always thought that was interesting. That ties into why commercials are so short...ppl lose interest and quickly move onto other things since they have the attention span of a flea ..lol...
I live in the southmost tip of Texas, and near us we have water towers in the shape of a space ship, and another like a golf ball. And I saw one in my travels that was a teapot! And a local water tower proudly announces it is the hometown of music legend Freddy Fender. Lots of variety in shapes and sizes, and heights. And our fire hydrants can be painted all sorts of colors! Some places have painted them as cartoon characters, or occupations (police officer, doctor, judge, fireman, waitress, baker, etc.).
Somebody else suggested that you get a post office box so we can send you stuff. I was a firefighter/emt by trade, and although I don't think I can send you a hydrant, I might be able to find one of the patches I used to wear on my uniform. If I can't find them, I'm sure one of the guys at my local fire department would give me one to send you. But a post office box would keep your home address private while giving us a way to send stuff to you that you might like to have. If it costs money to get one, tell us how much and I'm sure we'll pitch in. I'm not able to do anything for the next couple of months, but after that, I'll be able to donate toward a box.
Water is pumped up, into the water tower. The height of the tower, and weight of the water, creates pressure, which pushes the water through the lines, and out the faucet you just opened. This is the same water that comes out of a fire hydrant. The hydrant is connected to a fire engine, or pumper, which is really just a big tank of water feeding the water pump, which pushes water through multiple hoses being used on a structure fire. The pressure needed for that is far higher than the city supply lines, hence the need for the fire engine.
Water towers and ground level water tanks are used to store treated water. They help maintain even water pressure and to provide minimal water pressure to homes during power outages. Water towers and ground level water tanks also are there to provide ample water supply for fire fighters to fight large industrial fires or multi story building fires.
One of the biggest manufacturers of the yellow school buses is the Blue Bird body company. They are yellow because studies show that, that particular shade of yellow is higher visibility than other colors. At one time there were people who wanted fire trucks to change over to the same shade of yellow, and in some few jurisdictions they are.
Canada has yellow school buses too! We have those type of mail boxes in more rural parts of Canada. As a child I remember visiting Portugal and being shocked that their fences were concrete walls with broken glass on top stuck to the concrete.
Andre you would love the races we have at Flatrock Speedway, in Michigan. They have “Night of Destruction”… cars crashing mostly, not necessarily racing. But they also do “figure 8 school bus races”… used to be a ton of fun going with the kids.
Fun fact: Homeownders do not own their mailboxes. You are responsible for buying them and putting them up, and maintaining them. But once you've set them up - they are federal property.
You're spot on. Which is why smashing a mailbox with a bat, a favorite pastime for some, is a seriously foolish idea. This from the USPS website: " *_Mailboxes are protected by federal law, and crimes against them and the mail they contain are considered a federal offense. Violators can be fined up to $250,000 or imprisoned for up to three years for each act of vandalism_* ."
Yes . And any form of attacking , assaulting , impeding , delaying , or tampering with USPS mail and their personnel is a serious crime under US Federal law . The USPS has their own police force and you don't want to get on the wrong side of them .
@@snowdogthewolf Federal law only says they are protected by federal law, not that they are federal property. A homeowner can take down their own mailbox, if they so choose (of course, they wouldn't have any mail delivered). And many homeowners "deface" their own mailboxes by decorating them.
@daniel_sc1024 The crux of my comment was the penalties for destroying mailboxes with intentional malice. You are correct that mailboxes can be replaced and altered by the property owners. Destroying someone else's mailbox can land one in seriously hot water with the USPS.
You said what I was thinking. I was a firefighter/emt by trade, and if I can put my hands on a couple of my old patches, I'd be happy to send him one. I truly don't know where they are in this house, but surely I have something that would serve as memorabilia he might like. This guy is quite likable, and I'm thinking there are a lot of people who would like to help find things for him in the US that he'd like to have in a collection.
Mailboxes in front of individual houses is becoming more rare in the US. In my neighborhood, we have a community mailbox in a centralized location that has multiple boxes with a lock for each address in that area. Kind of like a post office. Some places will paint their fire hydrant to look like a dalmatian wearing a fire hat.
Most houses in the USA no longer do mesh fences, you still see them, but most use wood picket privacy fences. 9' wood pickets with no space in-between.
My UK & Ausie friends also thought the yellow school busses were iconic too. Drive through a housing area between 6-8am and you’ll see one. Also the “new” white picket fence are back metal fences in an pretty minimalist style that still mimics the structure style of the classic picket fence bc metal lasts longer than wood and chipping paint/dirt shows less if it’s black vs white
It tickles me about the fascination with yellow school buses. I grew up in rural Iowa. My school was in the middle of a corn field. I rode that bus until I was 15 years old. It was an hour ride to and from school!! I was thankful to get my drivers license at 16 and was able to drive myself :)
Water towers. Water is continuously pumped up into the large tank on top. The water weight provides pressure to push it thru the pipes throughout the local area. Bright yellow school busses. Easy to see so you won't crash into them. Mailboxes to make it fast and east for a Postman to stop next to in their mail truck or on foot, and put the mail in. Apartment complexes have as ,many as 50 or more mailboxes in a wall with apartment numbers written on the boxes. The rule ( or law?) is that the national flag is the highest of the bunch, and state flags or company flags will be a little lower.
8:44 We have lots of concrete block fences in the U.S. too, but they normally separate our yards on the rear and side property lines, not the front of the yard/garden.
Yellow is considered a high visibility color, even in cloudy or snowy weather. It is the default used on school bus, but they can be order in other colors.
The water outlet is on the bottom. The fill pipe opens above water level. Water is pumped up into the tower. Gravity provides the pressure to distribute to houses.
Large *huge, really) pumps force the water from the town's water treatment plant up into the water tower until it is full and replenish the water that gets released into the very large pipes called "mains" or "water mains" that run throughout the town. More, smaller pipes lead from the water mains (usually running underneath or right next to the streets) to the homes along the streat. Even smaller pipes branching off that pipe run to all the water sources in the house, such as toilets, bathroom basins, bathtubs/showers, kitchen sink, etc. The tanks are elevated so high to force the water into and along the water mains and subsidiary pipes.
The gas station not far from the freeway here has one of those gigantic flags. It helps people find the gas station. Our city puts out flags on the side of the road on many days. Our mailbox is just like the one he showed, except it is white and we live in a town of 10,000 people. My sister lives out in the country and has a very long driveway and walks out to get her mail, unless it is really icy, then she drives out, which is wise. She is in her 80's. The school buses are indeed everywhere. They are bumpy and noisy to ride in and can get pretty warm or cold, depending upon the weather. I know of people who have had to ride 45 minutes just to get to school. We were lucky and living closer to town, the ride was much shorter. And yes, they do use the buses to take classes to certain events like football or basketball games.
Old houses here in the US made during the 1800's have the "mailbox" in the main door like what Lawrence showed for the UK. There's probably a more technical term for it like with everything. But I always heard people call it a Mail Slot growing up. Some older houses also had a small mailbox that was mounted on the wall right next to the main door. The door for it would flip up and you reached in from the top down to grab the mail. They were usually only big enough for letters and small documents.
We don’t say “mesh” fence. We call it a chain link fence. They can be three to eight feet tall generally. We rented a house with four foot high chain link at the front of our backyard which butted up against privacy fencing for the rest of the yard. On inside there were two gates that were supposed to keep our dogs from getting out when meter readers came in the yard. One of our dogs could get over both gates. We had to add chicken wire fencing to the top of the inside gate to o stop her from escaping.
There's a video on YT that tells how water towers work. Essentially: at night, the water is pumped into the tower to fill it. It is gravity fed down into town as people use it for morning showers, "constitutionals [bathroom]", cooking and everyday uses. At night, the water is replenished. It's a way of creating water pressure using gravity, whereas pumping would require more effort (electricity) than a single continuous pump until filled. I was a school bus charter driver (I filled in for routes, but main job was field trips), then became the Asst Mgr/Dispatcher for years. It's funny that I can see a bus and pretty much know it's old route... but that was 10+ yrs ago when I did that. :) The color was created in 1923 by a guy to make them more noticeable because he wanted to develop a color that wasn't found in nature. Of course, now we have chartreuse (safety yellow). They're also found in Canada. Ironically, the biggest school bus company in the USA (school districts contract outside companies a LOT)... is First Student... part of First Group... a British company. Possibly the worst school bus company to work for and I call them "First Stupid". I worked for Laidlaw before they sold to "First Stupid"... was a decent company to work for.
Our yards are not gardens. We might have a garden, it would only be a section of the land of THE LAND that we inhabit and buy,, and/pay for. You BRITS , AWESOME! Lost in the pond. YES! WE ARE SHOULDER TO SHOULDER as brothers!
Steel Water Towers are used to add water pressure to that area of pipes mainly due to a low center of gravity, most water towers collect rainwater which keeps them filled year-round and never need to be touched, mainly the water towers helps when a firetruck needs to hook-up to a hydrant having better water flow in the end.
Water towers are simple. The middle, usually thickest pipe, is just a pipe going into the bottom of the tank at the top. When pumps are on and the water pressure in the city/town is greater than the gravity pressure of the water in the tower, the tank fills. When the pumps are off, the water pressure is maintained by the weight of the water in the tower and flows out to the community.
A lot of the stereotypes of American suburbs are emblematic of California & other flat landscapes! It's easy to put a fence around a flat yard. I grew up in a suburb in hilly southern Ohio. My house was halfway up a hill, meaning that our garage was tucked under the front porch & up a short hill from the street. Imagine backing down that driveway in a snowy Midwestern winter, hitting a patch of ice, & ending up with your front bumper inches away from one retaining wall, your rear bumper from the other, & the driver's side facing the other garage door! Yet, somehow we wriggled back to the correct orientation; & I got to class on time! Mailboxes were all affixed to the porch; & because no one fenced their front yards, the postman went up a shallow driveway at the top of the hill, walked across yards; then went down our front steps. At one time, our back yard had a white picket fence, but Father took it down. Mowing the steep slopes from yard to street is almost impossible, so my house & our neighbors showcased 2 techniques! My parents covered our slopes in bushes & rock gardens. A neighbor across the street tied a rope to the handlebars of his mower, stood in front of his porch, & raised & lowered the mower by rope! Another neighbor buried their slope in ivy. Ours was a secondary road, meaning it was always fun getting up & down the hill in winter! Losing traction going downhill ran the risk of sliding out into the main street at the foot. One thing Lawrence didn't mention was post boxes, probably because they're disappearing. Blue metal boxes with a slit for the bills & letters you're mailing. There was one just up the block from my house.
growing up in the 80's and 90's, mail boxes used to be attached to the house at the front door. mailmen used to walk their postal routes. now a days, there are mail boxes at the curb so they can drive their routes. need to remember the UK has about 67 million people, and the US has 350 million people. that goes for the yellow school bus also. they are yellow so they are easily seen and identified as a school bus. 350 million strong comes with a lot of kids and a lot of schools that are not close to most homes.
Flying the American flag: government buildings (federal, state, city), post offices, schools, hospitals, hotels, car dealerships, boats/ships/yachts, banks, houses, sports venues, cars/trucks (decals or miniature flags), etc.🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
So fun fact. Small plane pilots use the water towers to make sure they are flying by the right towns. I'm not sure if that's why the name of the town is added to them, but pilots use them for that in America.
Fire hydrants are other solid colors like yellow, green, white, and even black in my city in Alabama. I don't know if the colors and codes are the same everywhere, but the different colors let firefighters know how much water pressure is within the hydrant. Downtown areas with several buildings of various sizes, have a lot of red hydrants because they let out more gallons of water at high pressure in order to try to save buildings that may have huge and quick traveling fires. Yellow is next in line. I've seen a black hydrant, which means it's no longer in service, but just hasn't been moved. You're likely to see a working hydrant next to it or somewhere else nearby. Water from hydrants is also potable, and years ago in some cities, someone would find a large enough tool to loosen the bolt on the hydrant, enough to allow water to shoot into the air for kids to play in during summer. If the police came, they'd have the firefighters to shut it off. When the hydrants are being tested and drained of a certain amount of water, our city would announce it in the news, that the water pressure in our homes would be low for whatever amount of minutes it would take. We'd sometimes see water rushing down the gutter as they tested.
I worked as a USPS carrier delivering mail for a couple of years in Denver. A lot of older houses still have the door slot. I didn't like them at all. Stuf wouldn't fit and they'd always pinch your hand. I think there were several incidents with people getting hurt by them so they kinda did away with them. Also caused nothing but problems with dogs. Try to take your fingers off and then destroy the mail. Don't recall any newer houses with door slots. Classic mail box is way better and faster to deliver to.
most people would guess water towers act as supply reservoirs that provide the water that comes out of the tap. their actual purpose is to provide the weight needed to pressurize the system. put all that heavy water up in the air and gravity does the rest.
The fire hydrants are also connected to the main water lines for the city. I lived in a small town where we had fire hydrants. And once a year they would flush the lines by opening up the fire hydrants.
Here in Utah someone has created a flag so big that they hang it up on the mountains between one canyon wall to another. It takes many people to hold the flag so that it doesn’t drag on the ground. It is put up for special occasions.
What you are calling mesh fences are known as chain link fences.
tbf iiuc "mesh fence" _is_ the british term for it
they have them there as well, just it's much less common
There are orange mesh fences. There are used for snow etc
And chain link fences are cheap and keep pets in, not people out.
Metal chain link fence is also called cyclone fencing.
orange mesh is frequently used in construction for a temporary 'fence'.
I'll accept mesh fence as a term for a group of a variety of mesh like fences, to include chicken wire, and the rectangular wire fences, as well as chain link, etc. Lol. Cyclone fence, isn't that the fencing with little wooden staves linked by wire they use to prevent erosion of sand dunes? Or it may be called hurricane fencing. Though hurricane and cyclone, well, ya know.
9:38 The nice thing about a mailbox is there is a red metal flag on the side. If you have mail you want the postman to pick up, you raise the flag.
We have one of the larger types made of plastic for packages and it has a yellow flag that pops up if you had anything delivered also.
Long ago, in the country if you didn't have a stamp you could leave coins and the mailman put a stamp on the letter. There used to be a town in Texas called Dime Box. It didn't have a post office and farmers in the area took their mail and coins to leave in a certain box. Whoever was going to a larger town took everything to the post office for the neighborhood.
@@baskervillebee6097My friend did rural routes in the early 00's and carried stamps for cash left in the boxes. I think there was some understanding she did not have the ability to make change for them.
In small towns and rural areas you must have a mailbox on a post. There are strict rules on how tall, how far from the curb, etc.
It’s because mail trucks won’t drive up the driveway and the mailman doesn’t walk anymore.
@@docinparadise
And rowdy teenage boys like to drive by and bash them.
I find it funny that people in other places find the US fire hydrant iconic. In the US it's often a humorous symbol of where dogs pee.
We often go around putting big googly eyes on them.
School children paint them to make them less ugly.
It’s hilarious that he thinks they are beautiful 😂
@@docinparadise Beauty is in eyes if the beholder!
@@docinparadise he's from the land of red post boxes, hydrants are soon little and cute.
Stealing mail from someone’s mailbox is a federal crime.
Also putting solicitations in it as well (political marketing, pizza menus, business solicitations)
As is delivering items. I've told quite a few amazon drivers that. "I don't want you to get into trouble so please don't put things in the mailbox because it violates federal law" @@CG68810
You will have a visit from the FBI if your stealing mail.
@@ruthslater6364 Nope - the Post Office has its own police agency for that. Expect a visit from the Postal Inspection Service.
@@KyleWittencorrect. I used to work for USPS and they have their own police force. Most of the employees try to monitor other employees for mail fraud or whatnot, but your local Postmaster can come in clutch for stalking related issues or keeping your HOA in line. (Can't put unstamped mail in a mailbox, federal crime, yo.)
What Lawrence doesn't mention about American curbside mailboxes is that they serve a _dual_ purpose, handling not only _incoming_ mail but also _outgoing_ mail. When you want to send a letter, you put it in your mailbox and raise a little flag (almost always red) that is attached to a pivot-point on the outside of the box: when the Letter Carrier comes by and takes the letter (and perhaps leaves you some incoming mail), he or she lowers the flag: this is how you can tell, without going to the box, whether the Letter Carrier has come yet (flag up, no; flag down, yes).
Curbside mailboxes originated with Rural Free Delivery, a service offered by the United States Post Office when many people lived so far out from the center of town (the location of the post-office) that it would be inconvenient for them to go to town every day to ask for their mail at the post-office (as people who lived in town did). A Letter Carrier in a vehicle (first horse-drawn, later motor-driven) carried mail to all the addresses on a rural route, a service for which the people living on that route were not charged; the Letter Carrier also collected outgoing mail from these addresses. To make the job of rural delivery more efficient, boxes were put on posts beside the road, so that the Letter Carrier could stay in the vehicle while depositing and collecting mail, not having to leave the vehicle and go to each house. Because some of the houses on such routes were set far back from the road, the flag was instituted as the way for the homeowner to tell from a distance whether the Letter Carrier had come, without having to walk all the way to the box. The flag also lets the carrier know whether mail already in the box is _delivered_ mail that the homeowner still has not removed from a previous delivery (if the flag is down) _or_ outgoing mail waiting to be collected by the carrier (if the flag is up).
In the older residential parts of older cities, where houses are close to the road, curbside mailboxes are rare. Instead, people use slots in their front doors and, more often, a different design of mailbox, affixed to the front wall of the house, near the front door. In this case, where houses are close together and close to the street, it's more efficient for the Letter Carrier to go on foot, depositing incoming mail and collecting outgoing mail, and returning only occasionally to a vehicle to get the next bagful of mail to carry on foot to the next group of houses.
Thanks for mentioning the wall mounted mail box -- like we had! They're commonplace in older suburbs. The suburb I grew up in was built in the 1920s to 1930s.
Also the mail delivery truck is one of the few right hand drive vehicles, this lets the driver stay in their seat while doing their rounds.
@@ellinganderson5434 , when I delivered mail for the U.S. Postal Service, many years ago, I and many other carriers at the station (post-office) that I worked at were classed, for political reasons, as Rural Carrier Associates (RCAs), even though we delivered in the suburbs. This meant a few differences from how things were for City Carriers. One difference was that we didn't have to wear uniforms. Another was that, often (but not always), we delivered mail from our own cars (not Postal Service trucks and minivans), for which we received a Vehicle Maintenance Allowance, which was based on the miles that we drove. There were four ways of handling the tricky question of using your own vehicle to deliver mail to the curbside boxes like the one shown in this video:
1. Try to buy a vehicle with right-hand drive. This was very rare. The only such vehicles I've driven in the U.S. are Postal Service vehicles.
2. In a vehicle with left-hand drive, sit in the _right_ front seat (to be by the right front window) and _reach across the car_ with your left hand and left foot to work the steering-wheel and pedals. I _never_ did this on any of my routes (I thought it too dangerous); but it was part of our training in an empty, private parking-lot. I don't know whether driving like this on public roads is legal; I wouldn't be surprised to find out that it's illegal.
3. Sit in the driver's seat, on the _left_ side of the car, and drive down the right side of the road (as the law requires); at each stop, _lean far to the right, across the other seat,_ to reach out the window to the mailbox. I did this on parts of some routes.
4. Sit in the driver's seat, on the _left_ side of the car, and drive down the _left_ side of the road; at each stop, use the driver's window to reach the mailbox easily. This not only means driving against the flow of traffic on any road that isn't just a one-way street: it also means that, when you 'pull down' your mail after 'casing' it before you go out to deliver, you do it in an unusual order, because you'll be getting to the mailboxes in an order different from the one that the slots in the case are labeled for. I did sometimes do this, on just two little residential streets on one of my routes, because there were curbside mailboxes on those streets and there was very little traffic there; but I only did this when the _main_ carrier for that route, also an RCA, pulled down the mail for me and did it in that special order (when I pulled down my mail myself, I did it in the normal order, drove down the right side of the road, and reached across the front passenger's seat).
Only just this moment, all these years later, has it occurred to me that the way my managers decided whether I would go in my own car or take one of the trucks with right-hand drive probably depended primarily on the kinds of mailboxes on the route that I was assigned that day. When the route had many curbside mailboxes (the kind shown in this video), I went in a Postal Service truck (an LLV or a CRV; I don't remember which), so I could sit on the right and reach easily out the window to those mailboxes. When the route was mostly NDCBUs ('cluster-boxes'), I went in my own car: at each NDCBU, I would get out of the driver's door, go around to the passenger's side, reach through the open window to get the bundle of mail for that NDCBU, and start putting it in the individual addresses' boxes.
@@smadaf 1. My mom ordered a right side drive Jeep when she was a sub shortly after she started working at the post office, and eventually ended up as the primary on a route with an LLV. I learned to drive in it as a teenager. She still has it and it has shockingly low milage. They would not let me take my driver's test in it 20 years ago.
She had a CDL so was often on one of the bigger trucks early on if not on a delivery route and used her own vehicle rarely. The city I live in now has vans assigned to the routes with clusterboxes. Then it was LLVs in the city and you might have sections entirely on foot. The further out you got the more likely you had to use your own vehicle, but that was more of an exception. Most routes had an LLV assigned to them, but I have no doubt that is going to vary heavily by area and management.
@@smadafMy husband is a rural mail carrier. He drives a little over 100 miles per day, in our own vehicles. None are right hand drive, so I've been screened to go along to help. Putting the mail in from the passenger seat is easier than stretching across the car. We are contracted with USPS rather than being employees of them, so we're responsible for the fuel and maintenance of our vehicles. On the plus side, we wear what we want and can literally do our route however we choose so long as we make the truck with the outgoing and everything gets delivered. It's a great job though. We go way out of town so we see a lot of wildlife.
I have one neighbor with a white picket fence. I talked to him when he was putting it in and he said it was so his children could play out front without poop from our very rude neighbor's dogs.
He had to get a permit, but it seems very effective as all the dogs now poop in my yard.
Some people buy older retired school buses and convert them into campers/motor homes.
The last few places I've lived have had community mailboxes. It makes it easier on the mailman. Plus people post community flyers on the box- like for babysitting, lawn care or swim lessons.
It is normal to see an American flag flying outdoors at every American post-office and most police-stations and fire-stations. If you see a very big American flag, visible from very far away, it's probably at a car-dealership.
Or a construction equipment facility or an RV dealer.
It has been a Treasury Department directive since 1885 that the American flag be flown at every U.S. post office; since 2019 they've also flown the M.I.A. flag as well.
The American flag is also required to be on display at every polling location.
Here in Minnesota down in the cities you'll have dueling giant flags from dealerships super close to eachother lmao probably the same in other places but I think its funny. Us Americans love competition
I'm surprised Lawrence didn't hot the car/RV dealership connection when he started on the "see from 5 miles away" bit. I'd be interested to see someone research why and how that started, but it is definitely a "thing."
especially the garrison-sized flags 😂 those are the 50-footers. those flags are MASSIVE and definitely will catch your eye. 😅
Never park in front of a fire hydrant! Firemen will not hesitate to breakout the windows of a car to gain straight access to the hydrant with their hose.
Fun fact about school buses, the center black line indicates the seat lvl on the bus. This helps in accident investigations and I’m sure there’s more about it. School buses are pretty tough! There’s no seatbelts on these buses which has been debated for decades, but kids generally walk away from an accident. But it is a consistent debate when a bad accident does happen.
I’d prefer a letter box because mail theft is definitely easy and a thing that happens, especially during tax season. There’s some people that are just old school and do taxes by mail.
That’s why I bought a locking mail box. A number of neighbors did the same after seeing mine.
The problem with seatbelts on school buses is that they generally have only 1 adult - the driver - on board the bus. In case of a serious accident, especially a fire, that adult would struggle getting all the kids unbuckled and out safely. And that's assuming that they aren't incapacitated. Scared and panicked kids don't pair well with seat belts. (Even airlines have to spend a minute teaching ADULTS how to use a seatbelt). What I haven't figured out is why don't they put more padding (fireproof, of course) in the buses.
Really fucked up to park in front of a fire hydrant, not to mention stupid. As if your car windows are worth the precious seconds or minutes it would take to run a fire hose around it.
locking mailboxes. you can even get together with neighbors and buy one of those big one piece multiple house box mailboxes.
Its actually illegal to park in front of a fire hydrant.
Back in the 90s two my sisters visited a few European countries. They spotted a highly memorable billboard in England which said the following. "Beneath this sign John Brown is stowed. He watched the signs and not the road."
I lived in England late 70s early 80s (I'm a Texan). While there, the term "I need to spend a penny' was a euphemism for saying "I need to go to the bathroom"....because it was common that public toilets required a penny to get into a stall! Which reminds me of the very childish graffiti that was common to see there: "Here I sit, broken hearted, spent a penny and only f@rted". Sorry not sorry :)
Sounds like an old Burna-Shave (shaving creme brand) sign.
I loved those. Hard to believe the enthusiasm they caused and we mostly knew what they were going to say to begin with.
American-style school-buses are also used in Canada and Mexico.
Also Central America. I believe there's a Bluebird bus factory in Guatemala.
Some older neighborhoods have mail slots in their door. Suburban houses usually have mail boxes in their front yards. Chain link fences usually go in the backyard and are good if you have a dog. Chain link fences can be put in frontyards, but they are considered tacky there. When a schoolbus driver puts out stop sign on side of bus to let children on and off the bus, drivers behind the bus cannot pass and must stop. Drivers in other lane must also stop when they see extension of stop sign on bus.
My hubbys parents that live across the street from us have a mail slot next to the door, where the mail falls into a box on the inside wall.
Wish that was common on newer houses again, along with ones for packages 😅
And the tickets/fines for not stopping for a school bus are fairly hefty.
My town and all the towns I live near by have mail boxes that are connected to the house next to the door.
White picket fences are common in regular middle class neighborhoods too. Not just the rich ones.
The fence you showed was a manufacturered fence. All you have to do is put in the posts and bolt in the pre-fabbed fence units between them. They sell them as a kit at any big box home improvement/hardware store.
That entire fence probably only took a single afternoon to install if done by a professional. And probably a single weekend as a DIY project.
My brother worked on water towers. All I remember is they had to be cleaned after working on them. So, I guess that they were like Pettycoat Junction.
Canada also has yellow school buses.The specific colour of school buses is regulated so it can only be used on them.
The handiest part of roadside billboards is knowing what fast food/gas stations/toilets are coming up on which exit. It's important when in the US to get off the interstates now and then. So advertising a cool museum, or historical center ahead is nice when driving along.
I find the aesthetic of white picket fences interesting. They were much more popular in older days, but even my city/neighborhood, founded in 1928, does NOT allow fencing at all in the front yard. The back yard and side yards, yes. But not front. So no white picket fences for us.
I actually live in one of the four US states, where billboards are illegal.
I agree. Figuring out where to stop would be a lot more difficult without billboards.
@@wmason1961 those are road sides , not billboards, billboards are huge and over 6 feet high.
@@marydavis5234 I am fully aware of the difference.
White picket fences are not only for the rich. When I was a little girl in the 1960s we lived in a small house in North Carolina with a picket fence. My parents were working class, my father a truck driver and my mother a housewife. Thinking about my neighborhood now in Oregon there area few quite modest homes with picket fences but you don't see them as much as in the past.
When you do see them, I have noticed they are almost always on the front yard. Chained link fences were on the back yard as strong fences that can be tall enough to keep your pet IN the yard.
Agree, white picket fences aren’t just for rich. There are a few in my middle class neighborhood
My husband and I have a white picket fence in our front yard. We live fairly rural and are a modest young couple but it was something I always wanted and my husband and dad made it happen ❤
And picket fences are often essentially decorative or symbolic. Demarcating your space more than physically limiting access.
@@thesimplesaguaro same with my family! I grew up in a rural area, modest income, but my mom always wanted a white picket fence so my dad went to work on it and made it happen for her
"Chain-link fence" is the normal American name for what Lawrence calls "mesh fence". When there's a need to be more precise than just "mailbox", the normal American name for what he calls "front yard mailbox" is "curbside mailbox".
Its just a mailbox
Nope, never heard those terms. Its just the mailbox.
Chain link fences are also called hurricane fences.
@@garycamara9955 , you wrote "It[']s just a mailbox" _and_ "Nope, never heard those terms. It['s] just the mailbox." A curbside mailbox is not called just "mailbox" when one needs to differentiate it from one on the side of a building, one that takes only outgoing mail (the big blue ones, owned and maintained by the Postal Service), one in an office, a CBU, an NDCBU, and many other kinds of mailbox that are not curbside.
The fact that you haven't heard a term doesn't mean that it doesn't exist and that people don't use it. Your statement that you haven't heard "front yard mailbox" is especially strange because that's the term used in the video you're commenting on.
I think you mean cluster, where 10 people all get mail
Curbside is probably regional. USA is a big place.
Just to point out, the image that he put up there isn't a mesh fence, it is a chain link fence. A mesh fence is different and is generally used specifically for gardens and are low to the ground and are actual mesh, not metal.
Unlike a lot of other youtubers reacting to American stuff (cough* the brits).. I genuinely believe that you WANT to visit here, and that you WILL visit here someday. I've been watching you awhile now, and I really appreciate how genuine you are.
Water towers store excess rainwater or utility water. They get released once in a while, the water goes to the treatment plant and it enters the water supply which everyone uses. They are painted once a year because it’s a good way to mark the town without looking at a map.
I thought the point of water towers was to raise the water above everything else around it to easily pressurize the water for every building in the surrounding area.
My understanding is that the towers are usually used to smooth out the demand curve for potable fresh water. Water is pumped into them more or less steadily, and fed out by gravity as it is used, That means you don't get huge pressure drops when everyone takes a shower or flushes the toilet at once, This was apparently a significant problem when there were only three TV stations and everyone
waited for the commercial breaks to go to the toilet.
When my husband first came to the US he was amazed by yellow school buses, the lack of stray dogs/cats and veterinary hospitals.
Ah, the school bus. You had the same bus (literally) everyday, and your driver knew each kid and their stops. My school bus driver installed a stereo system in her bus, played Led Zeppelin on a 8-track. I didn’t understand the meaning behind the lyrics to “Black Dog” (I was 12), but it was a great time as we all sang along.
That's hysterical. Our buses all had speakers connected to the radio, one driver would always put on smooth jazz in the morning and we'd practically fall asleep.
No billboards in Alaska - for scenery sake, they were outlawed.
Same in Vermont
Same in Colorado.
Not in Jersey, the billboards are videos, usually advertising casinos, plastic surgery and personal injury lawyers
With the advent of GPS and computers all billboards should be outlawed. You can look up where you want/need to go on the computer and just put it in your GPS. A billboard has never swayed me to stop ANYWHERE.
Hope it becomes nationwide
When Route 66 was big, there used to be sections where consecutive bilboards would display a whole short story or a chapter of a book, which a family could read aloud while driving through the area.
Concrete fence is known as a wall. And yes, walls work in keeping people out.
Walls are the best, security AND privacy plus they give protection from bad weather/cold winds to plants
Wooden white picket fences are iconic. Mark Twain describes these in Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sayer.
The mailboxes are out in the front yard because they mailman pulls up in his truck and deposits the mail. This is not done so much mow as in the earlier days. Not all mailman are on foot. He can do huge neighborhoods quickly. Postal trucks are the only cars you will see where the driver is on the right side like the UK for this reason .
It's not only done where I live but the US Post Office has a contract pending to buy 165,000 new electric mail trucks to keep doing it.
I live rural and my mailman's driven route is almost 130 miles. If he walked it would take several days lol.
The water tower is a practical way to have constant pressure in the water mains without having to constantly run pumps all the time. The pump is used only to get water up into the tower in the first place. Then after its up there its just gravity passivley providing the pressure driving the water out to the houses in town. The pump can be run intermittently when the level drops down enough to need topping up. This also means the town has time to get the power back on again when it goes out, without a water suppply crisis if the power can come back on in a reasonable time.
Since theyre often the tallest thing in a small town, they double as a signpost with the town's name on it.
A water tower is a battery for water. You pump water in to them, then can turn the pump off. The tower can feed more water per minute than a pump can. That hydrant will flow around 1500 gallons per minute. A full tower can feed it for a while before the water company needs to start turning on pumps. Also, that hydrant is whats called a dry barrel hydrant. The valve is actually underground an is dry inside when not in use. Its used where freezing weather is common. The shape is to support the valve opening system. The boring pipe looking hydrants are wet barrel hydrants used in warmer climates because they are much cheaper. There is also a dry hydrants. It is just a pipe running to a pond an needing a pump to pull from. The color of hydrants usually mark water flow rate. black
Water towers are used to maintain water pressure in the pipes; imagine 50,00 houses all flushing their toilet at the same time. There would be a serious drop in pressure, these towers ensure that doesn't happen.
to add to this, they don't generally need people on the tower for regular operation. There is usually a pump at ground level and some method of sensing water level in the tank remotely (which can vary heavily). The pump will pump water up into the tank when necessary, although they usually are designed so that most of the time there is enough water for a day in the tank and they can get away with pumping once a day in the middle of the night when power is cheaper and there is less strain on the grid, at least when that is possible. Generally there are only people on the tower for cleaning, repairs, or repainting.
This guy is actually better than some of the other videos of people visiting America. Things are different across the country so homes and weather, etc vary widely.
we use the buses for feild trips, transporting the school teams to events. i took them every saturday to go 2 hours away to ski, in the winter.
People sometimes buy used school buses to convert into RVs. Some of them turn out to be very cool.
And then there was the Partridge Family! 😉
The kind of mailbox you have depends on where you live. Usually homes in rural areas have free-standing mailboxes, homes in the suburbs are starting to switch from having free-standing mailboxes to having the cluster mailboxes where there are several small mailboxes in one large steel box, and in the cities it is usually wall-mounted mailboxes on the houses or letterboxes in the doors. The free-standing mailboxes allow the postal worker to deliver the mail right from the mail truck instead of going door-to-door like they do in the city.
My area is a Mix of Side Walk Mail Boxes and House Mounted (Typically Decorative) Wall Mounted next to the front door
Down here in south Florida, school buses are converted for carrying farm workers and occasionally produce, so they come in every color you can imagine.
the retired/sold ones have to be painted a different color as part of the sale . The only ones allowed to use the "National School Bus Glossy Yellow" (yes that is the official color name) are those carrying students because people notice this color more quickly in their peripheral vision reducing accidents. ...dont mind me i know a bunch of random trivia...lol
I watch Lawrence all the time. He’s terrific. Glad to see you react to his content.
Fun Fact: If you ever notice a random blue reflector in the road while driving in the US that means there is a fire hydrant there.
not allways some times it's just the reflector
People mostly put up chain link fences because they have dogs
Not all fire hydrants are red. In my area they are painted different colors so that when the firefighters arrive, they know what pressure that hydrant is.
Depending in the location, colors often indicate jurisdictions as well, which may ir may not also correlate to pressure.
Why are some are even gray or black which is funny I think.
In some neighborhoods, there are letterboxes on houses. I have also seen streets where all the mailboxes are at one end instead of in front of each yard/garden. There are also neighborhoods that have a large box or boxes with dozens of compartments, so everyone must go to one place to get their mail. These are ugly. Each household gets keys to unlock their compartment. If you get a key in yours, you can unlock a larger compartment for a package. My mom gets mail this way. She doesn't like having to go to a busy gas station to get her mail. Multi-household buildings also have these types of mail boxes, usually indoors like in the building that I live in. If I get a package that is too large for my box, usually the mail person will leave it in front of my door, but sometimes people have to go to the post office to get packages. There are also large blue boxes to put the mail you want to send.
Curbside mailboxes are most common in more rural areas. In cities, the mailbox is smaller and usually mounted on the house near the front door.
Those water towers are usually rural water district towers and are gravity fed. I think why its customary to have the town name on them is because, back in the day, when stage coaches or old steam trains entered a small town, it was a high point that could have the towns name on it. It was easy to see. Then, it was super helpful to help small airplanes navigate and know which town they were passing over. Usually traveling by points on a map. My town has a huge water tower in my neighborhood (it's not an eyesore because we have huge trees). We are at a high point on a bluff above the river.
Rural areas don't have water districts, they are in communities.
@cp368productions2 actually, the area I live in has RURAL water districts!!! We have at least 16 of them in our county!!!
"...... County Rural Water District #16"
Can't speak for other states but Kansas definitely has rural water districts.You can Google 'rural water districts Kansas' to verify. The farm I grew up on had its own well but eventually, rural water pipes were run and we had a choice to hook up or not. Oh, and later I bought 30 acres in the middle of nowhere west Texas. The house was hooked to the rural water system and the rest of the acreage was supplied by our own private well so.....@@cp368productions2
It is also customary (at least in Western Canada) to always find a large pot leaf painted on te side. Some times Piece signs, the middle finger (baddly done pot paint), Kilroy was here, and even "Class of (some year)"
I have recently come across your page . Its nice to see your page . Im am american born but my dad moved here when he was 7 years old from Portugal. I have family in porto and lisboa . If you ever make it this way id love to show you some cool places in new york like the Adirondacks park and some waterways .
White picket fences are actually fairly rare in the US too, but the phrase sums up the want to move to the suburbs and start a family with ease.
Tye meaning is dead on, but there is a LOT of white picket fences still.
I guess it depends on the region, and the farther from a city center the more common they become generally, but I think in places where greenery and bushes along the front of a home site are easy to grow the picket fences are also more common.
It's amusing how things you see in American movies are very real and typical in the US. We don't even notice them because we see them every day.
We rode on yellow school buses (they are very real), which was exciting in kindergarten but so embarrassing when we were in high school. We got a ride to school to avoid having to ride the horrible yellow school bus when we were teenagers. 🤣
White picket fences aren't for the rich. We have one, and we are far from rich!
Mailboxes differ depending on where you live.
I don't understand the interest in fire hydrants. Maybe because they are something just normal here. I never described them as 'gorgeous'. It's an American fire hydrant.
But speaking of gorgeous, we move on to our amazing flag. The best flag and most cherished. As you know, we are proud of and love our flag. It is outside our house all year.🇺🇸 You should visit on the Fourth of July! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Great reaction!
Fire hydrants also are different colors depending on where you are in America
Um, wrong flag btw...
@baldgunguys, thank you. I fixed it. It's so small on the phone.
The bus was embarrassing? Why?
@@kittycatmeowmeow963 The age for a drivers license in the US is 16 (you can get it even earlier if it's for farm equipment IIRC), so by high school about half the students are eligible to drive a car (and due to car culture most already do. Drivers education is also part of the currilculum/free in the public school). This means the ones still riding a bus don't have access to an older sibling, are not old enough themeselves, and/or some other reason (parents can't spare a "beater" car for them). That's why it's "embarassing" to rid the schoolbus to school by the time they reach high school age.
YMMV. Obviously in denser cities (like where I live currently) students mostly either live within walking distance of school or use municipal transport (so need need for the yellow bus). There's also no room for student parking. I imagine there is no stigma attached to taking the bus to school in those situations. ;)
My daughter works for the school here in Texas and she drives a yellow bus twice everyday ❤
Fire hydrants are actually quite hard to hit with cars. They don’t actually come off that easily. They are actually bolted down into a water main with some strong bolts. The water pressure is also very high so you could take an arm off if it’s in the way. In the summer in New York City firefighters will loosen the sides and turn the top for the neighborhood to cool off. Kids love to play in the water. It’s because New York gets stifling hot during the summer. It’s not dangerous because the sides are still on burning out most of the pressure and creating a water pad effect.
When I was a kid we used to climb the water tower that was in the woods behind our house. My mom would’ve had a heart attack if she knew.
Jeff Foxworthy once quipped that if you ever had to climb a water tower to defend your sisters' reputation you're a redneck . I'm a redneck from a little place in South Carolina , but I never had to climb the water tower above my town .
Lol! Billboards aren't boring, they give you hope! And info about hotels, food, gas stations and the like when you're driving for hours on an interstate highway.
Chain linked fences are the best for pets and they can last a very very long time, decades. They are also used to keep younger children from wondering. Fencing also often outlines property lines so no one infringes on your property. 😊
The most fun on the yellow school bus-at least when you're a kid is sitting behind the back tires, because you bounce all over the place. At least when it a country bus. City buses likely don't have that issue. There are homes that have the letter slots, some have mail boxes in the front of the yard others have a locked mail box in the small neighborhood in which you live. Meaning the postal worker only has to stop at this one box to deliver mail to several families at the same time.
We used the fire hydrants for water usage in doing underground boring to bury fiber optic cables, etc. You get a permit and pay a fee per gallons. You unscrew a side cap, hook up your fitted hose, then use a water wrench to slowly loosen the top nut.
So, water towers are very interesting, and the way they work is that water is pumped up into the tank before running down into the pipes that distribute it out to the surrounding area. It may seem a little bit silly, but it's actually a clever way of reducing the number of pumps needed to serve an area. Having the water going out to the buildings essentially... powered by the force of gravity from the water tower's tank is actually a very efficient method. Much more efficient than periodically having pumps along the line to keep the water pressure up.
As for the mailboxes, a lot of newer developments will have community mailboxes, where the postal workers can open up the back, sort the mail into the different boxes, and then close it and lock it from behind, while from the front, people can go to their little slot and open the door for just that section with their mail key..
17:04 pure joy at seeing the hydrant!
On Peddocks Island in Boston Harbor (Massachusetts, USA) there is an old, abandoned fort where Italian POWs were kept during WWII. You can walk around and still see some of the old buildings and infrastructure. There are some cool, old fire hydrants with the same look that are now all covered with ivy or in the trees. Eerie and beautiful. The old firehouse with the hose tower is also still standing.
Another thing: Little Libraries. Boxes, usually on a pole that is about a meter or less tall, that often look like little houses, wirh roofs and glass doors. Take books you have finished reading and place into the box for someone else to take and read. They are also creating these for small toys for children, seeds for gardeners, canned and boxed food for hungry people.
I'm seeing a lot of concrete water towers going up. One went up right next to me last year. Very interesting to watch it being built one tier at a time using moveable forms. Very efficient. Plus no rust or need to paint frequently.
The chain link fence is the standard here in Texas. Wood has to be replaced fairly often and painted regularly. Chain link lasts nearly forever. The fences around my childhood home installed in the 1940 are still in place and in good condition. They are actually more useful than you would think as security fence. A wooden fence you can hide behind while you break in. A chain link fence provides no cover and is often much taller than a wooden fence.
Some houses here have letter boxes in the door. Many have a box mounted on the front porch wall near the end of the walk. Others have the box near the street. Rural locations, of course, have the classic curved top post office approved rural box on a post. They use those in many cities, too, for the convenience of the carrier who can load the mail from the seat of the car or truck. Official post office delivery vehicles are special ordered with right hand drive. In an increasing number of cities, some neighborhood have to use "cluster boxes", large boxes with a great many locking compartments, and you have to visit it to get your mail.
The works of the fire hydrant is deep underground. It is essentially a tube that leads down to a large valve where it connects to the water main. The nut at the top has a shaft to turn that valve. One of our tasks as firefighters was to go around from time to time and flush hydrants, flushing out rusty and dirty water at that point and making sure the the valve still opened smoothy and sometimes repainting the hydrant. Frequently, you house insurance rate partly depends on how far you are from a hydrant. We had a dummy hydrant used for training. Just the above ground part on a stand. People would as what that was, and we would tell them that was our "country plug" for when we were where there were no hydrants and we could throw it out and hook up to it. A pathetic number of people were satisfied with that explanation.
The postal service is pretty good in the US. But whenever I send something to Europe , it only arrives about 40% of the time.
The thing w the billboards is that our roads tend to be long and mostly straight where billboards are present. Its a freeway/interstate w not a lot to look at. A lot of American interstates are next to open fields so its easy to just glance at the signs. Like signs telling you what exit to take or what town is coming up.
a teacher in an advertising /marketing class i attended at art school told us that a driver should spend no more than 3-5 seconds to read and understand a well designed billboard before it becomes a road hazard. Always thought that was interesting. That ties into why commercials are so short...ppl lose interest and quickly move onto other things since they have the attention span of a flea ..lol...
Yellow is the safest color for any vehicle. They stand out in in all weather. Plus a serial number on the top. Easy to find if something happens
I live in the southmost tip of Texas, and near us we have water towers in the shape of a space ship, and another like a golf ball. And I saw one in my travels that was a teapot! And a local water tower proudly announces it is the hometown of music legend Freddy Fender. Lots of variety in shapes and sizes, and heights. And our fire hydrants can be painted all sorts of colors! Some places have painted them as cartoon characters, or occupations (police officer, doctor, judge, fireman, waitress, baker, etc.).
Somebody else suggested that you get a post office box so we can send you stuff. I was a firefighter/emt by trade, and although I don't think I can send you a hydrant, I might be able to find one of the patches I used to wear on my uniform. If I can't find them, I'm sure one of the guys at my local fire department would give me one to send you. But a post office box would keep your home address private while giving us a way to send stuff to you that you might like to have. If it costs money to get one, tell us how much and I'm sure we'll pitch in. I'm not able to do anything for the next couple of months, but after that, I'll be able to donate toward a box.
Water is pumped up, into the water tower. The height of the tower, and weight of the water, creates pressure, which pushes the water through the lines, and out the faucet you just opened. This is the same water that comes out of a fire hydrant. The hydrant is connected to a fire engine, or pumper, which is really just a big tank of water feeding the water pump, which pushes water through multiple hoses being used on a structure fire. The pressure needed for that is far higher than the city supply lines, hence the need for the fire engine.
Gardens grow food, yards have bushes and landscaping.
Well, ok, but I have a flower garden.🌻😊
Water towers and ground level water tanks are used to store treated water. They help maintain even water pressure and to provide minimal water pressure to homes during power outages. Water towers and ground level water tanks also are there to provide ample water supply for fire fighters to fight large industrial fires or multi story building fires.
In a water tower the water gets pumped up to the top and then gravity feeds it down to the town. This ensures a constant, steady, water pressure.
One of the biggest manufacturers of the yellow school buses is the Blue Bird body company. They are yellow because studies show that, that particular shade of yellow is higher visibility than other colors. At one time there were people who wanted fire trucks to change over to the same shade of yellow, and in some few jurisdictions they are.
Canada has yellow school buses too! We have those type of mail boxes in more rural parts of Canada. As a child I remember visiting Portugal and being shocked that their fences were concrete walls with broken glass on top stuck to the concrete.
Andre you would love the races we have at Flatrock Speedway, in Michigan. They have “Night of Destruction”… cars crashing mostly, not necessarily racing. But they also do “figure 8 school bus races”… used to be a ton of fun going with the kids.
Fun fact: Homeownders do not own their mailboxes. You are responsible for buying them and putting them up, and maintaining them. But once you've set them up - they are federal property.
You're spot on. Which is why smashing a mailbox with a bat, a favorite pastime for some, is a seriously foolish idea.
This from the USPS website:
" *_Mailboxes are protected by federal law, and crimes against them and the mail they contain are considered a federal offense. Violators can be fined up to $250,000 or imprisoned for up to three years for each act of vandalism_* ."
@@snowdogthewolf I had a friend who found that out the hard way in the early 90s. Not sure if he is still serving time though.
Yes . And any form of attacking , assaulting , impeding , delaying , or tampering with USPS mail and their personnel is a serious crime under US Federal law . The USPS has their own police force and you don't want to get on the wrong side of them .
@@snowdogthewolf Federal law only says they are protected by federal law, not that they are federal property. A homeowner can take down their own mailbox, if they so choose (of course, they wouldn't have any mail delivered). And many homeowners "deface" their own mailboxes by decorating them.
@daniel_sc1024 The crux of my comment was the penalties for destroying mailboxes with intentional malice. You are correct that mailboxes can be replaced and altered by the property owners.
Destroying someone else's mailbox can land one in seriously hot water with the USPS.
You really should get a post office box so we can send you stuff. 🙂
or whatever portugal's equivalent is
You said what I was thinking. I was a firefighter/emt by trade, and if I can put my hands on a couple of my old patches, I'd be happy to send him one. I truly don't know where they are in this house, but surely I have something that would serve as memorabilia he might like. This guy is quite likable, and I'm thinking there are a lot of people who would like to help find things for him in the US that he'd like to have in a collection.
Mailboxes in front of individual houses is becoming more rare in the US. In my neighborhood, we have a community mailbox in a centralized location that has multiple boxes with a lock for each address in that area. Kind of like a post office. Some places will paint their fire hydrant to look like a dalmatian wearing a fire hat.
Most houses in the USA no longer do mesh fences, you still see them, but most use wood picket privacy fences. 9' wood pickets with no space in-between.
During the bicentennial celebration in 1976, it was common to paint the fire hydrants in many different decorative ways.
My UK & Ausie friends also thought the yellow school busses were iconic too. Drive through a housing area between 6-8am and you’ll see one. Also the “new” white picket fence are back metal fences in an pretty minimalist style that still mimics the structure style of the classic picket fence bc metal lasts longer than wood and chipping paint/dirt shows less if it’s black vs white
It tickles me about the fascination with yellow school buses. I grew up in rural Iowa. My school was in the middle of a corn field. I rode that bus until I was 15 years old. It was an hour ride to and from school!! I was thankful to get my drivers license at 16 and was able to drive myself :)
Water towers. Water is continuously pumped up into the large tank on top. The water weight provides pressure to push it thru the pipes throughout the local area. Bright yellow school busses. Easy to see so you won't crash into them. Mailboxes to make it fast and east for a Postman to stop next to in their mail truck or on foot, and put the mail in. Apartment complexes have as ,many as 50 or more mailboxes in a wall with apartment numbers written on the boxes. The rule ( or law?) is that the national flag is the highest of the bunch, and state flags or company flags will be a little lower.
8:44 We have lots of concrete block fences in the U.S. too, but they normally separate our yards on the rear and side property lines, not the front of the yard/garden.
Yellow is considered a high visibility color, even in cloudy or snowy weather. It is the default used on school bus, but they can be order in other colors.
The water outlet is on the bottom. The fill pipe opens above water level. Water is pumped up into the tower. Gravity provides the pressure to distribute to houses.
Large *huge, really) pumps force the water from the town's water treatment plant up into the water tower until it is full and replenish the water that gets released into the very large pipes called "mains" or "water mains" that run throughout the town. More, smaller pipes lead from the water mains (usually running underneath or right next to the streets) to the homes along the streat. Even smaller pipes branching off that pipe run to all the water sources in the house, such as toilets, bathroom basins, bathtubs/showers, kitchen sink, etc. The tanks are elevated so high to force the water into and along the water mains and subsidiary pipes.
The gas station not far from the freeway here has one of those gigantic flags. It helps people find the gas station. Our city puts out flags on the side of the road on many days. Our mailbox is just like the one he showed, except it is white and we live in a town of 10,000 people. My sister lives out in the country and has a very long driveway and walks out to get her mail, unless it is really icy, then she drives out, which is wise. She is in her 80's. The school buses are indeed everywhere. They are bumpy and noisy to ride in and can get pretty warm or cold, depending upon the weather. I know of people who have had to ride 45 minutes just to get to school. We were lucky and living closer to town, the ride was much shorter. And yes, they do use the buses to take classes to certain events like football or basketball games.
Old houses here in the US made during the 1800's have the "mailbox" in the main door like what Lawrence showed for the UK. There's probably a more technical term for it like with everything. But I always heard people call it a Mail Slot growing up. Some older houses also had a small mailbox that was mounted on the wall right next to the main door. The door for it would flip up and you reached in from the top down to grab the mail. They were usually only big enough for letters and small documents.
We don’t say “mesh” fence. We call it a chain link fence. They can be three to eight feet tall generally. We rented a house with four foot high chain link at the front of our backyard which butted up against privacy fencing for the rest of the yard. On inside there were two gates that were supposed to keep our dogs from getting out when meter readers came in the yard. One of our dogs could get over both gates. We had to add chicken wire fencing to the top of the inside gate to o stop her from escaping.
There's a video on YT that tells how water towers work. Essentially: at night, the water is pumped into the tower to fill it. It is gravity fed down into town as people use it for morning showers, "constitutionals [bathroom]", cooking and everyday uses. At night, the water is replenished. It's a way of creating water pressure using gravity, whereas pumping would require more effort (electricity) than a single continuous pump until filled.
I was a school bus charter driver (I filled in for routes, but main job was field trips), then became the Asst Mgr/Dispatcher for years. It's funny that I can see a bus and pretty much know it's old route... but that was 10+ yrs ago when I did that. :) The color was created in 1923 by a guy to make them more noticeable because he wanted to develop a color that wasn't found in nature. Of course, now we have chartreuse (safety yellow). They're also found in Canada. Ironically, the biggest school bus company in the USA (school districts contract outside companies a LOT)... is First Student... part of First Group... a British company. Possibly the worst school bus company to work for and I call them "First Stupid". I worked for Laidlaw before they sold to "First Stupid"... was a decent company to work for.
Our yards are not gardens. We might have a garden, it would only be a section of the land of THE LAND that we inhabit and buy,, and/pay for. You BRITS , AWESOME! Lost in the pond. YES! WE ARE SHOULDER TO SHOULDER as brothers!
Steel Water Towers are used to add water pressure to that area of pipes mainly due to a low center of gravity, most water towers collect rainwater which keeps them filled year-round and never need to be touched, mainly the water towers helps when a firetruck needs to hook-up to a hydrant having better water flow in the end.
Water towers are simple. The middle, usually thickest pipe, is just a pipe going into the bottom of the tank at the top. When pumps are on and the water pressure in the city/town is greater than the gravity pressure of the water in the tower, the tank fills. When the pumps are off, the water pressure is maintained by the weight of the water in the tower and flows out to the community.
Had a foreign exchange student from Germany once. He went nuts when he saw a hot dog stand on the street. What fun.
Ya, hot dog stands are the best, also, we have food trucks all over the place and look up Saturday markets
White picket fences are not just found in rich neighborhoods. A lot of very small cottage type houses have picket fences.
A lot of the stereotypes of American suburbs are emblematic of California & other flat landscapes! It's easy to put a fence around a flat yard.
I grew up in a suburb in hilly southern Ohio. My house was halfway up a hill, meaning that our garage was tucked under the front porch & up a short hill from the street. Imagine backing down that driveway in a snowy Midwestern winter, hitting a patch of ice, & ending up with your front bumper inches away from one retaining wall, your rear bumper from the other, & the driver's side facing the other garage door! Yet, somehow we wriggled back to the correct orientation; & I got to class on time!
Mailboxes were all affixed to the porch; & because no one fenced their front yards, the postman went up a shallow driveway at the top of the hill, walked across yards; then went down our front steps. At one time, our back yard had a white picket fence, but Father took it down.
Mowing the steep slopes from yard to street is almost impossible, so my house & our neighbors showcased 2 techniques! My parents covered our slopes in bushes & rock gardens. A neighbor across the street tied a rope to the handlebars of his mower, stood in front of his porch, & raised & lowered the mower by rope! Another neighbor buried their slope in ivy.
Ours was a secondary road, meaning it was always fun getting up & down the hill in winter! Losing traction going downhill ran the risk of sliding out into the main street at the foot.
One thing Lawrence didn't mention was post boxes, probably because they're disappearing. Blue metal boxes with a slit for the bills & letters you're mailing. There was one just up the block from my house.
growing up in the 80's and 90's, mail boxes used to be attached to the house at the front door. mailmen used to walk their postal routes. now a days, there are mail boxes at the curb so they can drive their routes. need to remember the UK has about 67 million people, and the US has 350 million people. that goes for the yellow school bus also. they are yellow so they are easily seen and identified as a school bus. 350 million strong comes with a lot of kids and a lot of schools that are not close to most homes.
Flying the American flag: government buildings (federal, state, city), post offices, schools, hospitals, hotels, car dealerships, boats/ships/yachts, banks, houses, sports venues, cars/trucks (decals or miniature flags), etc.🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
So fun fact. Small plane pilots use the water towers to make sure they are flying by the right towns. I'm not sure if that's why the name of the town is added to them, but pilots use them for that in America.
Fire hydrants are other solid colors like yellow, green, white, and even black in my city in Alabama. I don't know if the colors and codes are the same everywhere, but the different colors let firefighters know how much water pressure is within the hydrant.
Downtown areas with several buildings of various sizes, have a lot of red hydrants because they let out more gallons of water at high pressure in order to try to save buildings that may have huge and quick traveling fires. Yellow is next in line.
I've seen a black hydrant, which means it's no longer in service, but just hasn't been moved. You're likely to see a working hydrant next to it or somewhere else nearby.
Water from hydrants is also potable, and years ago in some cities, someone would find a large enough tool to loosen the bolt on the hydrant, enough to allow water to shoot into the air for kids to play in during summer. If the
police came, they'd have the firefighters to shut it off.
When the hydrants are being tested and drained of a certain amount of water, our city would announce it in the news, that the water pressure in our homes would be low for whatever amount of minutes it would take. We'd sometimes see water rushing down the gutter as they tested.
I worked as a USPS carrier delivering mail for a couple of years in Denver. A lot of older houses still have the door slot. I didn't like them at all. Stuf wouldn't fit and they'd always pinch your hand. I think there were several incidents with people getting hurt by them so they kinda did away with them. Also caused nothing but problems with dogs. Try to take your fingers off and then destroy the mail.
Don't recall any newer houses with door slots. Classic mail box is way better and faster to deliver to.
most people would guess water towers act as supply reservoirs that provide the water that comes out of the tap. their actual purpose is to provide the weight needed to pressurize the system. put all that heavy water up in the air and gravity does the rest.
The fire hydrants are also connected to the main water lines for the city. I lived in a small town where we had fire hydrants. And once a year they would flush the lines by opening up the fire hydrants.
Here in Utah someone has created a flag so big that they hang it up on the mountains between one canyon wall to another. It takes many people to hold the flag so that it doesn’t drag on the ground. It is put up for special occasions.