Reaction To 6 Happily Surprising Things About Living in America

[@tcar904]

I love our national parks. Those trips are usually my favorite.

[@RedRoseSeptember22]

I'm American and would love to visit some national parks, haven't been to any yet and I really wanna go to Glacier National Park.

[@jaycee330]

2:55 Chicago is on the shores of Lake Michigan, so yeah, some nice beaches there.

[@ruth2141]

The US has a LOT of coastline, but you'll also find beaches on lakes and rivers, anywhere you have a sandy shore and some nice water. When I lived in New Mexico we used to drive to Carlsbad to go to the beach on the river there -- in the middle of the desert.

[@manxkin]

Where I live (in the U.S.) we have community groups that “adopt” a section of roadway. We periodically go out and clean up the trash to keep things looking nice. It’s strangely rewarding! There used to be pay toilets at O’Hare Airport but thankfully those days are long gone. I can’t imagine windows without screens, well I can, but it seems odd. Keeps out the flies, mosquitoes, bees, wasps, etc. but let’s the fresh air in. I’ve been to a few National Parks but have a lot more to go. I’ve been to Mt. Rainier, Glacier, Smoky Mts, Rocky Mtn, Sequoia/Kings Canyon, Acadia, Everglades. They’re all special in their own way. The country is so spread out it’s just hard to get everywhere.

[@trevor3013]

There are a lot of types of screens for windows. It changes person to person. My old house had windows that, when closed, were screenless. You could see out the window as if there were no screens. Then when you pull open the window, the screen comes out of the side with it. You are then able to push the screen in the side ahain if you want a completely open window. It was nice. My cirrent apartment has the basic screen. It fits in place and cant be moved unless you force it out.

[@kstari]

Yes, you can take the screens in and out. In the winter I have them out of the windows so I have a clearer view out the windows.

[@georgefox4764]

The most visited national park the Great Smoky Mountains is beautiful.

[@AnnO-k6v]

In the late 70's the United States had a huge campaign against litter, named "Give a Hoot, Don't Pollute". The spokesperson was a cartoon owl. Now many states have laws against littering.

[@DevinMcSalty]

Pretty much every elementary, middle and HS in the us has a “soccer field” or football pitch attached to it and most kids play it in some capacity

[@ruth2141]

My family took long driving vacations in the western US when I was a kid, and I have relatives in New England and have lived in the South for a long time now, so I have been to every state except Maine, Alaska and Hawaii. I've been to lots of national parks and my top four are -- Yellowstone, Grand Canyon and Glacier. They are best if you take at least a couple of days to explore a bit.

[@RealzFoSho]

Chicago is right next to Lake Michigan. There are many beaches along the thousands of miles of Great Lakes coastline. Window screens don't really affect airflow. You still get the breeze through the screen. If you wanted to remove it for some reason, they usually are on a sliding track so you can move them up with your window or you can completely remove them by simply pressing on some tabs that release them from the track to be easily popped back in later.

[@zacharyliles8657]

Hey Mert hope you're well! Love from Michigan

[@tinahairston6383]

The window screens are a fine mesh. You can open them and/or remove them if say you have a window unit air conditioner you want to install or you need to use the window to escape your house during a fire or other disaster. The breeze isn't hampered by them but along with keeping out birds, bees and other creepy crawlers, it also keeps debris from flying in on blustery days. We have poisonous spiders and other bugs that even if they don't kill you, can get in and give you a painful bite. The main thing is to keep the flies out. Nothing worse than trying to eat and you've got flies buzzing around trying to eat your food, too, lol. We had a fly infestation two summers in a row that pretty much made my mother and I EXTREMELY adverse to one staying alive long once it got inside. One of the big things with littering is that there are laws against it so if caught you could pay a hefty fine.

[@FourFish47]

Even better than free bathrooms is that more and more grocery stores have public bathrooms. My motto is, if it's open to the public, it should have a public bathroom. 😉 Yes, screens make a HUGE difference! There's a lot of screened in decks and it's great to sit out in the summer and not worry about mosquitoes or bees or whatever. No. I'm in my 60's. Born and raised in America, but I've never been to the big parks. ☹️ Once again he mentions how friendly and welcoming Americans are, then targets wait staff as being friendly for tips. Let's get it together people! Americans are just friendly PERIOD!!

[@dylanst3802]

I'm from New York City Manhattan is mostly kept clean and many other areas are clean but there are some very unpleasant dirty areas a lot of people throw trash on the side of highways to. But this is just New York and bigger cities in the US.

[@Jiambo]

Taxes pay for public restrooms in the US. I'm all for capitalism so I wouldn't be bothered by a "Pay To Pee" restroom, but I do prefer the easy access provided in the US.

[@nothingpersonal878]

My last trip to Seattle included stepping over used needles and human feces on the sidewalk. Every alley that ran perpendicular to the street reeked of urine. This was my experience right downtown, and it saddens me to see such a dramatic change since I had last visited 25 years ago. Some residential areas are very very nice but sadly not all. Snoqualmie Falls is absolutely gorgeous and very well kept. You won’t see the debris and other unsightly things there. You can point the finger at the excessive drug and homeless problem, but at the end of the day, it still needs to be cleaned up. I hope they can do better.

[@christined6321]

Shamefully, I haven’t been to any national parks. I would like to see them and have moved them up my bucket list.

[@sugarbonez777]

We had a bat fly in our house, we spent 3 hours screaming running around trying to get it out, my husband found our tennis racket it and hit it out the window he flew in on

[@mrgclough]

Texas in the 1950's had a litter problem. Highway right of ways were badly defaced with discarded trash. Born from that was the massive effort that became known as "Don't Mess With Texas", fueled by massive advertising and things like the state's "Adopt a Highway" program where individuals and organizations take responsibility for a stretch of highway, keeping litter removed. All it took was public pride and awareness. Roadside became clean almost overnight, assisted by the state highway department. Local entities took the lesson. In Galveston, I remember a campaign using a cartoon character named Phil De Can. Throw your fast food bag out today, and you may well find someone pulling up and throwing back in your car window. It's really come to be an attitude that the rest of use are taking care of where we live, and you had better do the same. Amateur American football has a low degree of formal organization. But today, football clubs have arisen everywhere.

[@nicknomad7698]

I kicked a woman I was dating out of my truck for tossing a wrapper outta my window. I despise litter bugs.

[@writebrain-zn2um]

I stopped seeing a guy for the same reason - threw his garbage out the window while parked less than 10' from a trashcan.

[@nicknomad7698]

@@writebrain-zn2um people suck at being people

[@JohnVandeLaar-l9t]

Super clean? Apparently he doesn't get out much. I find construction garbage and old appliances in every forest.. As Lou Reed said; Americans will crap in a river, throw battery acid in a stream then complain when they can't swim

[@IronDruids]

Toilets are free here but socially in the midwest you could be looked at funny if you don't make a purchase on your way out. It's considered polite. Small business owners would obviously be unhappy if a potential customer came in only to visit the restroom and leave without buying anything.

[@BriBryBriBry]

Countries that don’t have screens in the windows absolutely blow my mind because it’s just so stupid not to have them. It makes no sense to me. And no, you wouldn’t open the screen to get more fresh air in you get the same amount of fresh air in with the screen then you do with an open window… having a window open with no screen like they do in Europe just makes no sense you can have so many things come in or go out. You don’t ever have to worry about anything with screens they automatically come with all of the windows and always have. All the stuff European say about Americans and they don’t even have freaking screens in their windows. Sorry 🤷‍♂️🤣

[@BriBryBriBry]

It’s not surprising at all that there is a beach in Chicago.. look where it is..