Worldwide Picks: What Non-Americans Love About Life in the USA

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Neighborly Heroics

Americans just get stuff done. They do it themselves without much difficulty or concern.

An example. I am British but have lived in the USA with my American husband for about a decade. A few years ago, we were in the UK for Christmas when there was a massive Christmas Eve storm that blew down trees everywhere, blocking several driveways and the main road through our town. It was the council’s job to fix this, but because it was the Christmas holiday, they said it would take at least two weeks to remove the trees. Our neighbor called to postpone a party, the church was discussing canceling services since nobody could drive into the town from either end, my parents were resigned to going nowhere together for the rest of our stay, and generally, everybody in the whole village was prepared to sit at home for two weeks waiting for the council to fix their problems. In the meantime, my American husband found a fellow who owned a chainsaw (he went around asking at every house, letting himself in at the gates and such, which every English person found very rude and awkward, I’m sure) – and then he personally cut up the tree blocking our driveway, the trees blocking the high street (main road), and then he cleared all the neighbors’ driveways too. It took one day (with some help from local folks, eventually). To me, it really signified a profound difference in attitude toward life. All the locals thought him a little rude, a little abrasive, too willing to brazenly walk up and ask for things from total strangers, too active, too loud, just a little too American – but then, in the end, he was the only one who actually did anything about the downed trees, and he pretty much single-handedly reopened the whole town. There’s just a can-do attitude about America that I love.