American Reacts to Outdoor Objects You Can't Find in Britain

The hydrant picture he showed is just the identification plate. The hydrant itself is a little metal flap in the ground like a small manhole with the letters ’FH’ cast into the lid. The stand pipe is carried on the fire engine and the firefighter will see the identification plate and can tell that an 80mm supply pipe is 2 meters in front of the identification plate.

In the UK we don't "swear allegance to the flag" so the flag is just that, a flag, not a symbol of the nation. The military swore allegance to the Queen (rest her soul) not the flag.

We don’t normally have specific school buses because we have this novel idea called “public transport”.

American yellow school buses and red fire hydrants are as iconic to us, as British red telephone boxes and double-decker buses are to Americans. Virtually no-one flies a flag outside their house or on public buildings in the UK, America is soooooo patriotic it seems a bit culty to us, especially when you salute it and make people recite that pledge thing.

In my almost 47 years of life I've never seen a water tower here in the UK. Even living all my childhood and early adulthood in the countryside your water is just mains pumped to your house like it is in a city.

Australia doesn’t have visible fire hydrants either. Ours are in the ground. The firefighters lift the metal cover and attach the hose end.

As previously said, we DO have water towers in the UK, but they are very very few and far between. The few that I have seen are concrete, but the vast majority of our water comes from gravity reservoirs which are either open and above ground or (very often) underground (in built-up areas/suburbs - hidden under low hills). The only billboards we tend to see off roads/motorways are on the side of an old truck in a farmers field. People don't like them. We have occasional school buses but they tend to be just a normal bus (lots of different colours) hired twice a day. In general we don't bus our kids to school - they walk or take regular transport or the parents do a school run. (The distances except in very rural areas are not far). Mesh fences are VERY rare in the UK around residential homes. Ours are hedges (of privet or box-plants) or lap board fences (look it up!). In the 19th century the GPO (General Post Office) strongly advised homeowners to install a letter slit (mail slot) into front doors, and virtually everyone has one. Even a remote country cottage down a lane a mile from the main road will get their mail through their door. Regarding the culture references - one striking change is that American shows will be shown in the UK (or Australia/Europe etc) as made. Successful British or Australian shows get remade for a US audience (and the remakes are normally not as good as the originals) - because the US networks think that America couldn't cope with something not "made in America"! This is one of the weirdest nationalistic traits of the US (along with the flag). No-one flies a flag outside their house- most of us realise where we live!- although when the world cup (soccer) is on you do see many England (or Scotland/Wales) flags outside kid's bedroom windows!

Brits often grow a hedge around their gardens, with a gate to let people enter

I’m curious what interactions Tyler has had with fire hydrants?🤔 And no, Brits don’t have trash cans. They have rubbish bins.

The UK hydrant that was shown is a marker, not the place where the water is dispensed, it's an indicator to show it's nearby, and basic directions. The top number marks the size of the connector in mm, and the bottom number marks the distance the connector is from the marker in meters. The connector is normally under a small cover in the pavement/sidewalk/road. This is lifted, and the hose attached.

All fire hydrants in Britain are underground to stop them freezing. They are accessible through cast iron covers which can be broken with a sledge hammer if they are stuck. Flying our flag or displaying it at home or on vehicles is considered crass. We have taken to heart Dr Samuel Johnson’s saying “patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel”. To show our patriotism we just say we are English, Scottish, Welsh or British

There are very few water towers in the UK because we don't usually need them...unless it's a sparcely populated area with few houses. Our water usually comes straight from the mains or from large storage reservoirs built at higher levels and often hidden inside man-made hills - they are basically gigantic concrete tanks hidden in a hill!

Most kids would use a regular bus, but those same bus companies also put on limited timetable school bus routes to fill in necessary gaps. These would be visually identical to the regular buses in your town.

i would say that the yellow school bus is probably as iconically American to us as the red double decker is to you.

In UK white picket fences are rare, as are the chain link fence shown (these tend to be used in commercial or older properties). The type of fences/boundaries used are often local choices but range through, none, rope on small posts, a hedge plant (often Privet), brick walls, stone walls, Aris rails, Lapped planks, woven planking (panels)

We do have metal mesh fence in the UK. They are slightly different as they have a protective plastic to reduce corrosion and are usually a green colour. They are more commonly found in the back yard. Not so much on the front or sides of property. Plus most people rip these fences out and install a wooden fence. Brick and local stone is mostly on the front of the property 😊

It's an interesting cultural difference. I was almost stopped dead in my tracks by a highway billboard in Missouri that advertised something like "Joe's Adult Toys Emporium in 15 miles". The questions went something along the lines of: - Why are you telling this now? - In fact, why are you telling me this at all?

Our fire hydrants are set into the ground. What he is showing in the video is an marker that tell the firemen there a hydrant near-by. The "H" indicates its a hydrant then the numbers tell you the size of the pipe and the distance from the marker. Effectively in the ground is a connection to a water main with value that our firemen connect a stand-pipe too, then connect their hose to stand-pipe and open the valve to get water.

The iconic American fire hydrant was made here in my home town of Rotherham Yorkshire. The company making them Guest and Chimes went out of business just a few years ago. Their factory is being preserved as a Grade 11 listed building.

The slot in the door is called the letter box, but we have large rounded red pillar box's that you can put letters in which are collected a couple of times a day, these letters are taken to a sorting office and sent on to the appropriate address.