Differences between USA/UK; fun facts

Whenever I'm in the USA I get asked what it's like in Scotland. More often that not I now say "It's much the same as here" But I guess on my first trip I saw a LOT of differences. Of course, I've only been to Northwest Arkansas (and just over the state lines into Oklahoma and Missourri) so some of my observations may be state-specific, but here are a few of the differences that I recall noticing that first trip.

In the UK we:

• don't have drive through banks (nope, got to find somewhere to park your car, walk to the bank and get your cash). We don't have drive-through pharmacies or Utility providers either.
• don't have 50 different fast food chains (pretty much we have McD's, BK, KFC and Dominos the same as USA but that's about it - yes there are a few others dotted around but not real nationwide chains)
• get a lot more rain!
• we think 77 Degrees Farenheit is a hot day!
• sit on the right and drive on the left
• have a lot more smaller cars with smaller engines (probably because our gas prices are around 3x those in the USA)
• already have tax included in the ticket price, you buy a £20 shirt, it's £20.
• call it a supermarket (as opposed to a grocery store) and it's pretty standard in the UK to buy your cigarettes and alcohol there as well as your groceries
• call a grill a barbecue and a broiler a grill (still causes confusion when I visit the USA)

In the USA they:

• don't have a National Health Service (most people I personally met can't afford to visit a doctor when they get sick,  and one or two even went thousands of dollars into debt when they needed an operation, a scary thought to me!)
• have drive-in movies (I went for the first time ever last summer, lay on an airbed in the back of the pick-up truck and thought it was sooooo cool)
• are really Patriotic and it's common to see small versions of the US flag in people's gardens
• don't have roundabouts (okay, where I  have been in the USA they don't)
• can turn right at a red traffic light

That's the tip of the proverbial ice-berg, but spending time in the USA, I hardly notice a difference at all anymore. Feel free to comment with any observations you've made.

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Rednecks were Scottish, interesting huh?

I was looking up Redneck 'stuff' for another website and decided to find out about the origins of the term. I was surprised to find that the (or one of the) earliest references to the name as it's present definition in American culture was from 1893 (1): "...poorer inhabitants of the rural districts...", yet there is evidence of a much earlier usage of the term in both Scottish and American history.

The term refers to the Scottish Covenanters of the 1600's, those whom opposed taking the Church of England as the official state church (the political union of Scotland with England did not occur until 1707 when the United Kingdom of Great Britain was formed, prior to this Scotland was an independent sovereign state). The Covenanters held that Scotland desired a Presbyterian church government and signed documents to that effect in the mid 1600's, often using their own blood to sign. Many Covenanters wore a piece of red cloth around their necks as a sign of their position and so the term Red Neck became slang for 'Scottish Dissenter'.

As the union with England became inevitable and executions without trial reigned, many Covenanters fled to Ireland and North America setting up new Presbyterian Churches where they settled. The Dictionary of American Regional English (1) shows the earliest American citation of the term Redneck's used as a name for Presbyterians is from 1830: "...the Presbyterians of Fayetteville [North Carolina]".

There is also a Scottish origin for the term Hillbilly, which I may come back to later in time.

(1)Frederic Gomes Cassidy & Joan Houston Hall, Dictionary of American Regional English, 2002, pg 531

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