"THE USA & DUTCH_ANNA" United States of America by dutch_anna

United States of America Travel Guide: 337,534 reviews and 615,899 photos

"soda fountain" by Norman Rockwell - United States of America

Traveling through the United States I saw many things, that I had never seen in the Netherlands. Or in France or Italy or other countries in Europe, where I have been.
In the travelogues are some of them. I have been three times in the USA now, but almost every day I saw something new and it keeps amazing me.

Read in the travelogues about the surprises!

I'm adding more tips, so this page is continuously under construction.

I collected some links to interesting websites about the United States:

A Tribute to the victims of 9/11

Online Tour of The White House.

The Library of Congress.

The American Civil War Home page.

A website with mottos and nicknames of towns in the USA.

Sam's Mailbox Picture Collection.

Hotel coupons.

Guide to Life in the USA.

The New York Times.

LIFE magazine online

An outline of American History.

The origine of the Nickname "Uncle Sam":
Sam Wilson of Troy, NY, known to locals as "Uncle Sam", had a contract to supply barrels of preserved beef to the Army during the War of 1812. The barrels were stamped U.S. for United States but the locals joked that it stood for Uncle Sam.

Margaret Abigail Walker

FOR MY PEOPLE
by Margaret Walker (1915-1998)

For my people everywhere singing their slave songs
repeatedly: their dirges and their ditties and their blues
and jubilees, praying their prayers nightly to an
unknown god, bending their knees humbly to an
unseen power;

For my people lending their strength to the years, to the
gone years and the now years and the maybe years,
washing ironing cooking scrubbing sewing mending
hoeing plowing digging planting pruning patching
dragging along never gaining never reaping never
knowing and never understanding;

For my playmates in the clay and dust and sand of Alabama

backyards playing baptizing and preaching and doctor
and jail and soldier and school and mama and cooking
and playhouse and concert and store and hair and Miss
Choomby and company;

For the cramped bewildered years we went to school to learn
to know the reasons why and the answers to and the
people who and the places where and the days when, in
memory of the bitter hours when we discovered we
were black and poor and small and different and nobody
cared and nobody wondered and nobody understood;

For the boys and girls who grew in spite of these things to
be man and woman, to laugh and dance and sing and
play and drink their wine and religion and success, to
marry their playmates and bear children and then die
of consumption and anemia and lynching;

For my people thronging 47th Street in Chicago and Lenox
Avenue in New York and Rampart Street in New
Orleans, lost disinherited dispossessed and happy
people filling the cabarets and taverns and other
people's pockets needing bread and shoes and milk and
land and money and something--something all our own;

For my people walking blindly spreading joy, losing time

being lazy, sleeping when hungry, shouting when
burdened, drinking when hopeless, tied, and shackled
and tangled among ourselves by the unseen creatures
who tower over us omnisciently and laugh;

For my people blundering and groping and floundering in
the dark of churches and schools and clubs and
societies, associations and councils and committees and
conventions, distressed and disturbed and deceived and
devoured by money-hungry glory-craving leeches,
preyed on by facile force of state and fad and novelty, by
false prophet and holy believer;

For my people standing staring trying to fashion a better way

from confusion, from hypocrisy and misunderstanding,
trying to fasion a world that will hold all the people,
all the faces, all the adams and eves and their countless
generations;

Let a new earth rise. Let another world be born. Let a
bloody peace be written in the sky. Let a second
generation full of courage issue forth; let a people
loving freedom come to growth. Let a beauty full of
healing and a strength of final clenching be the pulsing
in our spirits and our blood. Let the martial songs be
written, let the dirges disappear. Let a race of men now
rise and take control.

the Santa Maria

Prayer of Columbus
By Walt Whitman
1819-1892

A batter'd, wreck'd old man,
Thrown on this savage shore, far, far from home,
Pent by the sea and dark rebellious brows, twelve dreary months,
Sore, stiff with many toils, sicken'd and nigh to death,
I take my way along the island's edge,
Venting a heavy heart.

I am too full of woe!
Haply I may not live another day;
I cannot rest O God, I cannot eat or drink or sleep,
Till I put forth myself, my prayer, once more to Thee,
Breathe, bathe myself once more in Thee, commune with Thee,
Report myself once more to Thee.

Thou knowest my years entire, my life,
My long and crowded life of active work, not adoration merely;
Thou knowest the prayers and vigils of my youth,
Thou knowest my manhood's solemn and visionary meditations,
Thou knowest how before I commenced I devoted all to come to Thee,
Thou knowest I have in age ratified all those vows and strictly kept them,
Thou knowest I have not once lost nor faith nor ecstasy in Thee,
In shackles, prison'd, in disgrace, repining not,
Accepting all from Thee, as duly come from Thee.

All my emprises have been fill'd with Thee,
My speculations, plans, begun and carried on in thoughts of Thee,
Sailing the deep or journeying the land for Thee;
Intentions, purports, aspirations mine, leaving results to Thee.

O I am sure they really came from Thee,
The urge, the ardor, the unconquerable will,
The potent, felt, interior command, stronger than words,
A message from the Heavens whispering to me even in sleep,
These sped me on.

By me and these the work so far accomplish'd,
By me earth's elder cloy'd and stifled lands uncloy'd, unloos'd,
By me the hemispheres rounded and tied, the unknown to the known.

The end I know not, it is all in Thee,
Or small or great I know not--haply what broad fields, what lands,
Haply the brutish measureless human undergrowth I know,
Transplanted there may rise to stature, knowledge worthy Thee,
Haply the swords I know may there indeed be turn'd to reaping-tools,
Haply the lifeless cross I know, Europe's dead cross, may bud and
blossom there.

One effort more, my altar this bleak sand;
That Thou O God my life hast lighted,
With ray of light, steady, ineffable, vouchsafed of Thee,
Light rare untellable, lighting the very light,
Beyond all signs, descriptions, languages;
For that O God, be it my latest word, here on my knees,
Old, poor, and paralyzed, I thank Thee.

My terminus near,
The clouds already closing in upon me,
The voyage balk'd, the course disputed, lost,
I yield my ships to Thee.

My hands, my limbs grow nerveless,
My brain feels rack'd, bewilder'd,
Let the old timbers part, I will not part,
I will cling fast to Thee, O God, though the waves buffet me,
Thee, Thee at least I know.

Is it the prophet's thought I speak, or am I raving?
What do I know of life? what of myself?
I know not even my own work past or present,
Dim ever-shifting guesses of it spread before me,
Of newer better worlds, their mighty parturition,
Mocking, perplexing me.

And these things I see suddenly, what mean they?
As if some miracle, some hand divine unseal'd my eyes,
Shadowy vast shapes smile through the air and sky,
And on the distant waves sail countless ships,
And anthems in new tongues I hear saluting me.

Last visit to United States of America: Dec 1999
Intro Updated May 10, 2010
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Reviews (7)

Rosie the Riveter - United States of America

Rosie the Riveter. Favorites (5)

In Sacramento's Railroad Museum, in the shop, I met for the first time Rosie the Riveter. On posters and stickers. She... more travel advice

Newspaper boxes - United States of America

Newspaper boxes Favorites (5)

You can buy newspapers in the streets, from their boxes. Put 50c in and open the box. And take one newspaper from the... more travel advice

Adopt-a-Highway! - United States of America

Adopt-a-Highway! Favorites (5)

The first time I saw a sign along the road of "Adopt-a-Highway" I thought, that people as sponsors paid for the cleaning... more travel advice

The school bus - United States of America

The school bus Favorites (5)

I love them. Maybe American children don't like them, because they have to do with school and who likes to go to school.... more travel advice

Hotels (1)
Sleeping in Seattle and other places.

Transportation (1)
Travel by car.

Travelogues (1)

Written Mar 18, 2004

21 photos

USA SURPRISES

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Comments (31)

alza Jun 15, 2005 at 12:03 AM Report Abuse

Hello! How's your day today? LOL. I like Rosie the Riveter too (I think she's MY mom! haha) Tks for a great take on the USA!
Leipzig Feb 6, 2004 at 1:13 AM Report Abuse

Goede morgen! Great page and very helpful tips! Didn't know tax is not included in prices
was_the_beav Nov 20, 2003 at 11:24 AM Report Abuse

How I wish our paths had crossed in your travels here...but how glad I am they crossed anywhere at all. Lovely page, Anna.
o00o Mar 29, 2003 at 3:25 AM Report Abuse

Great Text and Photos!!! Just got back from NYC and I had great fun there..
truus_s Oct 12, 2002 at 10:30 AM Report Abuse

HOI!!great and nice page!!greetings truus
RhondaRuth Jul 16, 2002 at 1:01 PM Report Abuse

Frantastic insight! And I loved your Holland and coffee there
feline01 May 20, 2002 at 12:29 PM Report Abuse

Wonderful insight though I disagree about the coffee-good cof
eden_teuling May 20, 2002 at 12:21 PM Report Abuse

a more than GREAT, FANTASTIC page Anna! dank je wel!!
dantes2 Nov 3, 2001 at 6:26 AM Report Abuse

Simply a terrific page!
seagoingJLW Oct 6, 2001 at 5:50 AM Report Abuse

I think this is the best and most original page on the USA.