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GentWhoCodes | 3 years ago

Heh

It occurred to me that many of us in Blighty will pop out this lunchtime for a pint and a bite to eat in a pub older than the USA.

discuss

order

galdosdi|3 years ago

Ah, this is rare, but here in the USA, I used to get drunk with my coworkers back in my 20s at a bar older than the USA.

Before reading on, you can probably guess what region of the USA I was in-- the northeast, which relates to the rest of the US somewhat as Europe relates to the US as a whole.

It was Fraunces Tavern in downtown Manhattan, where George Washington was reputed to spend a lot of his time during the part of his presidency in which Manhattan (then known as New York) was the seat of government, so it was older than 1789 I guess.

It's strange to reflect that on the one hand, this is one of the oldest places in the USA, but on the other hand, it would not be especially old in Europe.

Outside of the northeast and Chicago, almost everything was built in the 20th century, within the lifetime of relatives I've met.

I miss old things so much when I'm in the non-northeast US. I suspect I would really enjoy visiting Europe for this reason.

thechao|3 years ago

I consider the USA to be the rightful successor to George III, and the UK to be the rogue break-away state. Therefore, you're in a pub older than the UK, wrongly kept after The Glorious Revolution!

galdosdi|3 years ago

You know, there's an alternate history slightly plausible where the 1789 Constitutional Convention decided we needed a monarchy, not a republic.

I'm not sure how likely that would have seemed at the time, but if so, they might have crowned someone like say, George Washington as say, George IV of the United Kingdom of American States or some such. And then there might very well be something to your joke!

nirimda|3 years ago

I suppose it's easy enough for many of you in Blighty to pop out this lunchtime for a pint and a bite to eat in a pub older than the UK itself. As an Australian I'm always surprised at how long ago European colonisation of North America began, but it's probably not too hard to find pubs from before then, as well.