# Cool chat with newcomer made me appreciate my home town a little bit more **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 10, 2018, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-chat-with-newcomer-made-me-appreciate-my-home-town-a-little-bit-more/813955 "2018-05-10T23:51:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Santelia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Santelia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santelia)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-chat-with-newcomer-made-me-appreciate-my-home-town-a-little-bit-more/813955/1 "2018-05-10T23:51:38Z")
I’m born and raised in Somerset, England. I was recently out for drinks with colleagues, one of whom is recently moved here from Venezuela. She was looking at the Pub sign that Said The Griffin - est.1717. And she asked me (paraphrasing) “Surely it means maybe it started somewhere else and moved to this building much later, right?” And I said “No, this is the original building. 300 years old.” She was astonished by this. And it got me thinking, this place is 5 minutes walk from the house I grew up in, to some people it’s ancient, and it’s not even the oldest pub in town. Made me appreciate my home town in a new way. I mean, yeah, of course I knew it had old buildings, but when an outsider comments on it, i don’t know, this was pretty cool. 🙂 Just wanted to share. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2018, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-chat-with-newcomer-made-me-appreciate-my-home-town-a-little-bit-more/813955/2 "2018-05-11T02:32:51Z")
That’s pretty cool. Being an American we do have a few places that old in this country. But not like England. My city of Topeka started in the 1850’s, so it’s not even in your ballpark. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2018, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-chat-with-newcomer-made-me-appreciate-my-home-town-a-little-bit-more/813955/3 "2018-05-11T02:48:01Z")
There’s the old joke that one of the differences between an American and a Briton is that an American thinks a hundred years is a long time and a Briton thinks a hundred miles is a long distance. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2018, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-chat-with-newcomer-made-me-appreciate-my-home-town-a-little-bit-more/813955/4 "2018-05-11T04:16:42Z")
A friend of mine vacationed in London once and recounted to me how surreal it was to tour buildings with furniture older than our country. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2018, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-chat-with-newcomer-made-me-appreciate-my-home-town-a-little-bit-more/813955/5 "2018-05-11T04:20:34Z")
The city I’m currently living in didn’t even exist 50 years ago. Yes, things are different this side of the pond. ---
**Author:** ![Santelia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Santelia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santelia)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2018, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-chat-with-newcomer-made-me-appreciate-my-home-town-a-little-bit-more/813955/6 "2018-05-11T09:35:05Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > There’s the old joke that one of the differences between an American and a Briton is that an American thinks a hundred years is a long time and a Briton thinks a hundred miles is a long distance. Ha! 😃 I like it. ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2018, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-chat-with-newcomer-made-me-appreciate-my-home-town-a-little-bit-more/813955/7 "2018-05-11T09:53:02Z")
As a Texan, it is odd to me that you can visit a pub that’s one year older than the [Alamo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Alamo). ---
**Author:** ![JacobSwan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@JacobSwan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JacobSwan)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2018, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-chat-with-newcomer-made-me-appreciate-my-home-town-a-little-bit-more/813955/8 "2018-05-11T15:46:52Z")
> [@Projammer](#): > > A friend of mine vacationed in London once and recounted to me how surreal it was to tour buildings with furniture older than our country. My bed dates to about 1760. As it’s made of oak the tree was probably alive before Columbus even set sail! The market in my town was granted its charter in 1253. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2018, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-chat-with-newcomer-made-me-appreciate-my-home-town-a-little-bit-more/813955/9 "2018-05-11T16:55:00Z")
My house in Oregon was built in 1014. At least that’s what the number on the front says. ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2018, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-chat-with-newcomer-made-me-appreciate-my-home-town-a-little-bit-more/813955/10 "2018-05-11T17:02:56Z")
I remember a guest on one talk show telling about a town in England called Newbridge. (There are many of them so I can’t tell which one or the exact dates involved). Anyway, the old bridge was looking like it might fall down so they built a new bridge nearby and eventually a small town grew there. Then he said “Of course this is England so the new bridge is 300 years old. Oh, and by the way, the old bridge is still doing fine.” Dennis ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2018, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-chat-with-newcomer-made-me-appreciate-my-home-town-a-little-bit-more/813955/11 "2018-05-11T17:27:49Z")
1717? Positively modern! My old local church had the extension built in 1200. It barely warrants a quick mention in the guidebooks of the area. My brother’s former school was founded sometime before 1256, though none of the current buildings are original (some of the teachers looked like they might be). It was hard to keep a straight face visiting Aussie cousins when they took me to a ‘historic’ local landmark, _over 100 years old!_ I think some of my other relatives have socks older’n that. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2018, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-chat-with-newcomer-made-me-appreciate-my-home-town-a-little-bit-more/813955/12 "2018-05-12T13:13:18Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > My house in Oregon was built in 1014. At least that’s what the number on the front says. I bet it’s like my town, where they built one house a year, but they alternated sides of the street. The difference between Europe/UK and us “bloody colonists” is striking, but there’s even a noticeable difference as you leave New England and head west. Our house in the midwest is something to be remarked on (“Man, they just don’t make houses like this anymore!”-- guest slapping thick door frame). It’s a whole 99 years old. My daughter’s place in NJ is over twice that old, and no one’s slapping her door frames. ---
**Author:** ![RobDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f07891/32.png) [@RobDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RobDog)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2018, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-chat-with-newcomer-made-me-appreciate-my-home-town-a-little-bit-more/813955/13 "2018-05-12T14:36:26Z")
It always amused me that the cottage I used to own in Suffolk was older than Machu Picchu. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2018, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-chat-with-newcomer-made-me-appreciate-my-home-town-a-little-bit-more/813955/14 "2018-05-12T15:12:18Z")
I did a year of study in Cambridge. I loved looking at the stone steps that had deep dips worn in them from being stepped on for, oh, 700 years. In the St. Louis area, the oldest buildings date to (I think) the 1820s or so. St. Louis was established much earlier, but no buildings from that time survive. The first Cathedral was built in the 1760s, but the building on that site today was completed in the 1830s. If you head an hour south to Ste. Genevieve, you can see some houses dating to the 1770s. All very impressive and interesting. Just not 700 years old. 🙂 If you count the Cahokia Mounds as buildings, then the oldest buildings around here are over 1000 years old. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2018, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-chat-with-newcomer-made-me-appreciate-my-home-town-a-little-bit-more/813955/15 "2018-05-12T16:08:59Z")
San Antonio just celebrated its 300th anniversary which is marked by the founding of The Alamo mission in 1718. Also, New Orleans celebrates its 300th anniversary this year as well. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2018, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-chat-with-newcomer-made-me-appreciate-my-home-town-a-little-bit-more/813955/16 "2018-05-13T01:49:05Z")
I grew up in a town that was no more than a crossroads until around the year I was born, when the Ford plant relocated there. Almost 80,000 people live there now. Nothing whatsoever is old there. History does not exist on the material plane. I live in a house built in 1790 now. It was on the frontier when it was built (in western Massachusetts), the first farm there (not the first house that family built on the site, which was probably a log home). Around here there’s quite a few buildings of that era. It ain’t Europe but it does at least give a sense of continuity utterly lacking in the west of this continent. I enjoy it immensely. ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2018, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-chat-with-newcomer-made-me-appreciate-my-home-town-a-little-bit-more/813955/17 "2018-05-13T03:49:33Z")
My dad grew up in Yangzhou, China, and was kind of incredulous when we visited Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia one summer. When we got to the archaeological site where they were recovering material from the original settlement in the late 1600s, my dad commented to me, “I used to play in this brick alleyway as a kid throwing loose stones, any one of which were older than this by a couple of hundred years… What’s the big deal?” ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2018, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-chat-with-newcomer-made-me-appreciate-my-home-town-a-little-bit-more/813955/18 "2018-05-13T08:25:37Z")
My local pub dates from 1546, same building (though much refurbished over the years) my children go to a school that was established in 1563 and out of my bedroom window I can see the first Roman fort in Britain dating from around ad43. ---
**Author:** ![Corporal\_Nobbs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Corporal\_Nobbs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corporal_Nobbs)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2018, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-chat-with-newcomer-made-me-appreciate-my-home-town-a-little-bit-more/813955/19 "2018-05-13T20:52:39Z")
When I was on a ship in Mayport I was chatting at a bar with a nice american chap, he mentioned that we were in one of the oldest bars in the area, 80 years old if I remeber correctly. I told him my local can be traced to a staging house 400 years ago, and I drink with people older than 80 (old Isaac was in for a pint the other day and he is 101!) what he couldnt fathum was our local church is 1000 year old and still used daily… its all about perception. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2018, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-chat-with-newcomer-made-me-appreciate-my-home-town-a-little-bit-more/813955/20 "2018-05-14T01:58:08Z")
It was sobering in Darwin when I walked around looking at a couple of the oldest buildings. They were the oldest buildings for a thousand miles in any direction, and were built when my grandparents were alive. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-chat-with-newcomer-made-me-appreciate-my-home-town-a-little-bit-more/813955.md?page=2)