# What's It Like Living Next To History? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 15, 2015, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-living-next-to-history/717704 "2015-04-15T00:55:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2015, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-living-next-to-history/717704/41 "2015-04-15T22:37:19Z")
I went to the College of William & Mary, portions of which are also considered part of Colonial Williamsburg, the open-air, live action museum of colonial history. Basically it meant that nothing in town was really oriented towards students; the town was very tourism oriented. On the flip side W&M has very active campus life, maybe for the same reason. CW is kind of neat to wander around on a nice spring day, however, most of the time we ignored its existence/actively avoided it, because, you know, screaming unsupervised kids, stupid idiots in crowds, people who are grouchy because tired/dehydrated/sunburned/bored of history. We’d get occasional tourists wandering into our classrooms very confused. Also amusing: sometimes seeing people in colonial garb at the safeway, if they came straight from work. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2015, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-living-next-to-history/717704/42 "2015-04-15T23:05:05Z")
> [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](#): > > Oh, the heck with all that. The important thing is, should I or should I not READ THE THREAD? That’s a tricky one. I’m going with “meh, whatever”. I can’t imagine that anyone would be too upset if you didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2015, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-living-next-to-history/717704/43 "2015-04-15T23:05:26Z")
One thing that impressed me about Barcelona was walking past Roman walls which were just there. The same effect happens in the US. My parents took us to a historical home in San Diego from the late 1800s. My wife was less than impressed because the house she grew up in, outside of Philadelphia, was older than that and not considered something special. Ditto for where we lived in NJ which was across the street from a wall that was associated with a church which was where the Hessians fled after the Battle of Trenton. (The church there then burned down and was rebuilt a few times.) In college I lived in a dorm which was not old but which was an architectural landmark. Nothing special except some BU architectural class stopped by every so often and startled you as you were heading from the shower back to your room. And here in Silicon Valley the random tour bus goes past looking at the HQs of well known companies. ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2015, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-living-next-to-history/717704/44 "2015-04-15T23:29:14Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > There’s an [article](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/15/world/europe/centuries-of-italian-history-are-unearthed-in-quest-to-fix-toilet.html) in today’s New York Times about a guy in a small city in Italy who bought a building with the intention of starting a small restaurant (trattoria). There was a problem with the toilet, so he started to dig to expose the sewer pipe. He discovered _centuries_-old artifacts (a tomb from perhaps 500BC, a granary from Roman times, a Franciscan chapel and so on). The would-be trattoria is now a museum. > > As an American, I can’t imagine that; you dig for a garden and Etruscan pottery turns up. (Where I grew up in New England, you dig and rocks turn up. Many, many rocks.) Where I grew up in New Mexico you could find 800 year old pottery shards laying on the ground. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2015, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-living-next-to-history/717704/45 "2015-04-15T23:33:41Z")
I live two blocks from the Lincoln Cottage where Lincoln finished the emancipation proclamation. I’ve never been, I keep meaning to. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-living-next-to-history/717704/46 "2015-04-16T00:09:24Z")
> [@RandMcnally](#): > > Heh. I used to work with someone from Croatia, but I once got it confused with the Czech Republic. She asked me how I could do that and I said, “they’re practically right next to each other.” > > “What do you mean? It’s like an eight hour drive.” > > Like I said, practically next to each other. I can drive eight hours from San Diego to San Francisco in that time and still not leave the state… There are anecdotes floating around the US here about European tourists (frequently Dutch) who expect to rent a car in New York and take a day trip to see the Grand Canyon (or, alternately, they plan on casually driving all the way to Los Angeles). It’s over two thousand miles, including hundreds of seemingly endless wilderness desert that is often scorchingly hot and dry during the day. Bring lots of water. I’m so seriously you guys. We don’t enjoy scraping dead European tourists off the parched pavement. The mistake, of course, is based on average distances in Europe versus the US. In Europe, you can be in the next country over in a few hours. Over here, you can drive for three days straight and still have several days of Still America head of you. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-living-next-to-history/717704/47 "2015-04-16T00:44:06Z")
In that respect, I’d liken Europe to New England. In the western US, you might not leave the state even after a drive of several hours. But in the northeastern US, you might cross two or three states in a drive of several hours. ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-living-next-to-history/717704/48 "2015-04-16T00:47:11Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > In that respect, I’d liken Europe to New England. In the western US, you might not leave the state even after a drive of several hours. But in the northeastern US, you might cross two or three states in a drive of several hours. That’s something that I noticed when I moved from CA to MA. It’s weird seeing signs directing me to multiple states from just a couple of miles where I live. ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-living-next-to-history/717704/49 "2015-04-16T12:42:21Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > Living in and around DC, it’s wall-to-wall monuments and historic landmarks and sites. Seriously, they’re just part of the landscape; even really large, really prominent ones like the Capitol and the Washington Monument you kind of stop being impressed with fairly quickly. They’re impossible not to notice of course, and quite spectacular when you take the time to stop and really take a look, but when driving around, say, the Tidal Basin is part of your daily routine, you don’t really even think about it. I’ve lived inside the Beltway and, yeah, cool to look at but it becomes just background. I did have some buddies who visited once and had never been to DC, they were holding up the bills in their wallets and comparing them to the White House and the Lincoln Memorial. Found that amusing. > [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](#): > > With historic preservation, we try to preserve context. The NPS, for example, will try to maintain Civil War battlefields so that they look as much as possible like they did in the 1860’s. And that’s good. I’ve also lived in Gettysburg and regularly rode my bike through the battlefield, but it also becomes just background after you’ve done it several times and summer crowds can be a hassle when you’re just trying to get the exercise. Still, it makes you think about how many people were killed there when you look over the fields where, say, Pickett’s Charge took place. ---
**Author:** ![Orville\_mogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/aeb1de/32.png) [@Orville\_mogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orville_mogul)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-living-next-to-history/717704/50 "2015-04-16T13:15:42Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > As an American, I can’t imagine that; you dig for a garden and Etruscan pottery turns up. (Where I grew up in New England, you dig and rocks turn up. Many, many rocks.) Former New Englander here, now living in central Europe. For 9 years I lived in an apartment in a town with Roman origins and always wondered whether there might be Roman ruins under the building. Well, a few years after we moved out they tore down the apartment building, and sure enough, found… Roman ruins. ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-living-next-to-history/717704/51 "2015-04-16T13:26:14Z")
> [@dasmoocher](#): > > I’ve also lived in Gettysburg and regularly rode my bike through the battlefield, but it also becomes just background after you’ve done it several times and summer crowds can be a hassle when you’re just trying to get the exercise. Still, it makes you think about how many people were killed there when you look over the fields where, say, Pickett’s Charge took place. I am so happy I was able to visit Gettysburg last summer. It was only for a couple of hours, so I want to go back and spend more time, but even then it blew my mind. I’ve read the books, seen the movies, looked at maps, but it’s entirely different to stand at the Angle and look over at the trees where Longstreet’s men stood and think, “fuck that noise.” ---
**Author:** ![Lightray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightray/32/391_2.png) [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-living-next-to-history/717704/52 "2015-04-16T13:44:47Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > There are anecdotes floating around the US here about European tourists (frequently Dutch) who expect to rent a car in New York and take a day trip to see the Grand Canyon (or, alternately, they plan on casually driving all the way to Los Angeles). It’s over two thousand miles, including hundreds of seemingly endless wilderness desert that is often scorchingly hot and dry during the day. Bring lots of water. I’m so seriously you guys. We don’t enjoy scraping dead European tourists off the parched pavement. > > The mistake, of course, is based on average distances in Europe versus the US. In Europe, you can be in the next country over in a few hours. Over here, you can drive for three days straight and still have several days of Still America head of you. Americans have the same problems estimating distances anywhere outside of America. They’re not somehow specially attuned to estimating travel times they aren’t familiar with. I had to go to Hangzhou in China the year before last, and got saddled with a side trip to Xinxiang “because you’ll be right nearby, anyway”. Sure, a 600 mile detour in China is “nearby”. That’s like visiting Washington DC and dropping by Chicago since they’re so close. So instead of sending someone from our Beijing office on an overnight trip, I added 4 extra days to mine. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-living-next-to-history/717704/53 "2015-04-16T13:54:38Z")
> [@Miss\_Mapp](#): > > Have you ever seen the British archeology show _Time Team_? It’s on YouTube. Many episodes have people in the UK digging up their back gardens to find Roman villas, Anglo-Saxon pottery, or Iron-Age burials. It makes me look upon my own little postage-stamp of a yard and think there’s nothing half that interesting under there–at best an arrowhead or two if you go deep enough. That’s nothing. An [Italian man went digging for a sewer pipe to fix his toilet](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/15/world/europe/centuries-of-italian-history-are-unearthed-in-quest-to-fix-toilet.html?_r=0)and found > [@](#): > > a subterranean world tracing back before the birth of Jesus: a Messapian tomb, a Roman granary, a Franciscan chapel and even etchings from the Knights Templar. His trattoria instead became a museum, where relics still turn up today. Apparently Italian plumbers really do find whole different worlds when they go down a pipe. Thanks, Super Mario Brothers! ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-living-next-to-history/717704/54 "2015-04-16T13:58:44Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > In that respect, I’d liken Europe to New England. In the western US, you might not leave the state even after a drive of several hours. But in the northeastern US, you might cross two or three states in a drive of several hours. > [@RandMcnally](#): > > That’s something that I noticed when I moved from CA to MA. It’s weird seeing signs directing me to multiple states from just a couple of miles where I live. It’s also quite common in the mid-Atlantic states too. I remember one trip where I was in VA, DC (technically a territory, but hey), MD, DE, and NJ all in the same day. PA is close enough that you could very easily add it too in an hour or so if you wanted to. If you really want to, you can add Harper’s Ferry, WV in another two hours. It’s surprisingly close to DC. State borders are weird here. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-living-next-to-history/717704/55 "2015-04-16T14:01:53Z")
> [@Lightray](#): > > … > I had to go to Hangzhou in China the year before last, and got saddled with a side trip to Xinxiang “because you’ll be right nearby, anyway”. Sure, a 600 mile detour in China is “nearby”. That’s like visiting Washington DC and dropping by Chicago since they’re so close. So instead of sending someone from our Beijing office on an overnight trip, I added 4 extra days to mine. Amtrak has an overnight train between DC and Chicago, so someone in DC could easily take a two-day trip to see Chicago. ---
**Author:** ![Lightray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightray/32/391_2.png) [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-living-next-to-history/717704/56 "2015-04-16T14:12:55Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > Amtrak has an overnight train between DC and Chicago, so someone in DC could easily take a two-day trip to see Chicago. You can take a bullet train from Beijing to Xinxiang, so it’s an easy overnight. Hangzhou to Xinxiang, it’s a drive, trainride, _and_ puddle-jumper flight; much longer. But Americans expect it’s as easily accessed from anywhere. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-living-next-to-history/717704/57 "2015-04-16T14:34:40Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > That’s nothing. An [Italian man went digging for a sewer pipe to fix his toilet](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/15/world/europe/centuries-of-italian-history-are-unearthed-in-quest-to-fix-toilet.html?_r=0)and found > > Apparently Italian plumbers really do find whole different worlds when they go down a pipe. Thanks, Super Mario Brothers! Seems like I’ve heard that story somewhere before… ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-living-next-to-history/717704/58 "2015-04-16T14:43:23Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > Living in and around DC, it’s wall-to-wall monuments and historic landmarks and sites. Seriously, they’re just part of the landscape; even really large, really prominent ones like the Capitol and the Washington Monument you kind of stop being impressed with fairly quickly. They’re impossible not to notice of course, and quite spectacular when you take the time to stop and really take a look, but when driving around, say, the Tidal Basin is part of your daily routine, you don’t really even think about it. I grew up around DC and know what you mean. Do you ever have to take visiting relatives around touristing? Because I got sort of tired of the Air and Space Museum thanks to this. Which was remarkable considering that I was a teenaged boy. Now days I work about a mile from Edison and Fords winter homes and sometimes walk down there for lunch. Just a lot of old people and bored kids saying, “Wow, look at that tree!” in various languages. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-living-next-to-history/717704/59 "2015-04-16T14:54:12Z")
In Spain sometimes it seems like you can’t plant a rosebush without finding some ruins. There’s places where the basic architectural features have been the same since pre-Roman times (“rowhouses” where each house is four rooms built atop each other: garage/stable/store, kitchen, bedrooms); tiny places that have the consideration of “cities” by reason of having been important way back when. The town where I grew up is more famous for its artichokes, lettuces and asparagus than for anything else, yet it has a 13th-century cathedral that used to be mosque and sinagogue symultaneously (different entrances but you could walk from each part of the building to the other two), some still-standing medieval and Renaissance palaces, a Visigothic church… and of course, yeah, Roman walls under several stages of later walls under the street called “of the Wall”. And if you spend some time in Barcelona, you’ll be likely to learn a lot of ways to try to name the most popular monuments by gestures 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Motorgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Motorgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motorgirl)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-living-next-to-history/717704/60 "2015-04-16T15:43:29Z")
> [@RandMcnally](#): > > That’s something that I noticed when I moved from CA to MA. It’s weird seeing signs directing me to multiple states from just a couple of miles where I live. You can hit all 6 New England states in one day if you plan your route. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-living-next-to-history/717704.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-living-next-to-history/717704.md?page=4)