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Grandchildren surprise their grandpa for his 70th birthday by acting out his old photos.

You only turn 70 once--and the milestone birthday is a big one to celebrate. For grandparents, there is nothing better to commemorate the special day than with their kids and grandkids. And one family went above and beyond to make their grandpa feel special on his big day.

Aimee (@athomeiwthaimee), a stay-at-home mom and certified personal trainer, shared a hilarious video with her followers on Instagram of an epic birthday surprise her family pulled off for her dad, 'Papa'. At his 70th birthday, all of Papa's grandchildren dressed up and recreated old photos of him throughout the years. Each one came out individually to show him to roaring laughter that is contagious.

"Papa's 70th Birthday photo recreations 🤣❤️🤣," she captioned the post, adding, "We surprised our dad for his 70th birthday. All of his grandchildren recreated old photos of him."

In the video, it begins with Papa sitting in the family's living room in front of a mantle covered in 70th birthday cards. He is sitting in a chair, waiting for the first grandchild to come out in costume. And it did not disappoint--the first grandson is dressed in an altar boy outfit, recreating a photo of Papa standing in front of an altar at church as a young boy. "Oh my goodness," he says as his grandson walks out.

The second recreation is a vintage golf photo, and another grandson comes out wearing a red tank top and jean shorts rocking a fake mustache just like his Papa did back in the day. He's also holding a golf club. "That's awesome," he says laughing as he shakes his grandson's hand.


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A third grandson comes out dressed up as Papa posing pensively on a tree in a yellow button down, navy shorts and striped crew socks--with a fake mustache, of course. "I love the mustaches! Look at those socks, they're beautiful!" he says. "I made them," his grandson responds.

For the fourth look, his granddaughter comes out in a bathrobe and fake mustache to recreate a lazy morning photo. The sixth look is another grandson dressed as Papa in a previous Halloween costume--a poker dealer, complete with a see-through visor, bow tie, button-up white shirt and arm band. "I remember that!" Papa says.

And the looks just keep coming. For the seventh recreation, another granddaughter comes out in a midlife outfit of Papa wearing a checkered button-down, jeans and glasses with the mustache. She stands next to him to pose exactly as he did in the original photo, and the family laughs loudly.

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The eighth look is Papa from an old photo on a snow mobile, rocking a retro snowsuit. His grandson comes out in a nearly identical one. "That is awesome," Papa says to him.

There is a ninth look, and for this one Papa was in baseball coach mode. Another grandson comes out in a red polo, red and white ball cap and fake mustache to recreate the photo, and Papa is loving every second.

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For the grand finale and tenth look, another grandchild comes out dressed like a California Raisin to mimic a previous Halloween costume. The family's laughter is boisterous and from the gut, and viewers fully enjoyed watching the family come together to celebrate Papa. "People from background should be hired for sitcoms 😭," one commented. Another wrote, "The moustache was the main character in all this!!! 😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣" And another viewer added, "Now that is a life well lived and a family well adjusted ❤️."

Having lived in small towns and large cities in the Pacific Northwest, Southwest, and Midwest, and after spending a year traveling around the U.S. with my family, I've seen first-hand that Americans have much more in common than not. I've also gotten to experience some of the cultural differences, subtle and not-so-subtle, real and not-so-real, that exist in various parts of the country.

Some of those differences are being discussed in a viral thread on Twitter. Self-described "West coaster" Jordan Green kicked it off with an observation about East coasters being kind and West coasters being nice, which then prompted people to share their own social experiences in various regions around the country.

Green wrote:

"When I describe East Coast vs West Coast culture to my friends I often say 'The East Coast is kind but not nice, the West Coast is nice but not kind,' and East Coasters immediately get it. West Coasters get mad.

Niceness is saying 'I'm so sorry you're cold,' while kindness may be 'Ugh, you've said that five times, here's a sweater!' Kindness is addressing the need, regardless of tone.

I'm a West Coaster through and through—born and raised in San Francisco, moved to Portland for college, and now live in Seattle. We're nice, but we're not kind. We'll listen to your rant politely, smile, and then never speak to you again. We hit mute in real life. ALOT.


So often, we West Coasters think that showing *sympathy* or feeling *empathy* is an act of kindness. Sadly, it's really just a nice act. Kindness is making sure the baby has a hat. (s/o to breenewsome and BlackAmazon)

When you translate this to institutions or policy, you'll see alot of nice words being used, & West Coast liberals/radicals are really good at *sounding* nice. But I've seen organizers & activists from other places get frustrated because nothing happens after ALOT of talk.

Nothing happens after the pronoun check-ins and the icebreakers. It's rare we make sure that people's immediate needs are addressed. There's no kindness. You have people show up to meetings hungry, or needing rides home, and watching those with means freeze when asked to help.

As we begin to 'get back a sense of normalcy' or 're-calibrate' to what people in Blue States™ think is Right™ and Just™, I want us to keep in mind the difference between Niceness and Kindness. If something sounds nice, doesn't mean that it's kind."

Of course, there are genuinely kind and surface nice people everywhere you go, so no one should take these observations as a personal affront to them individually. Generalizations that lead to stereotypes are inherently problematic, and broad strokes like "East coast" and "West coast" are also somewhat meaningless, so they should taken with a grain of salt as well.

In reality, a small town in South Carolina is probably more culturally similar to a small town in Eastern Oregon than it is to New York City, and there are some strong differences between various subregions as well. A more specific cultural comparison, such as "big cities on the West coast vs. big cities in the Northeast" might be more accurate as far as generalizations go, but regardless, many people related to Green's observations based on their own experiences.

To kick things off, a slew of responses poured in from people describing how New Yorkers can be cold on the surface while simultaneously reaching out their hand to help you.

Several people explained that the hustle required to afford the expense of living in New York explains why people skip the niceties. It's about valuing people's time; wasting it with nice words is ruder than just quickly helping out and then moving on.

Many people chimed in with agreement with the original post (even some Canadians confirming that their East/West differences aligned with ours).

"No sense of urgency" is definitely a West coast vibe, but is generally viewed a positive out here. And "inconveniencing everyone around them" might be a subjective observation. Maybe.

Plenty of people with bicoastal experience weighed in with their stories of how their experiences lined up with the basic premise of the thread, though.

Though certainly not universally true, the tendency for West coasters to be more hands-off might extend back to the frontier days. The pioneer and gold rush mindset was necessarily individualistic and self-sufficient. In my experience, West coasters assume you don't need help unless you directly ask for it. But people don't ask because of the individualistic and self-sufficient thing, so automatic helpfulness just hasn't become part of the dominant culture.

Things got even more interesting once the South and Midwest entered the chat.

But the takes on warm/nice/kind thing varied quite a bit.

One thing that seems quite clear if you read through the various responses to the thread is that specific states and cities seem to have their own cultures that don't break down as simply as East/West/Midwest/South. There's an entire book about how the U.S. can actually be subdivided into 11 different regions that are almost like nations unto themselves. Even this map from 1940 included 34 different cultural regions in the U.S.

And don't even get a Californian started on the differences between Northern CA, Southern CA, and the Central Valley. "Culture" can even be narrowed down even to specific neighborhoods, and people's experiences and perceptions vary for all kinds of reasons, so once again, generalizations only go so far before they fall flat.

If you're curious about what the data says about all of this, a cursory search of surveys about which states are the kindest brings up a fairly mixed bag, but people seem to find Minnesota quite friendly. A Wallethub ranking of charitability by state based on 19 factors including volunteerism also placed Minnesota at number one, followed by Utah, Maryland, Oregon, and Ohio. Pretty hard to make a regional generalization with those states.

Then again, there's the whole "Minnesota nice" thing, which brings us full circle back to the original thread.

So many elements go into the culture of a place, from population density to the history of settlement to the individual personalities of the people who make someplace their home. And nothing is set in stone—the atmosphere of a place can change over time, as anyone who's visited a city a decade or two apart can attest.

One thing that's true, no matter where we live, is that we play a role in molding the culture of our immediate surroundings. If we want where we live to be friendlier, we can be friendlier ourselves. If we want to see people help one another, we can serve as that example. We might stand out, but we also might inspire others who yearn for the same thing.

"Be the change" might seem a bit cliche, but it truly is the key to shifting or world in the way we want it to go, no matter what part of the country—or the world—we live in.


This article originally appeared on 01.22.21

A woman is sad after getting charged a huge junk fee.

Just about everyone has had the depressing experience of sitting through a long queue to get concert tickets, only to find when they were ready to check out, the price was 30 to 40% higher because of service fees added by the ticketing company.

People often have the same experience when ordering food through an app, only to see a massive service fee applied right before they're ready to place their order.

These service fees, known by many as “junk fees,” are popping up everywhere these days, from surprise resort fees charged when checking out of a hotel to a 4% surcharge on a dinner bill that the restaurant added so you can help pay for their employees' healthcare.


The good news for people in California is that a new bill will go into effect on July 1st that bans hidden or unexpected fees on everything from concert tickets to cruise packages. Senate Bill 478 (SB 478) makes it illegal for businesses to advertise or list a price for a good or service that does not include all required fees or charges other than certain government taxes and shipping costs.

“Our price transparency law is about clear and honest communication with consumers so consumers can make the financial choices that are best for them and their families. This new guidance provides information for businesses across California to ensure that clear answers are available, particularly for small businesses,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement. “The law is simple: the price you see is the price you pay. Laws work when everyone can comply. I am pleased that we can offer this guidance to help facilitate compliance with the law and make a more fair and level marketplace for businesses and consumers."

A 2023 survey of Americans found that 2 out of 3 said they were paying more in surprise charges now than they had five years earlier.

The bill is good news for consumers who want to make thoughtful decisions about how they spend their money, especially when inflation has made it a lot harder to stretch a dollar. However, the bill probably won’t make things any cheaper. Businesses most likely won’t stop charging these hidden fees; instead, they will be rolled into the listed price instead of popping up out of nowhere right before you hit the “pay now” button.

State Senator Bill Dodd from Napa, the bill's co-author, stated its goals: “A consumer shouldn’t discover hidden fees made up by a business when they pay their bill.”

As the old saying goes, “As goes California, so goes the nation,” and when companies are forced to alter their pricing and marketing in America's most populous state, it’s bound to create changes for consumers across the country. The new law could be the first shot in a larger war against junk fees.

In 2023, President Biden called out Ticketmaster and others who charge "junk fees" in his State of the Union address, claiming he’ll get “rid of junk fees, those hidden fees at the end of your bill that are there without your knowledge.” In his 2022 State of the Union speech, Biden criticized the hotel industry for surprise fees at checkout. "We’ll ban surprise ‘resort fees’ that hotels tack on to your bill. These fees can cost you up to $90 a night at hotels that aren’t even resorts,” Biden said.

This Federal pressure led several companies, including Live Nation, SeatGeek, xBk, Airbnb, the Pablo Center at the Confluence, TickPick, DICE and the Newport Festivals Foundation, to make their pricing more transparent.


Joy

Couple who visited all 63 US national parks names which one is the ‘best’

They also listed other awards, such as "most underrated," "most epic" and "most awe-inspiring."

Representative Image from Canva

There's a reason they call it "America The Beautiful."

Longing to visit one of America’s many national parks, and not sure where to start? One traveling couple just made deciding a whole heck of a lot easier.

Matt and Karen Smith have been to all of them. That’s right. All 63 of them. They even survived a plane crash to hit the milestone (more on that later).

In a short and sweet 30-second video posted to their Instagram account, Matt and Karen place certain parks into special categories, like “best wildlife sightings,” “most underrated,” and “most awe inspiring,” all before revealing which park, in their opinion, is “the best of everything.”


Of course, it might be hard to really take in the information the duo give during the first watch, because they captured some truly breathtaking views—from lush forest to galloping buffalo to backdrops that look like they belong to an alien planet.

So here’s the breakdown, for easy reading:

Washington’s Olympic National Park was named “most diverse” as Karen walked through what looked like a mix between rainforest and something out of Dr. Suess.

Death Valley in California won “most otherworldly” for its “Mad Max”-esque terrain

Both Montana’s Glacier and Mount Rainier in Washington tied for “most epic hiking trails,” while Utah’s Zion National park got “most unique hiking trails.”

Utah’s Bryce Canyon was dubbed “most enchanting” as the camera panned under a picturesque stone arch to reveal colorful stone cliffs.

Rounding out the list, South Dakota’s Badlands got “most underrated,” Yellowstone got the accolade of “best wildlife sightings” and “most awe-inspiring” went to the Grand canyon.

Lastly, “best of everything” went to…drumroll please…

…Grand Teton in Wyoming.

While this list is based off of Karen and Matt’s experience, they wrote in the caption, “the great thing about our parks is that you get to experience them for yourself and make your own best of’ memories, which will of course be different from ours.”

The couple have a wanderlust so strong that not even a plane crash couldn’t thwart their plans. According to the Seattle Times, they were flying back from a visit to Lake Clark National Park in Alaska in 2011 when their plane flew into a float plane mid air. Luckily, both aircrafts were able to land safely and no injuries were had.

Next time you’re longing for the exotic sights of faraway places, remember that sometimes your own backyard has so much natural splendor to offer.