Across the pond life

Americans just wanna have fun.

This is, after all, the country that created Las Vegas, crazy golf, Coca-Cola and President George W Bush. In fact, having fun and being happy is enshrined in the American constitution.

I quote: "All men are created equal ... they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights ... among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

I first went to America aged 11 and had the time of my life (jelly beans had much to do with it). I've been returning ever since, and, like the subjects of these photographs by Kate Schermerhorn, never cease to have a good time there.

This is not the corporate good time of Disney or Vegas. This is human-scale fun, forged in a simple, almost child-like desire to make the most of the day. To tie a lace bonnet on your Golden Retriever and enter him in a Doggie Dress-Up contest, to see if you really can eat six hot dogs in a row, to sing the national anthem in false breasts and a two-foot wig, to splash around in the biggest waterslide west of the Mississippi.

Why are Americans so good at having fun? Maybe it's because they live in an immigrant country full of optimistic newcomers. A country where the economy is based on embracing instant gratification on a sometimes terrifying scale. A country where self-expression is encouraged not punished, where social ritual is vital to unite disparate citizens, and where there are 84,000 parades a year (one for every 3,000 inhabitants). Personally, I've grown to love the exuberance, the commitment and the infantile innocence of Americans at play. As the banner held by smiling parade-goers in one of Schermerhorn's pictures reads; "Our Motto ... Not to have Fun is Dumb."

I'm heading to New York this weekend, where, at 4am on Sunday, I intend to be bowling, singing along to Abba and downing margaritas at Bowlmar Lanes in Greenwich Village. Please feel free to join me.

America's Idea of a Good Time (photographs by Kate Schermerhorn, foreword by Simon Winchester) is out next month (Dewi Lewis Publishing, £12.99). A selection of images from the book will be exhibited at the Tom Blau Gallery, 21 Queen Elizabeth Street, SE1 (020 7378 1300) from 22 March to 21 April.