Ah, that's the trouble with Yank bikes. I remember (or rather my chin and shins do) the first American bike I rode.
Honestly, who'da' hought that a back pedal brake could really work?
I certainly didn't, which explains at least one of the white bits of scar tissue on my face...(Thank you, Cal, for sharing your birthday present from your aunt in Washington when I was just SO high to a grasshopper)...