Old enough to remember

[bixaorellana]

To this very day I am mildly thrilled when I cross a state line in the US, so driving across borders in Europe would probably make me dangerously excited.

[onlymark]

What I often find in Europe compared to the US is the virtually immediate change in so many things (language, street signs, shops, etc etc) in comparison, especially when going to what was the east of Europe.

[Deleted]

I think that holds true for almost every country. One of the most visible things that I see when I cross the border from France is the freedom to paint buildings any colour you want. And oh my god, what an awful freedom that can be, particularly in Luxembourg.

[rikita]

i suppose that won't happen when you go to germany though. my polish student that i had until recently told me as one of the things he likes about germany was that in some areas/towns you can't have your roof in any colour you like, but it has to be a colour that fits with the rest of the town... that is exactly one of the things i dislike...

[Deleted]

So France and Germany are the same for that.

[rikita]

seems so... wondering now what luxembour houses look like though...

[Deleted]

They look like people went to a paint sale and bought all of the most horrible colours because they were the cheapest -- vomit green, shit brown, mold blue, etc.

[rikita]

sounds cool, hehe...

[bixaorellana]

Don't know if it's still this way, but it used to be when you went down the bayou towards Morgan City & all those places, you could tell what company a guy worked for because "coincidentally" his house was painted in the colors as the company's boats.

[bixaorellana]

Oh yeah (lost track that this was the old-enough-to-remember thread) ~~

I remember when there was no such thing as "running shoes" and when women didn't go around in big ripstop clodhoppers.

[onlymark]

They were called plimsolls as far as I remember.

[bixaorellana]

I always thought that plimsolls were what Americans refer to as sneakers or tennis shoes:


Sneakers could also be low tops and high tops:
                     

A classic, fairly low key example of the sort of thing people lumber around in now:

[onlymark]

Similar, yes. These were a compulsory feature of school life -

[Deleted]

When McDonald's first opened in my hometown, I remember that hamburgers cost 15 cents (the Big Mac was not to be invented for a number of years).

I later discovered in the big city that there was a chain competing with them (Krystal was the name, I think) that sold hamburgers for 12 1/2 cents. I immediately understood that obviously you were supposed to buy at least 2 of them.

[bixaorellana]

I think I remember when Krystal burgers were a dime apiece, but wouldn't swear to it. They're little square burgers & buns.

[Deleted]

I did see, in Jackson, Mississippi, that they were shittier than the McDonald's product.

[rikita]

i remember paying 20 east german pfennig for a train ticket into berlin from my village... well, actually i didn't pay, my parents did...

[Deleted]

And I remember paying 20 centimes (of a franc) to play pinball machines when I was 11. This was even cheaper than the 5 cents it took to play an American pinball machine.

[mich64]

I remember saving .10 cents from my milk money each week so on Saturday's I could take the city bus downtown to ride the escalator in the Walker's Department store and pretend I was shopping like my mother. I would ask for a transfer when I got on the bus and I had to be quick enough to get back to the main bus stop within the hour to use the transfer home.

Cheers!
Mich

[bixaorellana]

That's adorable, Mich. You were obviously a good planner your whole life!

[Deleted]

I remember when authorities found a postal address to be sufficient.

[Deleted]

I remember when rabbit's-foot key chains were so common that they would be on the twirly display tower next to the cash register, tinted in green, orange, blue... Who killed all of these rabbits and what happened to the rest of the animal? Dog food, I suppose.

And when did they disappear? -- That is the detail that I cannot remember.

[bixaorellana]

My theory is that they disappeared when home pregnancy tests appeared.

[onlymark]

When men carried handkerchiefs.

[bixaorellana]

That reminded me of the stuff that used to be on sale in old-fashioned barrooms -- the kind that were still around when I was in college:

Our bar stocked the full array of miscellaneous merchandise that bars of the era had: cigarettes, of course, but also displays of combs, handkerchiefs, lighters, lighter fluid, flints, nail clippers, lip balms, Timex watches, and tiny, useless folding knife-and-file sets apparently designed for nail care. What conceivable market research led wholesalers to pitch that collection to the bars of America? And what did the display communicate across the bar, and at what primitive level? You’re a disheveled mess, but at least you’ll be able to make fire....
Source

[mich64]

buying my dad hankerchiefs for Christmas...

[Deleted]

My father used cloth handkerchiefs until he died in 2005. He drove my mother and me crazy, but he just could not abide by the concept of "blowing my nose in paper." I still possess a few of his handkerchiefs.

[bixaorellana]

[Deleted]

I had to think for a few seconds, but then I remembered.

[onlymark]

I wonder if the young 'uns'll geddit.