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Post by kerouac2 on Jul 12, 2018 10:25:05 GMT
That is an amazing story, Casimira. But I wish that more women would learn the lesson that they should not try to choose clothes for men.
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Post by whatagain on Jul 12, 2018 12:25:38 GMT
Very lovely stoy indeed.
To react on Kerouac's remark, I on the other hand, have learned the lesson to not buy clothes myself and trust my wife's tastes. I have given away to charity a lot of clothes that I bought alone...
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Post by Deleted on Jul 12, 2018 14:37:16 GMT
Well, in my defense the only other time I made a "mistake" in buying him something to wear was early on in our relationship. He's a hat person and I bought him a hat that I thought he would like. He knew I had paid dear for it and was right up front about it. He was able to return it for a hat of his choosing. I learned that one should never buy a hat for someone else, male or female save maybe a baseball cap. All the other apparel I have bought him over our 38 years together he has appreciated (including vests) and has shown his approval by wearing them. The Istanbul vest was definitely an error in judgment. I think that maybe I was thinking that since I couldn't afford a kilim for the floor I could vicariously enjoy seeing one on his back. P.S. I knew, was positive that would be your reply Kerouac.
So much for the "surprise" t-shirt I was going to get you in NYC with The Statue of Liberty with "sparklies" all over it.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jul 12, 2018 19:41:28 GMT
I have a clear memory from my childhood of being inside the penguin enclosure at a zoo. It could have been Twycross or maybe Regents Park. I would have to have been preschool age. My parents and other guests were sitting at tables drinking tea and I had orange juice with a straw.The enclosure had lots of blue shallow trenches with water flowing through them emptying into shallow blue pools...the deeper water being fenced off...the surfaces were white so the blue lining really stood out...I was allowed to play in the area...remember jumping over the little trenches. I think that there were penguins around but they may have been in the deeper pool...it was all very posh and we were all dressed up. None of my other siblings were there I don't think (but the age gap between me and my siblings is quite big, 5, 7, 10 and 12 years older than me). Growing up in the early sixties my Parents knew a lot of privileged folk through the Science and Astronomy community...although we ourselves were poor as church mice.
Was it a vivid childhood dream? It feels like a real memory...but I have no way of confirming it as both my Parents are no longer alive.
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 9, 2018 22:41:38 GMT
When I was 13-14 years old, my family would go to the Elks Club every Friday night. I think that all of the adults there had a lot of drinking to do, and also there was a bit of illegal gambling. We kids just hung out with each other and listened to music. I always sought out a pretty girl whom I only knew from the Elks Club because she went to a school in a different town, probably Gulfport or Biloxi. Her name was Candy Darling and even then I knew that it was the sort of name that might get her into trouble, or perhaps just into a special profession, in a few years. But back then our main interest was to take control of the free jukebox, even though it never had the latest hits and we would have to search for acceptable music from one or two years ago. The Elks were not very modern. The following year, my family left the Elks Club forever, and I never saw Candy Darling again. But what really makes me feel old is the thought of obsessing over a jukebox.
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Post by mickthecactus on Aug 10, 2018 5:52:26 GMT
Presumably you were listening to mooseic.
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Post by questa on Aug 10, 2018 7:56:17 GMT
He was just horsing around but she was fawning over him.
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Post by mickthecactus on Aug 10, 2018 8:19:01 GMT
Oh deer!
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 10, 2018 16:37:35 GMT
It feels like a real memory It's so elaborate, Cheery. I can't imagine that a dream would have been retained that clearly into adulthood. Have you asked your older siblings? The dressed-up part is interesting. Have you tried googling the two zoo possibilities for that time period, to see if something like what you describe might have taken place? Obsessing over a jukebox doesn't make me feel old because they were around for at least another 20 years after the time you remember, Kerouac.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Aug 11, 2018 20:32:21 GMT
Well the other day we were watching some silly show on tv and lo and behold! The penguin enclosure from London zoo was shown..... c2.staticflickr.com/6/5299/5464004257_d66a2bfc5e.jpgapparently it was only used for short while as it wasn't very penguin friendly...but this is deffo the place...imagine it fromm a small child's point of view
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 11, 2018 20:56:33 GMT
*cue music from Twilight Zone*
That's an amazing coincidence. Did you yell out when you saw it?
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Aug 11, 2018 20:59:05 GMT
I nearly spat out my coffee
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 11, 2018 21:01:16 GMT
You did a remarkable job of describing that thing, which is almost indescribable!
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 5, 2018 15:32:19 GMT
When I was little, we would drive from the village in Lorraine to Alsace for a monumental sauerkraut meal in Alsace. We always went to Obernai, which remains my favourite village. However, between our starting point and our destination, there was Baccarat, and sometimes we would stop to go to the big crystal shop there. It was magical, even when I was 6 years old, all glittery and delicate with little birds and butterflies, paperweights with strange things embedded in the crystal and all of those beautiful glasses and vases. And ashtrays, too, in those days. I cannot imagine stubbing out a cigarette in a crystal ashtray. I remember we bought a little elephant with ears that would change colour according to the humidity -- blue for dry weather and pink for rainy weather, or the opposite, who knows? This was absolutely the coolest thing ever.
Once the transaction was completed, the saleslady took the elephaant in the back room to wrap it up carefully. After a few minutes, she returned with a little anonymous cardboard box wrapped in string. When I saw the box, I asked "How do we know that she really put the elephant in there?" This is the sort of remark that makes adults laugh for some reason, but my doubts were not put to rest until the box was finally opened at home.
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 5, 2018 16:31:41 GMT
I asked "How do we know that she really put the elephant in there?" I think that's a good example of critical thinking by a child. Your story reminded me of my mother berating me because a friend and I had stayed up late and, in my mother's mind, left the living room a mess. She culminated her fussing with, "And your friend Mary put out a cigarette in my crystal ashtray." When I told Mary, she said, "Tell you mother I'm sorry. I thought it was an ashtray." Mary had her come-uppance re: crystal, though. Her mother found one of her Baccarat glasses rolling around in the back seat of the car where Mary had left it after using it as a go-cup.
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Post by whatagain on Oct 5, 2018 16:57:42 GMT
Didn't know what a go-cup meant and always thought Baccarat was in Italy. Am much smarter now than a few minutes ago.
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 5, 2018 17:18:24 GMT
I don't know if go-cup is used everywhere or just in Louisiana. It's a disposable cup you get from a bar or restaurant so you can take your beverage out.
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 5, 2018 17:36:47 GMT
I think go-cup is a pretty standard term in the United States now. But I might be totally mistaken because the term didn't exist at the time I left the country.
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 5, 2018 19:02:41 GMT
Maybe not in the rest of the US, but it was standard in La. well before you left the country. Is there a "real" term for go-cup?
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 5, 2018 19:11:42 GMT
Take-away cup?
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 5, 2018 19:23:41 GMT
Disposable receptacle?
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Post by mossie on Oct 5, 2018 19:33:25 GMT
When I read "go cup", I was thinking it was a receptacle to "go" in when caught short on the journey. Perhaps it was on my mind having just completed the rail journeys from Paris to Ipswich; I don't like to use the facilities on a train, they always lurch at the wrong moment and I don't fancy washing my shoes.
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 5, 2018 19:38:37 GMT
I don't know about the United States, but disposable cups are beginning to disappear in France. At lots of events and also ordinary bars where people can walk outside, drinks are now sold in hard plastic goblets for a 1 euro deposit. You can either turn them in to get your money back when you are ready to leave or take them home. Usually they are printed with the name of the bar or the event ("Christmas market") which sort of encourages you to take them home.
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 5, 2018 20:14:42 GMT
What I don't understand is what happened to all the paper cups that preceded plastic cups? Not only could you drink out of them, then wad them up & throw them away (surely they were biodegradable, right?), but there was the added pleasure of nibbling the wax under the rolled rim of the cup.
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 5, 2018 21:13:15 GMT
They will be back, at least in Europe, since disposable plastic is banned as of 2020.
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 4, 2018 20:57:10 GMT
When I was little, the supermarkets sold little pieces of sugar cane, just as things to chew on. I really doubt that such things are still available.
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 8, 2018 15:56:01 GMT
Yesterday at the store, the sound system started playing Petula Clark's Downtown for some reason. That projected me 54 years into the past and the year that I spent living with my grandparents in France -- it was an absolute mega-hit in France in 1964.
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Post by lagatta on Dec 8, 2018 17:24:28 GMT
The only place I've seen sticks of sugar cane here was in Haitian shops.
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Post by onlyMark on Dec 8, 2018 19:39:39 GMT
I have an association with that song as well because I can instantly smell the glue you got with Airfix kits. That is what I was doing often at that time.
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Post by mich64 on Dec 8, 2018 19:43:17 GMT
Yesterday at the store, the sound system started playing Petula Clark's Downtown for some reason. That projected me 54 years into the past and the year that I spent living with my grandparents in France -- it was an absolute mega-hit in France in 1964. Your post evoked some wonderful memories for me. When I was a young girl, each end of summer we used to spend 2 weeks at my paternal grandparents home. I love that time in my life, so many happy times there. My nana always had a radio on in the kitchen (my dad used to always turn the one on in our kitchen as well), during one of those summers it seemed every morning they played Petula Clark's song, Downtown, I really liked it and remember dancing around the table when it would come on. It was probably more like 1974, but they still played it almost every day.
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