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  1. B

    You know you are getting old when:

    My problem with "In God we trust," as well as the "under God" in the pledge of allegiance, which I don't like even without it, is that it is a meaningless expression. It's up there with "Support our troops" bumper stickers. The latter is cheap patriotism and involves no duty, no obligation, no...
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    Old gas stations

    It would probably be more accurate to say that the well-off dressed better than the herd back then and that is still true. What was actually being worn depended on fashion. And if you knew fashion better than I do, you could probably date the photos within a year or two.
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    You know you are getting old when:

    Some revolutionary governments started over with the calendar, notably the French. Ancient governments reckoned years from the beginning of a monarch's reign and let it go at that. We sometimes mention which year of the republic it is, too. But the length of an hour or a minute doesn't depend on...
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    You know you are getting old when:

    Seems pretty simple to me. A day is a day. But the hours now are fixed. But in the days when Quirinius was governor of Syria, the hours varied with the season. But since there were no watches or clocks or smart phones, it did not matter. They rose and set to work when it was light enough to see...
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    Bush Jackets

    Bush jackets, sometimes called bush shirts, have been around at least since WWI, perhaps earlier. I've never read anything about how they originated but they look like an evolution of military jackets for wear in hot climates from the late 19th century. There were earlier hot weather uniforms...
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    Why American Workers Now Dress So Casually

    There was a character I have undoubtedly mentioned before by the name of Sasha Siemel, who was a professional hunter in South America from the late nineteen-teens to the 1960s. There are photos of him wearing riding breeches with leather leggings, Montana peak hat (possibly a Stetson), classic...
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    Why American Workers Now Dress So Casually

    When I have travelled overseas recently, I noted the (other) Americans by their button-down collar shirts. But when we were in London, I only saw one man wearing a bowler hat and few otherwise dressed up at all. Same in Germany and France. It is truly a sign of the decline of Western...
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    Why American Workers Now Dress So Casually

    Well, it looks like bleeding Madras finally went out of style. But the shoulder strap rank insignia has made a comeback.
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    Bush Jackets

    Bush jackets were on issue in the British Army in the late 1940s through probably into the 1980s when DPM tropical uniforms began to be made available. The post-war bush jackets had an attached belt and a rather fashionably wide collar. It seems to have been common to remove both the belt and...
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    Why American Workers Now Dress So Casually

    What's a romper? Anything like a jumper?
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    Old gas stations

    Maybe it's Bimidji, Paul Bunyan's hometown. The Valley of the Jolly Green Giant is in Minnesota, too, out New Ulm way. I've been there and to the other Ulm, too.
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    Why American Workers Now Dress So Casually

    Nothing become dated faster than a prediction. We're living in the future when everyone will have an airplane in their garage and a car that drives itself while the family plays a board game when they go into the city.
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    You know you are getting old when:

    Was "1" a good year? I also like the aroma of ground coffee. I've mentioned before, I think, how certain aromas from the past (I guess they're all from the past) have stuck with me and one of them was the smell of coffee. A&P grocery stores had a coffee grinder somewhere up at the front of the...
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    You know you are getting old when:

    Being sort of from the South, I grew up drinking ice tea all summer long, sweetened to the point of syrupiness, almost. My wife drinks hot tea but to me, it lacks something, even with copious amounts of sugar. Now I drink coffee, probably a quart a day. The first mug goes down fast, too, but I...
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    Old gas stations

    The old Ford station wagons weren't that big in real life. My father-in-law had a Ranch Wagon from sometime in the 1950s. At one time, there were about six or seven vehicles on their property, including a Model A, a Cortina, a Corvair, the Ranch Wagon, a Ford pickup, and a couple of other...
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    Old gas stations

    My wife drove our first Volvo, purchased new, for eighteen years, mostly trouble-free. We finally replaced it for some reason or other with yet another Volvo, which we drove for about fifteen years. It was replaced when it was damaged in an accident. But not with another Volvo. They became too...
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    Weapons in the Movies

    There were German soldiers in Egypt before WWII in the movie Raiders of the Last Art and it didn't bother anyone.
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    Old gas stations

    I couldn't begin to guess the dates of the photos but the first two show a sort of transitional gas pump from the tall, thin round ones. I can still remember fairly well the ones with the slot on the side for the nozzle with the flip-up nozzle holder that turned on the pump. But I don't remember...
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    Alright! Confession Time! What's YOUR "Guilty Pleasure?"

    This might be a long post. I am guilty of enjoying many pleasures, some of which I will keep private. But most are similar to the ones already confessed. Old B-movies can be wonderful but some can just be a little too talky. I love some serials, even the later ones. One of the things about...
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    You know you are getting old when:

    The person that I mentioned noticing in the obituaries was one of the first people I got to know when I moved to the Washington, D.C., area in the early 1970s. I very quickly got involved in several social groups and made some good friends, one of whom I eventually married. One person, a...

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