I remember when.....

[LizzieMaine]

I can remember the last time I bought gas for less than a buck a gallon -- the spring of 1999, when I got it for 97.9 at a Cumberland Farms station in Augusta, Me. It was the first time it had been below a dollar since the early '80s, and is in all likeilhood the last time it will ever be below a dollar in the US.

When it first went above a dollar, around 1979-80, mechanical gas pump meters couldn't go above 99.9 cents per gallon -- so you had to buy your gas by the half-gallon, and you paid double the price shown on the meter. A lot of people got very confused.

 

[Tomasso]

A buck got your heinie in a bleacher seat at Wrigley Field circa 1970.

Today it'll cost you $75!:eusa_doh:

 

[HudsonHawk]

I miss the $1.00 a gallon gas, too. However, I DO NOT miss the $1.75 an hour I was making when gas was $1.00 a gallon.

Great perspective. We like to talk about how low prices were back in the day, but not so much about how incomes matched. Sure you could take your girl out on a Friday night to dinner and a movie for $5, but that was also day's pay.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Well, since you have to all but disrobe and get a colonoscopy to get thru TSA, why not?


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Personally, I don't find taking my shoes off while wearing pants significantly more onerous than if I'm wearing pajamas. And even if it was, I don't think it calls for complete loss of civility.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Great perspective. We like to talk about how low prices were back in the day, but not so much about how incomes matched. Sure you could take your girl out on a Friday night to dinner and a movie for $5, but that was also day's pay.

Dinner and a movie for $5? If you didn't get change back from that fin, you were a reckless spendthrift.

 

[hatguy1]

Personally, I don't find taking my shoes off while wearing pants significantly more onerous than if I'm wearing pajamas. And even if it was, I don't think it calls for complete loss of civility.

I don't advocate loss of civility, but if shoes were the only thing I had to remove, I'd agree more with you. Unfortunately, you've got to take laptops out and into separate tub, EVERYthing out of your pockets and even your belt off and in a container, and if you're below senior citizen age and wearing a coat it comes off and in its own container and next thing you know you're pushing 3 or 4 tubs of stuff on a table only 3 or 4 foot long while people in front and behind have their tubs to fit on their too.

And who knows if your flight will really depart on time or if at all once you survive the TSA circus and get to your gate on time.

All to say, it's a royal pain in the glass to fly the airlines anymore, so why dress up for it anymore than minimally have to?

 

[vitanola]

I don't advocate loss of civility, but if shoes were the only thing I had to remove, I'd agree more with you. Unfortunately, you've got to take laptops out and into separate tub, EVERYthing out of your pockets and even your belt off and in a container, and if you're below senior citizen age and wearing a coat it comes off and in its own container and next thing you know you're pushing 3 or 4 tubs of stuff on a table only 3 or 4 foot long while people in front and behind have their tubs to fit on their too.

And who knows if your flight will really depart on time or if at all once you survive the TSA circus and get to your gate on time.

All to say, it's a royal pain in the glass to fly the airlines anymore, so why dress up for it anymore than minimally have to?

Are you suggesting that perhaps Gandhi had the right idea about travelling clothes?

 

[sheeplady]

As a woman, I cannot dress vintage and fly. There is simply no way I would be able to pass through a metal detector with vintage undergarments. When I wear a skirt, they insist on a pat down. I can't even pass through the metal detector with a set of bobby pins- they set it off. I cannot wear a sweater- they ask that I take that off even if I do not have a shirt underneath.

I will say that I totally love flying. Even being on the airplane, the sucky food, the waits in the airports- I love flying enough to put up with that. But I hate security.

 

[LizzieMaine]

As a woman, I cannot dress vintage and fly. There is simply no way I would be able to pass through a metal detector with vintage undergarments. When I wear a skirt, they insist on a pat down. I can't even pass through the metal detector with a set of bobby pins- they set it off. I cannot wear a sweater- they ask that I take that off even if I do not have a shirt underneath.

I will say that I totally love flying. Even being on the airplane, the sucky food, the waits in the airports- I love flying enough to put up with that. But I hate security.

I can't stand flying myself -- breathing stale air, being cooped up in a seat that makes me feel like a piece of bulk-rate mail, all the hurry-up-and-wait to get to a place I probably don't really even want to go -- but I have to admit I've never had any issues with airport security. I just make sure to wear a pull-on girdle with plastic garter clapss, and it sails right thru. I usually have my hair tied up in a headrag with pincurls underneath, and I did once have to take the cloth off for them -- but as soon as they saw it was just hair, and not a gun or a switchblade, they let me go right along on my way.

Maybe it's just the air of simmering hostility I give off in crowds that keeps them away, I dunno. It does have its advantages.

 

[sheeplady]

I can't stand flying myself -- breathing stale air, being cooped up in a seat that makes me feel like a piece of bulk-rate mail, all the hurry-up-and-wait to get to a place I probably don't really even want to go -- but I have to admit I've never had any issues with airport security. I just make sure to wear a pull-on girdle with plastic garter clapss, and it sails right thru. I usually have my hair tied up in a headrag with pincurls underneath, and I did once have to take the cloth off for them -- but as soon as they saw it was just hair, and not a gun or a switchblade, they let me go right along on my way.

Maybe it's just the air of simmering hostility I give off in crowds that keeps them away, I dunno. It does have its advantages.

lol

Do your pin curls set off the alarm? I've always had to take out the pins.

I don't have a girdle with plastic garter clasps- all the ones I have are metal.

I used to fly a reasonable amount 8 to 12 times a year. I wasn't harassed every time, but after 4 or 5 times you give up. I still wear my skirts and I figure I'll let the lady security person get her jollies off by feeling up my legs. (Actually, I've never had airport security be rude to me, and most of the time they are embarrassed when I have to get a pat down. But that doesn't make it all that great for me.)

 

[jamespowers]

A buck got your heinie in a bleacher seat at Wrigley Field circa 1970.

Today it'll cost you $75!:eusa_doh:


View attachment 11818

They would have to pay ME $75 to sit in that zoo. lol lol

 

[HudsonHawk]

I don't advocate loss of civility, but if shoes were the only thing I had to remove, I'd agree more with you. Unfortunately, you've got to take laptops out and into separate tub, EVERYthing out of your pockets and even your belt off and in a container, and if you're below senior citizen age and wearing a coat it comes off and in its own container and next thing you know you're pushing 3 or 4 tubs of stuff on a table only 3 or 4 foot long while people in front and behind have their tubs to fit on their too.

I'm just not seeing how that justifies wearing beat up old gym clothes and pajamas out in public.

All to say, it's a royal pain in the glass to fly the airlines anymore, so why dress up for it anymore than minimally have to?

Because I'm not a caveman. I don't simply cover the minimum number of body parts to keep me from being arrested. I dress differently when I interact with the public than when I'm lying on the sofa in the privacy of my own home.

 

[LizzieMaine]

lol

Do your pin curls set off the alarm? I've always had to take out the pins.

I don't have a girdle with plastic garter clasps- all the ones I have are metal.

I used to fly a reasonable amount 8 to 12 times a year. I wasn't harassed every time, but after 4 or 5 times you give up. I still wear my skirts and I figure I'll let the lady security person get her jollies off by feeling up my legs. (Actually, I've never had airport security be rude to me, and most of the time they are embarrassed when I have to get a pat down. But that doesn't make it all that great for me.)

Sears sells a pull-on panty girdle with detachable plastic garter tabs that works great for traveling. Good back support too.

I think my hairpins set off the alarm once, but usually they don't -- the time they did I took off my headrag and shot a venomous glare over the top of my glasses at the agent, who broke out laughing, which I guess they aren't supposed to do. But I didn't get pulled aside for Extra Attention either.

Nobody's ever given me trouble for wearing a dress on a plane, which is a good thing, because the only pair of pants I own that isn't unbearably uncomfortable to wear sitting for any long stretch of time is a pair of filthy, greasy smelly overalls I wear for crawling around in the bowels of the theatre. I don't think they'd let me wear those on a plane due to the combustible vapors they give off.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

They would have to pay ME $75 to sit in that zoo. lol lol

I thought that was Comiskey Park.

 

[sheeplady]

Nobody's ever given me trouble for wearing a dress on a plane, which is a good thing, because the only pair of pants I own that isn't unbearably uncomfortable to wear sitting for any long stretch of time is a pair of filthy, greasy smelly overalls I wear for crawling around in the bowels of the theatre. I don't think they'd let me wear those on a plane due to the combustible vapors they give off.

Well, come to think about it, the last few times I flew I was pregnant and I refused to go through the full-body scanner. That is likely why I got the pat down.

But I have gotten other pat downs while wearing skirts. I always get selected for special attention when flying out of my city (one of my friends jokes that the security guys have got a thing for me). Never anyplace else unless I refuse the full body scanner. I always just hope that there is a really hot woman in line in front of me so she'll be selected instead. Occasionally that has happened.

 

[jamespowers]

I thought that was Comiskey Park.

Any baseball park nowadays. I don 't remember when but I know now that the stands of just about any sports stadium is now populated by ruffians, drunks and gang members---especially around here.
As opposed to 1909 at Shibe Stadium:


If you went to a game nowadays and saw people dressed nicely it would have to be a film set. You're likely to see nasty, unshaved, hat on backwards, half naked, face and/or body painted types like this:

 

[LizzieMaine]

The people I hate to deal with at ballgames are two types: the halfwitted college kids who come to swill beer and moron it up, and the "pink hats" who talk on cellphones and jump up and down for the TV cameras.

Fenway Park unfortunately attracts too many of both of these types -- the ballpark is right in the dead center of Boston's college district, and gets all the chowderheads from BU. And pinkhattism exploded around the time of the 2004 championship, when all the bandwagon fans decided it was like totally kewl to go to the game and like sing "Sweet Caroline" and all that slop.

Fortunately most of the beer sponges sit in the bleachers, and the pinkhats sit in the box seats. I stay in the right field grandstand, with my scorecard and my pencil, and just pay attention to the game.

 

[jamespowers]

The people I hate to deal with at ballgames are two types: the halfwitted college kids who come to swill beer and moron it up, and the "pink hats" who talk on cellphones and jump up and down for the TV cameras.

Fenway Park unfortunately attracts too many of both of these types -- the ballpark is right in the dead center of Boston's college district, and gets all the chowderheads from BU. And pinkhattism exploded around the time of the 2004 championship, when all the bandwagon fans decided it was like totally kewl to go to the game and like sing "Sweet Caroline" and all that slop.

Fortunately most of the beer sponges sit in the bleachers, and the pinkhats sit in the box seats. I stay in the right field grandstand, with my scorecard and my pencil, and just pay attention to the game.

Unfortunately, today, sports attract an entirely different crowd as to players and fans. Years ago players played the game for the love of the sport and had other jobs on the off season. Today the players have no other jobs as they aren't qualified o do anything else. :doh:
In football, you have players flashing gang signs on the field to the gangbangers in the stands. :doh:
No wonder the stands have become dangerous to fans. You have to stay home and stare at the TV to be safe. Quite a sad commentary on our times. The Coliseum in Rome was probably safer in the stands---and it was better. You got free admission and bread back then.

 

[dnjan]

Well, since you have to all but disrobe and get a colonoscopy to get thru TSA, why not?

For a recent flight, I removed my hat and suitcoat.
Shoes and waistcoat remained on.
I had converted a pair of suspenders to have buttons and no metal parts, so that helped a lot.

 

[Stanley Doble]

I remember when doctors endorsed smoking but warned against taking vitamins.