Text 1582, 100 rader
Skriven 2008-01-31 11:01:56 av hap newsom (1:124/311)
     Kommentar till en text av Ruth Haffly
Ärende: travels
===============
Hola Ruth!

-> 
-> -> But I suspect I saw more of Germany than you did, and probably a few 
of
-> -> the other European countries as well. (G)
-> 
->  hn> I made more than one trip to Germany, even got
->  hn>  to Berlin once and got to see Check Point Charley.
->  hn> I also made trips to Spain, Belgium, went to school
->  hn> in Switzerland, and Italy, Greece, Lebanon, Israel,
->  hn> and Egypt. One trip to Moracco...but I don't really
->  hn> count that, took the boat over and took the same
->  hn> boat back (grin) We were also in the Congo for
-> 
-> You did get around! We saw part of Austria, vactioned in Interlaken
-> (Switzerland) 3 years, saw a fair amount of Germany (including
-> Checkpoint Charlie before and after the wall came down).  I also saw
-> some of Belgium, the Netherlands and England.  We were somewhat
-> restricted with Steve's work, living in Berlin before travel
-> restrictions were eased, a poor exchange rate and other factors.  The
-> fact that we did get the opportunity to go over and live in Germany for
-> almost 6 years was great; I don't think anyone else in the town where I
-> grew up has spent that much time abroad.  I dare say I'm the most
-> traveld of my high school classmates; last I knew, half or more of them
-> were within a 25 to 50 mile radius of where they grew up.
-> 
When I was there, (1960-1965) there were lots of 
bases in France and Germany, and often there were
bus "tours" that would go from one base to another
on a moderately routine schedule. I worked fairly 
regularly during the school year as a bagger at the
commisary so I made pretty good money.AND I had 
a "paper route" in the housing area where we lived,
I'd deliver the base's daily bulliten to GI's apartments
for a quarter a month.....I had about 200 customers
so that was pretty good $$ too. Most of which I spent
on travel, or comic books (grin).

-> -> So a touring bike would have been better in the long run?
-> 
->  hn> Touring bikes in those days had (usually) only three speeds,
->  hn> and that's simply NO good for bike workouts if you're
->  hn> serious...(and only girls and old people rode em) !
-> 
-> Your teen age opinions of them are coming out. (G)
-> 
In those days I had a peugeot racing bike, and it was
my "baby"...never chained it to a rack at home where
it could be stolen...I'd take the wheel's off every night and 
bring it indoors!

-> ->  hn> I had about 6 friends who were bike nuts like I was
-> ->  hn> and we even had a few french kids who hung around
-> 
-> -> Quite a gang of you then.
-> 
->  hn> I'm trying to remember the names of all the
->  hn> group...must have been at least twelve to
->  hn> fifteen of us all total.
-> 
-> Any old pictures around?
-> 
Even in those days you'd be more likely to find
me behind the camera than in front of it! I'm sure
my mom has a bunch of photos from those days
but I don't.

-> ->  hn> When we first got to France I'd say
-> ->  hn> I pretty much stood out like a sore thumb!
-> 
-> -> How old were you then?
-> 
->  hn> Went over when I was 11 1/2, came back
->  hn> just before I turned 16....my "formative" years (G)
-> 
-> At the time when you were open to trying new kinds of food too. Did your
-> mom shop on the economy or just at the commissary?  I surprised some of
-> my friends when I told them that I shopped for some foodstuffs on the
-> economy because we just couldn't get all we wanted (whole grain pastas
-> for example) at the commissary. I'd end up going to a Reformhaus for
-> them quite often.
-> 

Back in those days the exchange rate was 5 franc's 
(nouvelle francs) to the dollar and 4 marks to the 
dollar. When we first got there most of the money 
was military script and you could not even use it 
on the economy. (there was still a lot of black 
marketing going on in those days), but soon regular 
money replaced the script and you could spend 
dollars in town just as easily as francs! But for
 most things the commisary was the best
 bargain to be found. For lots of other things 
though the economy offered a LOT of new 
varieties of  whatever you had in mind!
chat with you soon
hap 
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