Text 1797, 117 rader
Skriven 2008-02-03 17:00:18 av hap newsom (1:124/311)
     Kommentar till en text av Ruth Haffly
Ärende: RE: travels
===================
Hullo Ruth!

-> 
-> ->  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
-> 
->  hn> When I was there, (1960-1965) there were lots of
->  hn> bases in France and Germany, and often there were
->  hn> bus "tours" that would go from one base to another
-> 
-> No such thing when we were there except the duty train between 
Frankfurt
-> & Berlin. I rode it several times.
-> 
What a bummer! 

->  hn> on a moderately routine schedule. I worked fairly
->  hn> regularly during the school year as a bagger at the
->  hn> commisary so I made pretty good money.AND I had
->  hn> a "paper route" in the housing area where we lived,
-> 
-> Sounds like you were making good money then, espcially for a kid.
-> 
->  hn> so that was pretty good $$ too. Most of which I spent
->  hn> on travel, or comic books (grin).
-> 
-> IOW, blew on whatever you wanted.
-> 

Well, I didn't have any savings to speak of
if that's what you mean (grin)! Of course if I still had
some of those comics they'd be worth a whole lot of 
$$ now, same goes for all the bubble gum baseball cards
I had...But I did buy my bike with my own money, and 
traveled on my own money and bought all my ski and baseball
gear with my own money. 

-> ->  hn> serious...(and only girls and old people rode em) !
-> 
-> -> Your teen age opinions of them are coming out. (G)
-> 
->  hn> In those days I had a peugeot racing bike, and it was
->  hn> my "baby"...never chained it to a rack at home where
->  hn> it could be stolen...I'd take the wheel's off every night and
->  hn> bring it indoors!
-> 
-> As long as your parents put up with it. I guess they probably figured
-> there were worse things you couldhave gotten into.
-> 
As long as it went into my bedroom and no one tripped over it
no problem...if my dad had ever tripped over it he'd have 
converted it into scrap metal on the spot...as well as
my backside!

-> ->  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
-> 
->  hn> Back in those days the exchange rate was 5 franc's
->  hn> (nouvelle francs) to the dollar and 4 marks to the
->  hn> dollar. When we first got there most of the money
->  hn> was military script and you could not even use it
->  hn> on the economy. (there was still a lot of black
->  hn> marketing going on in those days), but soon regular
->  hn> money replaced the script and you could spend
->  hn> dollars in town just as easily as francs! But for
->  hn>  most things the commisary was the best
-> 
-> It sure changed in the time between your living over there and mine!
-> France, no longer part of NATO, had no bases.  We got paid in $$
-> (actually, direct deposit to the bank) and the exchange rate was 2/1,
-> DM/$, most of the time.  The commissary caried both German grass fed
-> beef and imported American for a while; I forget just why but for a few
-> months they gave away the American--2 packs per ration card (using the
-> tobacco/alcohol cards).
-> 
I think one of the reasons France tossed us out was
that France felt as if  it was getting no benefit from having us there.
Most of the American dollars that you'd find on the economy
got there by way of the black market. Most GI's shopped at
the Commisary and the Exchange and those that 
did shop on the economy lived there as well. Of course 
once all those american dollars left with the americans
they found that there had been a big lift to the French 
economy created soley by the Americans and thier dollars!

->  hn>  bargain to be found. For lots of other things
->  hn> though the economy offered a LOT of new
->  hn> varieties of  whatever you had in mind!
-> 
-> Yes, and it was always fun trying them. Kinder eir bring back fond
-> memories for our girls.
-> 
-> 
I have a lot of memories of those days, some good
some bad...but mostly I remember the good ones
and try to forget the bad ones!
chat with you soon
hap 
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