01:29 - 22.09.07
Damascus
I was thinking about the 1960's and 70's. The last time the Canadian Dollar was on par with the US Dollar. My parents would hook up the trailer during Easter and/or summer holidays and we would head down over the border. No hassles crossing either way, since the border guards would look at five children clustered in the back of the station wagon and wave us through. Most times we were heading for Coeur D'Alene, Idaho, as well as Spokane, Washington. We went to Coeur D'Alene, because it was a perfect spot for family outings. The beach, the boardwalk and lots of candy stores. Spokane was where we usually bought our clothes for the next school year. The cost of living was so much lower that, even with seven people to pay for, it was still much less expensive to buy essentials there. In addition, the clothing styles were quite a bit more modern than what we could find in our own city - being part of the very conservative Bible belt at the time. Heading home we would travel through British Columbia picking our own fruit - cherries, apricots, strawberries, apples, peaches -, hiking the mountain trails, and fishing as we camped in any of dozens of forest campgrounds. Horseback riding - my Dad had been a farm boy for a good part of his early childhood - was also always a feature of the trip. The trail rides both sides of the border offered spectacular mountain scenery and fresh, clean air. On those exceptionally blessed occasions, excursions to the Pacific Ocean all along the West coast were also treasured times. I love that ocean.
As I recall, the Australian dollar - $1.15/$1.00 Cdn - was close to the same rate as it is right now, but the British pound was worth over $5 for one Canadian dollar innstead of just over the $2 mark, it is now. There was no such thing as a Euro - now sitting at about $1.41 against our dollar - then. The French Franc was usually riding at about half the value of a North American dollar, while the German Mark was the curreny by which all other economies were measured.
It was funny and synchronous that Alice Cooper was reminiscing about the late sixties, when last my son drove me home. Someone had e-mailed him asking about the fashion of the time and that was what he said stuck with him. Bell bottom pants and platform shoes - oh my -, that British Picadilly Circus look, you know. Now if I recall correctly he never wore them himself - at least not in his rock star persona. Mostly he wore black torn and tattered garments that had our elders clucking their tongues while muttering "degenerate" under their breath. Could have been the make-up that had that effect too. Come to think of it Elvis and the Beatles' hair also came in for the same condemnation. There are a couple of old news clips on YouTube with that commentary running through the music - just very funny looking back on the adult population's hysteria then. No one really knew what to make of Alice in our community, but buying his music or even listening to it was considered a bit risque - at least for the girls. "Asking for TROUBLE" you know, if you know what I mean. Mr Cooper was talking about the cover songs that every garage band at the time knew too. "Gloria" and "Wild Thing" among them. I was regaling my son with tales of the local garage bands that played at our high school. Sons - girls were only allowed to be groupies then - of engineers, doctors and professors trying to pass themselves off as the wild things of the sixties. Whatever.
The other conversions I was looking at today included this joke circulating lately:"A recent study found the average Canadian walks about 900 miles a year. Another study found Canadians drink, on average, 22 gallons of beer a year. That means, on average, Canadians get about 41 miles to the gallon." I don't drink beer - hate the taste - so I guess I'm running on air or empty take your pick. The other conversion was the difference between driving a compact car or using transit with respect to one's impact on the environment.
"Commuting Costs
$8,625 - Total amount spent commuting to and from work in a year
10875 - Number of pounds of pollutants dispersed by your car in a year
5.4375 - Number of tons of pollutants dispersed by your car in a year"
The conversion was calculated using US numbers, so it is a bit out of synch with the reality here. When I was a citizen volunteer on the long range transportation plan for this city in the early 1990's, the estimated cost of operating a very modest private vehicle for one year was $10,000, including insurance and maintenance, in Canadian funds. I am certain it hasn't decreased. Not with the price of insurance and gas what they are.
Last interesting discovery through that little icon I placed down in your left hand corner, dear diary, was the location - added into the regular gold stats counter (which only reports sporadically)- of some of the people visiting your electrons. India, the Philippines, United Arab Emirates and Japan among others. It is embarassing to note that the people visitng must be multi-lingual and yet I don't really know how to even say "Hello" in their first languages. Ok well, Konichiwa and Salaam but that's about it, eh. Guess I have to visit my BBC languages programs and get busy trying to do better. I had expected to maybe see other languages which I could communicate in, if only in a childlike manner - you know, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Greek. I even have a little Latin, although I'm guessing there are no Medieval monks reading your stories.
Anyway enough of the serendipity for now. Good night dear diary.
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