A frolic in Cambodia

[dtb]

Originally posted by robustpuppy
Right, that was my joke. (But great pictures.)

And my Barbie had a side thing going with the dad from the Happy Family.

The Happy Family? Hmmm. I'm not familiar with that. In my hippie household, I was not permitted to have Barbie dolls. I could have Skipper and Dawn dolls (did anyone else have Dawn dolls? None of my friends did -- I have no idea where my mother got them -- perhaps she had a factory in the basement...), and of course the Sunshine Family (for whom you had to make clothes and home furnishings from the scraps of fabric your hippie mother had lying around the house.)

Other hippie rules of my household: no plastic sandwich bags (waxed paper only -- I was the ONLY kid in school without plastic sandwich bags) and no paper lunch bags (environmentally friendly lunch boxes only), no watching The Flinstones (my mother felt it was demeaning to women), no Wonder Bread (again -- the ONLY kid...), no Skippy/Jif/National Brand peanut butter -- only the organic kind (where the hell my mother found this stuff in the 70's, I can't imagine).

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally posted by dtb
This is going to sound weird, but whatevah...

Every morning, we call a car service to take our oldest kid to school (his school is not easily reachable by public transportation -- it would take about an hour to get there on the bus, and it's only about 3 miles away -- and there are no taxis in the morning, so we call the car service, which costs the same as a taxi anyway -- but clearly, I've digressed here...). So anyway, the two car services we use are run by Spanish-speaking people. One is Puerto Rican, and they have some black drivers who do not speak Spanish -- most of these are Haitian I think. The other one is Dominican (I think), and they have virtually no drivers who speak anything but Spanish.

Anyway, when we go with the Puerto Rican car company, we can always tell who speaks Spanish and who doesn't, even before the driver speaks -- and many of the PR, DR drivers are black, so it's not that. I don't know why, but there it is. My husband always gets it right -- i.e., he speaks English to the non-Spanish speakers, and Spanish to the hermanos.

He should be a diplomat. [Anyone who knows my husband has just fallen out of his/her chair at the very thought of that...]

You-you don't know what it's like to have to suck up to people you can't stand just 'cause they have money. You don't know what it's like.

[ThurgreedMarshall]

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
You're sooooooo fucking cool!

Is it because you have no fucking clue what cool looks like that you would post something as stupid (even for you) as this?

TM

[ThurgreedMarshall]

Originally posted by SlaveNoMore
You still do, Big Pun.

Go get your fruit box.

TM

[greatwhitenorthchick]

Originally posted by dtb
The Happy Family? Hmmm. I'm not familiar with that. In my hippie household, I was not permitted to have Barbie dolls. I could have Skipper and Dawn dolls (did anyone else have Dawn dolls? None of my friends did -- I have no idea where my mother got them -- perhaps she had a factory in the basement...), and of course the Sunshine Family (for whom you had to make clothes and home furnishings from the scraps of fabric your hippie mother had lying around the house.)

Other hippie rules of my household: no plastic sandwich bags (waxed paper only -- I was the ONLY kid in school without plastic sandwich bags) and no paper lunch bags (environmentally friendly lunch boxes only), no watching The Flinstones (my mother felt it was demeaning to women), no Wonder Bread (again -- the ONLY kid...), no Skippy/Jif/National Brand peanut butter -- only the organic kind (where the hell my mother found this stuff in the 70's, I can't imagine).

I believe our mothers went to the same parenting schools. I was, however, allowed to have Sindi dolls, which was the British Barbie equivalent (not the non-union Mexican equivalent). Anyway, Sindi was sent by a sympathetic auntie who thought my parents were a little overboard.

We were also not allowed to watch Hogan's Heroes. But we did anyway. My mother also had a problem with Eight is Enough. But I think that is just because she's insane.

[Alex_de_Large]

Originally posted by NotFromHere
Depressing? What if someone took you on a date to a place that served nothing but cereal?
All-cereal restaurant opens in Philadelphia
Sit-down cafe features servers dressed in pajamas.
Behind glass-door kitchen-style cabinets at Cereality are 30 varieties of brand-name cold cereal. Customers order from “cereologists,” whose most popular mix is two 8-ounce scoops with one of 36 toppings, plus regular, flavored or soy milk for $2.95.
Cereality also offers its own combos with names reminiscent of Ben and Jerry’s ice creams. John Merz, a 27-year-old Penn employee, was bowled over by Devil Made Me Do It — an ambrosial elixir of Cocoa Puffs, Lucky Charms, chocolate crunchies and malt balls, topped with milk.
“I think this would be a good place for a date,” she said. “You could learn a lot about a person by what cereal they choose.”

I think you could learn a lot about a person who takes you to a cereal bar for a date.

As someone whose cereal tastes tend toward grape Nuts, that place has no appeal.

[ThurgreedMarshall]

Originally posted by NotFromHere
Depressing? What if someone took you on a date to a place that served nothing but cereal?
All-cereal restaurant opens in Philadelphia
Sit-down cafe features servers dressed in pajamas.
Behind glass-door kitchen-style cabinets at Cereality are 30 varieties of brand-name cold cereal. Customers order from “cereologists,” whose most popular mix is two 8-ounce scoops with one of 36 toppings, plus regular, flavored or soy milk for $2.95.
Cereality also offers its own combos with names reminiscent of Ben and Jerry’s ice creams. John Merz, a 27-year-old Penn employee, was bowled over by Devil Made Me Do It — an ambrosial elixir of Cocoa Puffs, Lucky Charms, chocolate crunchies and malt balls, topped with milk.
“I think this would be a good place for a date,” she said. “You could learn a lot about a person by what cereal they choose.”

I think you could learn a lot about a person who takes you to a cereal bar for a date.

Like what? That that person wanted to try something fun and different?

I'm pretty sure that whoever dates you needs to show up in a yuppie car, in a yuppie suit before taking you to the trendiest, need-to-be-seen crap restaurant in town. What a perfect couple you would make.

TM

[dtb]

Originally posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy
You-you don't know what it's like to have to suck up to people you can't stand just 'cause they have money. You don't know what it's like.

Dude, clearly you don't know me. You've just described my firm's business philosophy.

[Alex_de_Large]

Originally posted by greatwhitenorthchick
I believe our mothers went to the same parenting schools. I was, however, allowed to have Sindi dolls, which was the British Barbie equivalent (not the non-union Mexican equivalent). Anyway, Sindi was sent by a sympathetic auntie who thought my parents were a little overboard.

We were also not allowed to watch Hogan's Heroes. But we did anyway. My mother also had a problem with Eight is Enough. But I think that is just because she's insane.

I wasn't allowed to have toy guns. In fact, my mother mandated that others' toy guns were not allowed inside the house: we had a "toy gun guarantine area" on the front porch.

[Sparklehorse]

Originally posted by dtb
I could have Skipper and Dawn dolls (did anyone else have Dawn dolls? None of my friends did -- I have no idea where my mother got them -- perhaps she had a factory in the basement...)

I had a Dawn doll and some other "friend" of hers. What was your mother thinking? She had the same body type as Barbie, just more petite (almost like a 4'11" girl standing next to a super model).

Originally posted by greatwhitenorthchick We were also not allowed to watch Hogan's Heroes. But we did anyway. My mother also had a problem with Eight is Enough. But I think that is just because she's insane.

My mother also banned Hogan's Heroes ("Nazis aren't funny!"). She also hated Mork & Mindy although now she just LOVES Robin Williams.

[spookyfish]

Originally posted by Sparklehorse
now she just LOVES Robin Williams.

So, what you're saying is that your mother is insane, as well.

[dtb]

Originally posted by Sparklehorse
I had a Dawn doll and some other "friend" of hers. What was your mother thinking? She had the same body type as Barbie, just more petite (almost like a 4'11" girl standing next to a super model).

It's true -- but she wasn't blonde -- maybe that was the thinking (with my mother -- there's no deciphering the thought process...).

While my friends had Barbie campers, townhouses and airplanes (Barbie was of course the stewardess -- I think now she's the pilot), I had Skipper/Dawn camping gear (with a tent, backpack and an outdoor fire pit -- no RV for Skipper* -- oh, no. That's wouldn't have been crunchy enough.

Which reminds me -- I think we were the only family on our block to eat granola (remember, folks, this was the 70s -- in the Midwest).

*I'm pretty sure I had "grown up Skipper" where you would turn her left arm backwards in a full circle, and her boobs would "develop". It may have been my friend who had that, though, I can't remember.

[ThurgreedMarshall]

Originally posted by dtb
This is going to sound weird, but whatevah...

Every morning, we call a car service to take our oldest kid to school (his school is not easily reachable by public transportation -- it would take about an hour to get there on the bus, and it's only about 3 miles away -- and there are no taxis in the morning, so we call the car service, which costs the same as a taxi anyway -- but clearly, I've digressed here...). So anyway, the two car services we use are run by Spanish-speaking people. One is Puerto Rican, and they have some black drivers who do not speak Spanish -- most of these are Haitian I think. The other one is Dominican (I think), and they have virtually no drivers who speak anything but Spanish.

Anyway, when we go with the Puerto Rican car company, we can always tell who speaks Spanish and who doesn't, even before the driver speaks -- and many of the PR, DR drivers are black, so it's not that. I don't know why, but there it is. My husband always gets it right -- i.e., he speaks English to the non-Spanish speakers, and Spanish to the hermanos.

He should be a diplomat. [Anyone who knows my husband has just fallen out of his/her chair at the very thought of that...]

Your husband is obviously one of those superior, educated latinos mmmmmmmm was referring to.

TM

[Anne Elk]

Originally posted by dtb
I could have Skipper and Dawn dolls (did anyone else have Dawn dolls?

Skipper was Barbie's little sister. What was the personal issue between Barbie and your Mom? Barbie was the ho in our house. She got fed up with Ken and started an affair with my neighbor's GI Joe.

Dawn dolls. They usually ended up hanging out with Skipper down at 'the beach' (area where the shag carpet met the hard wood floor).

Anyone remember the Rockflower dolls? They were the size of Dawn dolls. Each doll came with their own recorded single. We found one in college, I have it on a mix tape somewhere.

"I'm, as happy as a lime
that's floating on a boat
that's full of lemon ice cream"

[baltassoc]

Originally posted by Alex_de_Large
I wasn't allowed to have toy guns. In fact, my mother mandated that others' toy guns were not allowed inside the house: we had a "toy gun guarantine area" on the front porch.

Hell, we had the same rule, and that was from a (step)father who was a whiskey-swilling, cigarette smoking, steak eating, big car driving, dyed in the wool Republican retired career army officer with three combat tours under his belt.

I understand from him that once you've actually killed a person with a gun, it's a little difficult to watch your kids play cowboys and indians. Even when I was very young, I always implicitly understood the seriousness of the objection and didn't really argue.

Especially once he decided that water guns were okay so long as they weren't shaped like real guns.