Text 1936, 107 rader
Skriven 2008-02-06 14:41:14 av hap newsom (1:124/311)
     Kommentar till en text av Ruth Haffly
Ärende: RE: travels
===================
Hiya Ruth!
-> 
-> ->  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
->  hn> Frankfurt
-> -> & Berlin. I rode it several times.
-> 
->  hn> What a bummer!
-> 
-> I know, but it was 20 years difference. I'm glad we had the opportunity
-> to go when we did.
-> 
Yep, better to have gone late than 
to have not gone at all! (grin) or something like that!

-> ->  hn> so that was pretty good $$ too. Most of which I spent
-> ->  hn> on travel, or comic books (grin).
-> 
-> -> IOW, blew on whatever you wanted.
-> 
->  hn> Well, I didn't have any savings to speak of
->  hn> if that's what you mean (grin)! Of course if I still had
->  hn> some of those comics they'd be worth a whole lot of
->  hn> $$ now, same goes for all the bubble gum baseball cards
->  hn> I had...But I did buy my bike with my own money, and
->  hn> traveled on my own money and bought all my ski and baseball
->  hn> gear with my own money.
-> 
-> So you made some pretty good (for the time) investments.
-> 
chuckle...well I thought so, I also spent a lot of 
Franc's on train tickets to various places as well!
Can you believe we were in France for almost 5 years
and the I was the only one who did much travelling!
We never even went to Normandy!! I went on my own
and it was the first time I ever cried for the pain of others.

-> ->  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.
-> 
->  hn> As long as it went into my bedroom and no one tripped over it
->  hn> no problem...if my dad had ever tripped over it he'd have
->  hn> converted it into scrap metal on the spot...as well as
->  hn> my backside!
-> 
-> Then we'd be calling you "Old Iron (back) side"? (GD&R)
-> 
Nah, there'd have been nothing left!

-> -> 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).
-> 
->  hn> I think one of the reasons France tossed us out was
->  hn> that France felt as if  it was getting no benefit from having us
->  hn> there. Most of the American dollars that you'd find on the economy
->  hn> got there by way of the black market. Most GI's shopped at
->  hn> the Commisary and the Exchange and those that
->  hn> did shop on the economy lived there as well. Of course
-> 
-> We lived in military housing.  For shopping on the economy, we'd have to
-> get our $$ changed to DM and use them. It wasn't a problem as long as
-> you remembered the bank's hours.
-> 
We could exhcange franc's for $$ or just spend the $$ on the economy
and sometimes that was an even better rate of exchange than
the 5 for 1 rate at the bank. 

->  hn> once all those american dollars left with the americans
->  hn> they found that there had been a big lift to the French
->  hn> economy created soley by the Americans and thier dollars!
-> 
-> I suspect they sort of regretted it.
-> 
Last year there was a reunion of kids from my school
(kids...all of us are in the "over 50's now!) back in
Chateauroux...from what I see on the website you'd
have thought it was the second coming !!

-> ->  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.
-> 
->  hn> I have a lot of memories of those days, some good
->  hn> some bad...but mostly I remember the good ones
->  hn> and try to forget the bad ones!
-> 
-> That's about normal for most people.
-> 
I've been called a lot of things

Normal isn't usually one of em (grin)
chat with you soon
hap 
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