Remember When
Fast forward to now, and nearly every fresh fruit or vegetable can be had, along with amazing flavors in ethnic and standard things that take hours to cook if you're doing it. Love it. Lots of sales on them in my local supermarket, which likes to do BOGO's on the good stuff in about a 6 week rotation. Great eating from Contessa, Stouffer's, Birdseye, several others, and easy cooking of the raw stuff with sauces you like. Most of it's prepped for you, if not a fully-prepared meal (beef bourguignon from Contessa is great, and even comes with a side packet of chopped parsley so you decide if you want it, for example). Frozen broccoli, 5 minutes in a covered glass dish with a tablespoon of water, full power microwave, as sweet as fresh and pre-washed and cut into florets. And nearly always much cheaper than fresh.
I could enthuse for hours about it (frozen food products). A huge incentive to continue to cook at home.
Quote: beachbumbabsI could enthuse for hours about it (frozen food products). A huge incentive to continue to cook at home.
It's so funny, I never use frozen food for
anything. I don't even have a freezer,
not even one in the fridge. I make
everything from scratch when I cook.
No processed foods at all. Peanut
butter is processed, but I get the kind
that's 100% peanuts, nothing else.
I do marvel at the frozen foods aisles
and how much time it must save people.
But I love cooking, I plan my meals
ahead of time and look forward to them.
and 60's. Remember, there just wasn't
that much ready made food to put
in a micro, like there is now. We used
our first one for heating leftovers
and making popcorn.
My mom was an RN during WWII. She used to give us kids enimas and tepid baths when we were sick. Do parents do that anymore?
Quote: iamnomadmicrowave ovens...how did we ever live without?
I didn't! :-)
Quote: GreasyjohnEB, you mentiond Diet Rite in a prior post. I had forgotten about that. I would have thought that Tab was the first diet soda, ?
Tab was a year later, nasty stuff also. No Aspertame
yet, it was one of the early sweeteners. Diet Rite
was made by RC Cola. They had no idea of the
cola revolution that was coming.
Quote: RSI didn't! :-)
You sound angry that you have no memories from
before 1997. Be patient.
Only my limp wristed friends were drinking it. I didn't realize it at the time, why or what it really meant to drink it, but years later and many belated closet doors open... I get it now. Obtaining a Zima, Zema, Zumba in hand @ a bar was the equivalent to a tapping on the floor in an airport bathroom stall or driving Miata's
(YEA, YEA, Drich.... I know you drank Miatas and drove Zimas, however I seriously think you really didn't know any better)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnVtoo2pUgg
Quote: AxelWolfZima, Zema, Zumba whatever that crap is called.
Only my limp wristed friends were drinking it. I didn't realize it at the time, why or what it really meant to drink it, but years later and many belated closet doors open... I get it now. Obtaining a Zima, Zema, Zumba in hand @ a bar was the equivalent to a tapping on the floor in an airport bathroom stall or driving Miata's
(YEA, YEA, Drich.... I know you drank Miatas and drove Zimas, however I seriously think you really didn't know any better)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnVtoo2pUgg
Now it's either Cider (Angry Orchard, etc) or Hard Root Beer. Sell a bottle and we start watching the Men's Room.
Quote: EvenBobTab was a year later, nasty stuff also. No Aspertame
yet, it was one of the early sweeteners. Diet Rite
was made by RC Cola. They had no idea of the
cola revolution that was coming.
I bought and saved a six-pack of original Coke from about 1984, just before they brought out New Coke. The six-pack sat around for 30 years. Some of the cans had leaked out. Finally threw it away. Might have been worth something but didn't want to take the time to look into it.
Still had plenty when they ditched New and brought out "Classic".
Nothing classic about it, but was better than the 'New'.
I wish you could get the 'Old' Coke still.
I bet if they were bottles, they would have been worth something. I don't think cans have same the collectability (or shelf life) of bottles.Quote: GreasyjohnI bought and saved a six-pack of original Coke from about 1984, just before they brought out New Coke. The six-pack sat around for 30 years. Some of the cans had leaked out. Finally threw it away. Might have been worth something but didn't want to take the time to look into it.
I still have a full Jacksonville Jaguars Inaugural Season Coke bottle from 1995. I wonder how much that is worth now? ;)
Which reminds me... my uncle has a couple of University of Florida SEC Championship Coke bottles (which would have the original Coke within, FWIW). The kicker? UF was stripped of the title 6 months later. They definitely had the best team money could buy in 1984. ;)
Yes, yes! And in the old 16 oz glass bottles, too! Don't know if it is purely psychological, or not, but Cokes in glass bottles taste better than Cokes in plastic.Quote:I wish you could get the 'Old' Coke still.
Quote: JoemanI bet if they were bottles, they would have been worth something. I don't think cans have same the collectability (or shelf life) of bottles.
I still have a full Jacksonville Jaguars Inaugural Season Coke bottle from 1995. I wonder how much that is worth now? ;)
Yes, yes! And in the old 16 oz glass bottles, too! Don't know if it is purely psychological, or not, but Cokes in glass bottles taste better than Cokes in plastic.
I have no doubt that coke in glass tastes better than coke in either plastic or cans. There is a huge difference.
Quote: EvenBobIt's so funny, I never use frozen food for
anything. I don't even have a freezer,
not even one in the fridge. I make
everything from scratch when I cook.
No processed foods at all. Peanut
butter is processed, but I get the kind
that's 100% peanuts, nothing else.
I do marvel at the frozen foods aisles
and how much time it must save people.
But I love cooking, I plan my meals
ahead of time and look forward to them.
I sometimes volunteer at a food pantry. The people who have done this for 30, 40 years say things have changed. Back in the day you could donate some flour, some eggs, yeast, and people knew how to make their own bread, and it was a cheaper donation, today you seem to see a lot more prepared meals like frozen dinners etc donated.
Quote: beachbumbabsWhen I was 12, I walked beans
I'm impressed. I picked cotton when I was a kid, once.
Any parents that would allow that today would be accused of child abuse?
To "walk" the beans must have been a local expression. Commonly the same procedure countrywide was called "chopping", especially for cotton. It was considered worse than picking the cotton I think - and definitely went on in the hottest weather.
Corn syrup vs cane sugar was apparently the primary, maybe only, difference. And I think some bottlers had swapped over prior to New Coke. But in Cokelanta it was sugar until the release of Coke Classic.Quote: HunterhillYou can buy the old coke in glass bottles at alot of stores now.Just look for Mexican coke it's made with real sugar not high fructose corn syrup. It tastes like the old coke.
Up thru the late seventies you could still buy the 6.5 oz (?) bottles for $0.10 out of an old style vending machine at a paper company that was basically across the street from Coke HQ. Those were good cokes.....
<edit> that old vending machine would take nickels or dimes I think, but not quarters. It didn't know how to make change;-) Nice to see GreasyJohn posting. I wondered about him when he disappeared for a month after his last post in Jan during the BiG Powerball drawing. I thought he might have won and sailed off into the sunset...
Quote: AxelWolf\
(YEA, YEA, Drich.... I know you drank Miatas and drove Zimas, however I seriously think you really didn't know any better)
\
Hey now, in 1990 the Miata was cool. That was the first new car I ever bought. Hopefully little red convertibles are cool again because I just bought a new one (not Miata).
sometimes it's OK, often it's undrinkable, like half Diet Coke or something.....ticks me off that I feel like I don't have time to go get my money back ;-(Quote: IbeatyouracesThe best Coca-Cola anywhere is at McDonald's!
Quote: GreasyjohnEB, you mentiond Diet Rite in a prior post. I had forgotten about that. I would have thought that Tab was the first diet soda, but I don't really remember.
My mom was an RN during WWII. She used to give us kids enimas and tepid baths when we were sick. Do parents do that anymore?
And about the same time as Diet Rite came Pepsi's first attempt at a diet product: Patio Diet Cola...funny how orginally the soft drink makers didn't want their names associated with diet colas...
Quote: iamnomadAnd about the same time as Diet Rite came Pepsi's first attempt at a diet product: Patio Diet Cola...funny how orginally the soft drink makers didn't want their names associated with diet colas...
The first diet soda I liked was Pepsi Light when in came out in the 1970's. I thought it was brilliant that they added lemon to help mask the bitter saccharin taste.
a 6 digit odometer? For me it was an 85 VW
Rabbit. The Japs and the Germans were first,
the US followed in the late 80's. In the old
days if you bought a car with 40K on the
odo, it could just as easily be 140K, you had
no way of knowing.
Quote: EvenBobRemember the first car you owned that had
a 6 digit odometer? For me it was an 85 VW
Rabbit. The Japs and the Germans were first,
the US followed in the late 80's. In the old
days if you bought a car with 40K on the
odo, it could just as easily be 140K, you had
no way of knowing.
Cars made in the 1970's and 1980's in the U.S. never had to worry about having a six digit odometer, they were junk and wouldn't last that long.
Quote: EvenBobRemember the first car you owned that had
a 6 digit odometer? For me it was an 85 VW
Rabbit. The Japs and the Germans were first,
the US followed in the late 80's. In the old
days if you bought a car with 40K on the
odo, it could just as easily be 140K, you had
no way of knowing.
Usually it would be obvious if > 100K. One key was look at the shape of the seats and wear on the pedals. I always thought they started six digits because km cars needed six and the space, one calibrated for miles used the same digits. Now so many people have > 100K it matters.
Quote: AZDuffman
Usually it would be obvious if > 100K. One key was look at the shape of the seats and wear on the pedals.
If it was a fleet owned car, it could
have 100K on it in just a couple years
with little pedal wear because it's all
highway miles. And some used car lots
were known for installing new pedals.
And turning back odo's.
Quote: EvenBobIf it was a fleet owned car, it could
have 100K on it in just a couple years
with little pedal wear because it's all
highway miles. And some used car lots
were known for installing new pedals.
And turning back odo's.
You still had way more pedal wear at 140K than 40K, plus seat wear, Yes, dealers turned them back and installed new pedals. But an adept person would still be able to tell 140 vs 40. One reason I have always been glad I learned how to do many basic repair jobs myself. You have a better sense when something just isn't right.
A turn-back of say 30 was much harder, depending on where they started it from.
One lot my dad told me about in the day turned them all back to 0. This was before it was a crime to do that. I guess the idea was that everyone turned them back so if you didn't people still assumed you did. So they kind of said just guess.
Quote: AZDuffmanYou still had way more pedal wear at 140K than 40K, plus seat wear, .
You assume every car lot buyer was savvy,
most were not. They believed whatever
the salesman said.
Quote: EvenBobYou assume every car lot buyer was savvy,
most were not. They believed whatever
the salesman said.
Dealers are stealers abd buyers are liars. Since the first used car was sold.
Quote: GWAEWe were driving yesterday and my wife asked me to wind up the window. I haven't have wind up windows for 15 years. I know some cars still have wind up but i think it is funny that we still use that term.
You have kids, so you may have used the expression, "Hold your horses."
Or maybe not.
Even when I heard it from my parents, no horses were involved.
Quote: AZDuffmanDealers are stealers abd buyers are liars. Since the first used car was sold.
I knew one of the most Crooked Used Car lot owners ever. Tricks in the 90's included:
Buying salvaged cars, sending the to NY to clean the R (Wrecked) title and bringing it back to PA.
Dumping No Smoke in vans with bad engines to solidify the oil to keep it from burning and smoking
Using black spray paint on tires to make them look new
Using needle nosed pliers under the dash to crush bulbs lit for engine issues or alerts
Having a print shop make vinyl stickers to change the version of a model to an upgraded one
And others worse.
This was in the peak of "Buy here, pay here" and most customers were just happy to get a car.
Not saying everyone, but most used car dealers have zero ethics when it comes to making money. Or is that America in general?
I had a wild and crazy friend, and he had a friend/accomplis down at the title office.
Couple years later he apparently escaped from prison, again.
Showed up at my door. We went for a breathtaking ride in 'his' new Porsche. Up to the Road Race at Road Atlanta, lots of Porsches in the parking lots there. I did not know he had a crew with him.
Official law enforcement type guys showed up at my door not too long after that.
Wanted to know why some guy they had captured had my name and number in his pocket.
I told the truth. I had known him for many years. We'd gone to the races together just a couple weeks earlier. I told them I thought I had met him down at the 24 hour race in Sebring FL back around 1980.
I never knew his real name, still don't.
Quote: GWAE2F, You either live in a wonderful land of make believe or you have some great real life stories. Either option seems like a fun life.
If you spend some time wandering the sewers of the world you run into some colorful individuals.
You also usually wind up smelling like jhit.
I knew him only by the name 'Wiggly'.
He had scars on his hands where he had ripped them out of handcuffs.
If he's still alive, he's either in jail or speeding down the road in a stolen car with a shoebox full of coke.
Most are foreigners now.
Ever pull into a gas station and ask directions to the Freeway but have the mechanic ask for a dollar first? Foreigners!
Tack welded wrecks? Compression figures that are peak, not sustained.
Ethics? That is some sort of disease ain't it?
Quote: FleaStiffNew car dealers are bad enough; used car dealers, wow!
Most are foreigners now.
Where do you live, that's not true at all
here in W MI. My wife was looking for
a used car last year and we went to a
bunch of places and it was all white
male American salesman. She ended
up buying a new car from an American
white woman.
Quote: EvenBobWhere do you live, that's not true at all
here in W MI. My wife was looking for
a used car last year and we went to a
bunch of places and it was all white
male American salesman. She ended
up buying a new car from an American
white woman.
Probably because most foreign people living in michigan are here in the SE area.
Most of time I'm not even interested in a discussion or a test drive. I've read everything about cars I want to purchase anyway.
Quote: EvenBobWhere do you live, that's not true at all
here in W MI. My wife was looking for
a used car last year and we went to a
bunch of places and it was all white
male American salesman. She ended
up buying a new car from an American
white woman.
I read almost 10 years ago a story about a guy took an undercover sales job at a dealer. Some high-volume import lot. He said that white people even then were no longer putting up with the sales process at so many dealers. They would buy online, using a service or just talking to the fleet sales guy. Minority buyers would still (then anyways) deal with the hours long game of sitting there being sold.
I am hitting a one-price lot in FL next time I buy unless I find a way better deal here. Prices are very good and not worth the hassle of the way it used to be going lot to lot looking for what you want. Walk in with set financing or a cashiers check, tell the F&I guy to KO, and get out of the place.
Quote: AZDuffmanI read almost 10 years ago a story about a guy took an undercover sales job at a dealer. Some high-volume import lot. He said that white people even then were no longer putting up with the sales process at so many dealers. They would buy online, using a service or just talking to the fleet sales guy. Minority buyers would still (then anyways) deal with the hours long game of sitting there being sold.
I am hitting a one-price lot in FL next time I buy unless I find a way better deal here. Prices are very good and not worth the hassle of the way it used to be going lot to lot looking for what you want. Walk in with set financing or a cashiers check, tell the F&I guy to KO, and get out of the place.
I bought a new Saturn ion in 2003. That is how the sales process was for that car as well. There was no negotiating with Saturn at the time. It was the sticker or nothing.
Quote: GWAEI bought a new Saturn ion in 2003. That is how the sales process was for that car as well. There was no negotiating with Saturn at the time. It was the sticker or nothing.
Lots of people loved the Saturn experience. Though those retreats to the factory were almost disturbing for the loyalty they had. Of course GM screwed it all up.
There are a few services that will get you a better deal. But car buying is so unlike what it was 15 years ago to be amazing.
Quote: AZDuffman
There are a few services that will get you a better deal. But car buying is so unlike what it was 15 years ago to be amazing.
I haven't bought a car since 2002. It was
a Saturn and I'm still driving it.
Quote: EvenBobI haven't bought a car since 2002. It was
a Saturn and I'm still driving it.
My 2003 Saturn is going to hit 200k this year. I have replaced a wheel bearing 4 times and a tie rod but other than that it is all original.
Then they went belly up with Saturn.
I can't square these two facts
Exactly my thoughts. The Saturn owners I knew personally loved not only their cars, but also the dealerships. Yeah, I can see loving your car, but the salesman who sold it to you & the dealer's service department? They must have been doing something right. How did it fail?Quote: odiousgambitIt was something to hear that the Spring Hill plant was drawing thousands of visitors a day - they seemed to have really sold the concept to the public.
Then they went belly up with Saturn.
I can't square these two facts
Quote:–Because of an enthusiastic market response to their “different kind of car,” Saturn retailers were chronically short of vehicles for the first five years of production.
–Saturn was the third best-selling car model in the U.S. in 1994. When the production lines switched over to the 1995 models, there were only 400 ’94 Saturns left on lots across the country.
–J.D. Powers consistently rated Saturn as among the top three cars in owner and customer sales satisfaction. Even as late as 2000 it ranked second in owner satisfaction, behind Lexus.
–Most of the 9,000 Saturn employees (at the mid-1990s peak) came from other GM plants, through an agreement between GM and the UAW. This different kind of company was created by people who all came from the old, traditional kind of company. They changed the way they thought about the workplace, committed themselves to being world-class and altered many work habits to keep their promises to their customers. And they did so without any external incentives.
–Thanks to a unique partnership between Saturn and its retailers, in 1993 the retailers rebated back to Saturn 1% of the cars’ sales price, to get GM’s permission to start a third production shift. That brought $13 million to Saturn’s bottom line, moving its finances into the black a year ahead of plan.
–Owner enthusiasm went off the charts, as was demonstrated when nearly 100,000 owners attended two “homecoming” celebrations in 1994 and 1999.
But that was then and this is now. What happened to that 1990s success story? Despite what you may read elsewhere, there were just two underlying forces behind Saturn’s demise: GM’s insistence on managing all its divisions centrally with a tight fist, and the demand by leadership at both GM and the UAW that Saturn get in line with traditional ways of doing things.
As I learned from many GM executives at Saturn and elsewhere, GM manages its businesses monolithically. When it launched Saturn, it told the other divisions they couldn’t have any money to upgrade or introduce new models, because the Saturn launch was gobbling up all the funds. Hence everyone in the GM family was hostile toward and jealous of the new arrival. The same dynamic hit Saturn again a few years later when the market shifted and it desperately needed a midsize car and an SUV. Sorry, GM leadership said. It was the other divisions’ time to get the money. Everyone had to take a turn–and every division was penalized in the process.
http://www.forbes.com/2010/03/08/saturn-gm-innovation-leadership-managing-failure.html
Quote: odiousgambitIt was something to hear that the Spring Hill plant was drawing thousands of visitors a day - they seemed to have really sold the concept to the public.
Then they went belly up with Saturn.
I can't square these two facts
Quote: JoemanExactly my thoughts. The Saturn owners I knew personally loved not only their cars, but also the dealerships. Yeah, I can see loving your car, but the salesman who sold it to you & the dealer's service department? They must have been doing something right. How did it fail?
There were many problems beneath the surface. What people really liked was the sales experience. When you got down to it the cars were nuttin special, same pattern as the rest of GM. Namely unrefined but proven components that "ran bad longer than other cars ran." While they did not dent the body panels had huge and ugly gaps. Engines were buzzy and the whole thing was just competent. "Car guys" didn't care much for them at all. But that dealer experience, that was classic GM Marketing with all of its might.
Most of the early Saturns shared little with the rest of GM. Even the back-office payroll and union contract was special. Fixed costs could not be shared. Saturn was a small company stranded inside a large one, getting the worst end of both from a finance perspective. The rest of GM hated them. When it did come time that Saturn was allowed to share an Opel platform they used the plastic-body thing and killed any cost savings.
In the mid-1980s Saturn was new and funky. By the mid 1990s it was aging and devoid of product. Again a shame because their segment LOVED that dealer experience. Reality is instead of starting Saturn, GM should have re-tooled Oldsmobile to make the dealer experience. The car really did not matter when you look back.
If you were to make a college course you could say how Saturn was started when GM had enough cash to do anything it wanted. But by the time it matured that was no longer the case and it withered on the vine.
Quote: AZDuffmanQuote: JoemanExactly my thoughts. The Saturn owners I knew personally loved not only their cars, but also the dealerships. Yeah, I can see loving your car, but the salesman who sold it to you & the dealer's service department? They must have been doing something right. How did it fail?
There were many problems beneath the surface. What people really liked was the sales experience. When you got down to it the cars were nuttin special, same pattern as the rest of GM. Namely unrefined but proven components that "ran bad longer than other cars ran." While they did not dent the body panels had huge and ugly gaps. Engines were buzzy and the whole thing was just competent. "Car guys" didn't care much for them at all. But that dealer experience, that was classic GM Marketing with all of its might.
Most of the early Saturns shared little with the rest of GM. Even the back-office payroll and union contract was special. Fixed costs could not be shared. Saturn was a small company stranded inside a large one, getting the worst end of both from a finance perspective. The rest of GM hated them. When it did come time that Saturn was allowed to share an Opel platform they used the plastic-body thing and killed any cost savings.
In the mid-1980s Saturn was new and funky. By the mid 1990s it was aging and devoid of product. Again a shame because their segment LOVED that dealer experience. Reality is instead of starting Saturn, GM should have re-tooled Oldsmobile to make the dealer experience. The car really did not matter when you look back.
If you were to make a college course you could say how Saturn was started when GM had enough cash to do anything it wanted. But by the time it matured that was no longer the case and it withered on the vine.
