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The Good Old Days


CWB

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It's funny! I sit here and read some of the complaints and have to smile. If only they understood how far we've come since the good old days. I thought others might want to recount what their life was like back when. I'm just a young'un at 13 years here. Things that happened back then.

My first month I didn't know about the 100 calls and since dialup was the only thing available for internet back then and two of us who needed to use it, our first phone bill was over $1000 pesos.

My first electric bill seemed high but I didn't know much about electric back then and paid it. The next bill was over 3000 peoss and then we questioned it. The business next door had hooked into our electric.

One night an electric wire fell across the highway. I assumed it could be live and called our rental agent. He said CFE was rushing right to us. That was 4 p.m. They showed up at 10 a.m. the next morning.

I couldn't understand why people were firing guns off in the middle of the day.

In June, there was a constant noise at the same time every night. We spent weeks trying to figure out where it was coming from.

A neighbor restaurant businessman came to our house and we had no idea what he was saying. We later found out he was inviting us for a meal for free.

During the rainy season you could float a boat down Colon ....that's when we discovered by the sidewalks were so high up.

It took me months to find Costco (there was only one). I got lost 4 times and Mexicans gave me instructions that lead nowhere.

Our first few weeks I found SuperLake once and couldn't find it again due to signage here.

You could walk almost a mile out into the lake bed. They used to have car races around a makeshift track.

I remember learning what a "tromba" was, and not in a good way.

Most people back then seemed happier and could deal with electric/phone/cable being out for a few days.

We learned to prepare for water outages in the dry season.

I learned that by volunteering you could meet hundreds of people, and they would provide you with a wealth of information. You then learned to help other newbies who came down.

The food here was so great I put on 20 pounds. Why does it go on easier than it comes off?

Every night at 10:30 the 4th class Joco bus would go by our home. It never did get a muffler.

The only webboard back then was Mexconnect and Miss J was a tough moderator :)

You didn't know so many of the people who died. Now you know a lot of them.

People went with the flow more than they do today.

You learned to carry with you and read a book in a grocery line. Doesn't seem to happen anymore.

There used to be a lot more "spacious land" here.

Sigh...the good old days.

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Sixteen years here - fun to read your post. We had both Lagunanet and TelMex dialup - if one went out the other might work. People panic when

their power goes out for 14 hours (someone complained to me today) but power was much worse than. Hate to sound like my parents who

"had to walk 10 miles to school in the snow" but doing without or getting fast answers on the internet has advantages as well. You improvised

or went exploring to "find" what you need and might discover people, restaurant, product or whatever better than what you started out for.

Before this I was in the Middle East for many years where I do remember buying by mistake 5 gallons of black olives with pits - and not the olive oil

I was expecting. Everyone who showed up at our door got a jar of olives to take home. It's an adventure - and I for one expect to always feel that way.

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I remember when...

  • Juanita Reed took local kids out on garbage patrol on Saturdays
  • The Chapala train station hadn't been gussied up
  • The jacaranda tree still draped itself across the corner of Calle Miguel Blanco and 16 de septiembre
  • Stan Goldberg's personal zoo welcomed visitors
  • Don Antonio and his burritas delivered bags of soil for my garden
  • It rained every night during the rainy season--and the lake still kept going down
  • Dr. Polo was king of the local pharmacies--and there was no Farmacia Guadalajara in Ajijic
  • Restaurante Tepalo served a decent meal
  • The Colima earthquake shook, rattled, and rolled
  • OXXO? Oh, that chain in Guadalajara...
  • The Ajijic Carnaval parade was considered to be slightly scandalous
  • Padre Cuco...
  • Barbara's Bazar was on Colón near the carretera
  • I figured out a way to beat the Telmex 3-calls-a-day system and still stay online--on dial-up
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YES! And Giovanni's is still the name of the restaurant on the carretera across from Oxxo. Isn't it? LOL

Pizzalandia was on Hidalgo where 60's in Paradise used to be and they did deliver but you had to walk up

to order as they had no phone - then walk home to wait for delivery or order from Valenciano who delivered and had a phone.

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You all did a wonderful job of explaining it all. The only thing I would add is that in the old days, (I first visited in 96 and purchased in '97), we needed a very large satellite dish, 18 feet diameter to be exact (designed and built by Bill Martin) to get C band. It almost never went out. Then, I got an 8 footer (2.4 m) dish because that is what we incorrectly thought was needed to pick up Star Choice (now Shaw Direct) when they went live on the satellite that reached Mexico on Feb 21, 2001. Later we all downsized. Today I use that 2.4 Meter Ku dish to pick up DirecTV and yes I still have Star Choice

Those were the good old days. The power, water, telephone, internet etc would, could go out for almost a week. So we all had much bigger gas tanks, generators, larger water tanks, you name it and we got along just fine. Now listen to some of us bitch when something isn't working perfectly 24/7.

It's not necessary any more, but I still have primary source and a secondary for internet, electricity, water, you name it.

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LOL! That was funny Walkers!

Anybody who has lived in Mexico for a long time, usually has back up systems to the back up systems. Murphy's Law was/is alive and well here. I was annoyed to find that the submersible pump in our cistern is hard wired to the panel. Duh! If it was plugged into an outlet in the bodega then it could be easily plugged into a small generator if the need arose because of a prolonged electrical outage. I can do without electricity, phone and internet but I get really cranky when I don't have water. We have 12 jugs of water on hand just in case.

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Only 15 years ago, when getting a phone cost about $150 U.S., and to communicate with me in Canada my Mom would write a letter and fax it from the Century 21 office. And horses were still parked on Colon, with hardly a car in site.

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There was only ONE telephone in San Pancho, Nayarit in 1999. By 2005, there was high speed telephone internet service all the way to the north end of the beach. Still no cable option though.

Remember when seeing a Telmex truck parked in front of the closest junction box meant your phone, that had been working, would not be working when you got home. Crossed lines or only being able to receive a call or make a call were every day occurrences. Thank you Telmex for the MAJOR improvements.

Does anyone else remember the old Eudora programs for e-mail? Using dial up internet, you downloaded your mail...turned off the internet connection...replied to your e-mail off-line then dialed up again and sent it off and disconnected. Those dial-up internet minutes were precious and you didn't waste them "surfing".

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Well, of all the above, the one that hits home for me is......

Don Antonio and his burritas delivered bags of soil for my garden!

.... and a little later on, his grandson who was around 10 coming around with the same..... burro and soil.

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I remember the man on a horse delivering milk to locals using a soup scooper to put the milk in their bowl. He had a can of milk on each side of the horse and went up and down the streets.

And I remember seeing him and his horse, complete with the stainless steel milk cans (and that milk ladle), pulled up to the curb on Guadalupe Victoria--talking on his cellular phone. Culture clash!

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These posts were very enlightening for a newbie -- certainly by your standards.

I think we are all so lucky to live here -- weather perfect, by-and-large friendly people (at least the Mexicans are), great cultural/art activities, etc., etc.

I say -- party on and dance your arse off....or walk the malecons.

Dancing Queen

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Walk out a mile? Yes, and we also drove our cars out there. It was smoother than using the cobblestone streets. There were soccer and baseball fields and palapas selling snacks and drinks, all serviced by a string of electric poles, etc. Horses were for rent in front of Chapala and folks could ride the beach for miles.

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