10 minutes ago = you won't believe this.

[/quote]Fill in the blanks...huh? Alright, here's a fill-in: The two women look a lot alike...enough to assume they may be sisters. Hmmmm.[/quote]

Sisters? Not in any way. The only thing they had in common was Moi.

Not worth discussing now; fodder for memories.

brigitte wrote:[quote="merry"]Ahhhh, reminds me of the old days under Franco.

merry

Really, Merry? Dawg traveled about Spain for some time from Barcelona to Madrid to Jerez to Saville in the 1960s when Franco´s regime was still in control. I would like to hear how life these days anywhere reminds you of Spain under that fascist dictator after that dreadful civil war preceding that time. Hound dog..


Well yes, the civil war was awful....and generalisimo Franco was an absolute dictator and opus dei til his death in 1975. There were "grises" and Guardia civil everywhere, but in the 60s and 70s one didn't see a lot of armament in the streets. Except perhaps during the desfile honoring the military. And around military bases etc. The only good thing is that we could walk from one side of Madrid to the other at 3 in the morning with no fear. Oh and big guns and huge water cannon at the university which was closed more than it was open in the late sixties, during threats of and actual "manifestations". For big guns there was always el salvador in the 80s...everywhere.

yes and you could get a ticket or worth for wearing a bikini . If you were Basque you were not allowed to speak your language , you would get harassed at the border for going shopping in a different part of town.
Ok you did not see anyone shooting heroin sitting on a sidewalk on the streets but those were not my idea of the good old days.

Brigitte, absolutely right, of course....do you remember Eurovision I think in 67 or so, Joan Manuel Serrat was to rep Spain but couldn't sing the song in Catalan so pulled out? Of course it was a terribly repressive regime...students and "vagos" disappearing into the bowels of Carabanchel prison.... like my Gallego artist novio. Won't dispute any of that.....I lived it, believe me....but was referring to the presence or not of large caliber armament, rpgs, etc.

Sometimes it's worse in Canada:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5l0PD80u9k

Well yes, the civil war was awful....and generalisimo Franco was an absolute dictator and opus dei til his death in 1975. There were "grises" and Guardia civil everywhere, but in the 60s and 70s one didn't see a lot of armament in the streets. Except perhaps during the desfile honoring the military. And around military bases etc. The only good thing is that we could walk from one side of Madrid to the other at 3 in the morning with no fear.

For a reprise of that experience in Madrid in the 60s, I suggest you take a trip to Pyongyang. As in Madrid in the old days or, perhaps, Guerrero today, you might disappear if you happen upon the army by coincidence but you sure as hell won´t be complaining and you will not be concerned about passing occasional street thugs. They´re all in hiding or dead.

My sister decked out in her usual mini....whistled on the street corner and for God knows what reason, irritated a "Gris" (police) who tried to stop her. She ran, he gave chase all the way up to the door of our third floor piso. The gris banged on the door, my father who could be rather intimidating answered the door...the gris tried to push his way in after the wayward girl....my dad (in the arms business and very well connected) said he was calling general so and so and the policeman slink off. These things went on all the time, and were a bother, but absolutely true that the general public and people who couldn't stand up were mistreated, illegally detained for nothing etc., disappeared whatever.

In the 60´s nice Spanish girls did not whistle nor wear mini skirts so right there your sister was breaking two rules, enough to get in trouble.

A colleague of mine insulted a cop in Madrid back in the 50 who told him he was crossing the street illegally or something like that. He was taken in and they found out he had been married was divorced and had married a cuban woman. He was thrown in jail for bigamy! He had a friend in the CIA who helped him get out of the mess but he had a real problem. Spain was not fun in that respec, ut crime was almost inexistant except for the ones commited by Franco and his mignons.

I remember riding the train from the French border to Barcelona in 1966 sitting in a cabin with a Spanish family who, in the fashion of Spain in those days, offerred me a share of their lunch of bread and chorizo sausage. During that lunch I, being a smart-assed kid traveling to Europe for the first time, made a joking remark about Franco and the secret police. The patriarch of the family asked me to accompany him to the hall and admonished me in the strongest terms to never, ever do that again while visiting Spain as there was no way to know who was listening and any disrespect shown the Franco regime was taken very seriously there and could result in serious trouble for me and others in my presence when flippant remarks were uttered. This guy was genuinely alarmed and very serious.

Talosian wrote:The thing that worried me today is: What if they were on a stakeout for some drug thing and there were a few of these babies around?

I use to have an fire a Boys 55 Cal anti-tank rifle; that puppy would go through three people,  wooden frame house, a car hood and stop after it had shattered a V8 engine from two blocks away -- I kid you not.

I would not want to be "collateral damage" to a firefight.

Aside from collecting guns (no, not a member of the NRA), I loved to collect all sorts of "different" vehicles. Note one that I restored and drove in pares.

Couldn't bring any of my toys down here (sadly).

Here you go pedro aka clueless and clueless aka talosian.
It's amazing how many have been suckered in by this troll...

I recognized the obvious writing style and the annoying, attention-starved habit of starting threads with completely blind subject headlines a while back, also.

The recycled toilet paper from the restaurant waste bin was the give away for me.

Talosian wrote:I go out my driveway at Chapala Haciendas and on the street, just sitting there is the most massive-ass pickup you ever saw; painted in camouflage (or however it's spelled), with six young solders in and around it.  And on the back, it a very current either 50 Cal. M.G. or for all i know, a 20mm cannon.  I'm not talking the HMGs you see in WWII movies, I mean like Star War.

Our Fracc Mgr. sys they have been there an hour or so. Very casual looking guys.

I asked if there was any problem, and was tol "No."  I then offered to buy the MG. No sale.

Came back from the store and asked if I coul take a picture and I got the wiggling "No" finger.

That's it.

Next time, perhaps just snap photo discreetly if you can and don't ask anything. If they don't want people to know, they don't be in public.

Fastfox wrote:

Next time, perhaps just snap photo discreetly if you can and don't ask anything.  If they don't want people to know, they don't be in public.

Whoosh...