"Maybe the love affair with the automobile is a thing of the past."
Ya Can't Get There From Here
/s
Posted on 12/11/2006 6:50:33 AM PST by LurkedLongEnough
For all the nonsense about the love affair between Americans and their cars, people seem to spend a whole lot of time and effort to avoid climbing into a car.
Super Stop & Shop's Peapod provides home delivery of groceries. That eliminates one's weekly trip to the grocery store. Get the grocery list online, pick the items, and the food appears in the insulated box outside your house.
People can go to Match, Jdate, EHarmony and Match.com to start dating without even heading to a bar. What happened to joining the ski club? What happened to taking night classes? Tennis, anyone? Too much car involved with all that.
How about Greensingles. com? That's for Naturenuts who want to get together with other natural types.
Actually, Naturenuts may be a strong way to describe them. The Web site says it is for vegetarians, animal rights activists, and environmentalists to meet each other. Talk about a good time.
Back in the day, a person would head to the bar and meet a few people. Buy someone a drink. Talk and decide if the person was OK or not. Get her number, and agree to meet later or another day.
I'm willing to bet even money it still works that way on Manhattan's Upper East Side.
In some cities, grocery stores are famous people pickup places. On the waterfront in San Francisco's Marina district was a famous grocery store where singles went to meet people they might like to date. To find a match, they would look in each other's grocery cart.
A Naturenut, for example, might check out the items in a person's cart to see if they're compatible. No ground beef. No steaks. No fur coat. O.K. It's veggies, pita and a match. Go back to the apartment and make dinner together.
A similar spot in San Francisco is the Buena Vista, a restaurant near Fisherman's Wharf. One famous story I know about the Buena Vista involves two people who went there by cable car, separately, and met and later married. They never owned a car.
John came from Sydney, Australia, and he'd heard stories about the Buena Vista in Australia to the point where he took a taxi (yes, that's a car) from the airport to the cable car to get there.
He got off at Fisherman's Wharf, found the bar and started drinking Irish coffees. He stayed for two days and met the woman who became his wife. Neither one of them owned a car. John literally traveled 4,000 miles -- without a car -- to meet a woman and settle down -- without a car.
People do so many things to avoid driving. How about the Domino pizza chain? The whole entire concept is you don't have to go out for Domino's. It's all about home delivery.
Animal groomers are willing to drive their grooming van to your house, and some vets will make house calls.
Maybe the love affair with the automobile is a thing of the past.
Yep this liberal r-tard has it right, why everyone knows that the expressways are virtually empty and that the only cars on them are in the HOV lanes. As I walked the 12 miles to work this morning just to avoid my car I was unable to make very good time due to the vast numbers of other pedestrians on the sidewalks. Why some said that they walked 30 miles each way every day to avoid gettting in their cars. Some said that they'd walk a hundred miles just to avoid their cars < /sarcasm>
"Maybe the love affair with the automobile is a thing of the past."
/s
Actually it's apparently another planet.
"How much rum is in those Irish coffees?
I wonder if he has any buyers remorse?"
Any woman would look good after drinking rum for two days.
I've heard of people in places like New York City not driving but not in Connecticut.
It's a slap at the internet, saying we don't communicate because it's all long distance.
But facts don't support his premise. The freeways are full and bars and restaurants are full.
What he apparently misses is the old days when you HAD to bitch about politics face to face to a small group of people who could only do that - just bitch. Now, we have the option to do the former while also networking with thousands across the country simultaneously and from time to time expose crooked politicians and medial personalities. Imagine that!
We tried several of those Home Delivery grocery services. they were fine for canned goods and soap, but we also found it gives the market a great change to get rid of wilted vegetables and carrion.
Whatever
Is that Wyoming....... 11 miles of perfectly straight road?
More coffee.
The memory of impersonating a buzzard must have rattled me!
I've had better luck in AOL chatrooms (and they are VERY bad) than with any of the above services. Fifty levels of deep compatibility, my tush!
Hey, not everyone in CT is an idiot!
And no, I don't drive a car, mine's an SUV.
HA!
My wife will give up her Lincoln when they pry her cold, dead hands from the steering wheel, and not until!
City folks. Sheesh!
The writer lives in the Eastern Megalopolis, where maybe you can get by without a car because everything is developed and conveniences abound in your own neighborhood.
Out west, where some of us live, things are more spread out, and public transit is fine if you don't want to actually go anywhere that's more than a mile from the bus stop or train depot.
Also, to all those "mass-transit" (read: public transit) proponents, consider this: privately owned vehicles are a form of mass transit. After all that's how most of "the masses" get around, and overall it's more efficient than buses and trains (in terms of time).
Obviously there are issues with traffic in some areas, but even with those obstacles, commuting in your own vehicle is faster and more convenient than taking the bus to the train, then another bus from the train, and then walking 3 or more blocks to your office, etc.
you ain't kidding - of the three places I've lived in CT, everything is at least 30 mins away. And there's no way in hell I'd ride the publik transpertayshun in this state because it doesn't go anywhere I'm interested in!
We were there last year...my guess is that it hasn't. If it has, I'm surprised that it could ahve been worse.
I have to go 10 miles to get to a store. I suppose I could walk.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.