 |
"Hey, Anna, wanna go to a night club? I've got a cool pickup truck!" |
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.
What a stupid and factually wrong article! In what alternate world does this man live in?
|
"Hey, Anna, wanna go to a night club? I've got a cool pickup truck!" |
Up there, Dominos probably has Snowcats.
Pennsylvania used to have big signs on their interstate highways that said, "...America Starts Here..." as one entered their commonwealth. They were perceived as insulting and were later exchanged for something bland and not at all memorable. The folks from New Jersey and New York must have bristled each time they headed westward!
~ Blue Jays ~
Whattaa goober. What's more common among all these disparate elements is time and convenience. They have nothing to do with not wanting to use our cars.
Used to drive it about once/yr. Last time was in April and it didn't seem at all improved over previous years.
He certainly doesn't live in Texas. Autos are the key for dang near everything here. ESPECIALLY if you live in an Exurb.
Wish you hadn't said that! I had an earworm all last week of "I would walk 500 miles and I would walk 500 miles ... and I would walk 500 miles and I would walk 500 miles ... "
It never ends!
:)---I applaud you for your courage---takes alot. I live in a simular environment.
Amen to that! 70 miles one way over a 8800 ft mt pass in to work each day.
Agreed. If anything, handling mundane shopping trips and errands efficiently allow us to use our cars more for enjoyable and less routine trips. Routine use cheapens the experience.
Those rare times I chose to live far from my job I preferred working during my commute instead of staring at a bumper. This gave me more time for weekend roadtrips into the countryside.
Until Star Trek like transporter technology is perfected,
Doubt it!
Yes, the car is now optional in midtown Manhattan. Duh. It has been for decades. Sorry, but the rest of the world doesn't have a subway every three blocks in every direction and a hundred thousand people per square mileto interact with and to fuel local businesses.
Carolyn
A car means you have the ability to change your mind and do something else.
Citizen, if the Government wanted you to change you mind, it would have issued you one.
I take it this is a tongue-in-cheek article. Especially since the number of miles driven by the average American is climbing.
Fighting the beast from within!
In a manner of speaking---Yes.
It's called a Cadillac Escalade!
PLAN A : :
If the writer has a car - follow him after he gets off work to his local watering hole.
After he is settled and had a few drinks call a local automatic transmission repair service and ask them to please send out a tow truck to bring in the vehicle and pull out and inspect the burned out transmission and call him at the Danbury, CT (make sure you first have the vehicle license plate number, make, model, color, his work phone number, extension, and his working hours) newspaper at 11am the next day with the estimate for parts and labor to "fix" his car properly.
His obsolete car that is not essential anymore.
Be sure to tell them "you" will need the estimate as soon as possible as "you" will be going on a long trip soon - and that you will pay using your VISA card.
-- Don't worry about the locked doors - Pros can handle that in a heartbeat. Most shops have keymaking machines and codes. And Slim Jims.
-- Or for a small fee the ignition, door, and trunk key numbers are available to put on top of his left front tire........
--
PLAN B : :
(It gets much better......)
--
This "PLAN A" scenario also works wonders for ALF & ELF Enviro-Nutsies.....
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.