I have pictures of the plumie, lots of them. She's got blooms and managed to keep them for the trip home. ;) Last night was heavenly having her inside in the living room. Haha! I just love the scent. As for that POS Ford... You're so right, it coulda been a commercial! Gosh, I thought she was going to blow a gasket, literally, She being the MIL. When it broke down the second time, the third? Well... all she could do was laugh and smirk then say that at least we were close to home. *chuckles* Close to home for her maybe, but certainly not for my husband & I as we live 2 1/2hrs away from her. I'll go finish uploading photos and add descriptions, so you can enjoy a good laugh and some beautiful images. ;) ~Tina, enjoying being home very much so!

Great pictures! And I agree that it is too bad about Mexico right now. If you want to see real Aztec ruins, you would have to go to Mexico City. Here's some pictures I took of an Aztec temple excavated recently in downtown Mexico City, and here's some from the museum next door. My favorite ruins are in Oaxaca (Zapotec & Mixtec) and Yucatan (Mayan). There are fantastic museums in Mexico City, and I could meet you there, if you decide to go at some point. It's great that you got to cook your own fish - now that's fresh!! When I was in Puerto Arista, Chiapas, my traveling friend José helped some fisherman who gave him a large fish, and we had someone cook it for us in her yard, which was an ersatz restaurant. She hardly charged us anything for that, and our hotel rooms were $1.60 a day - but that was back in 1978, I believe. They're probably almost ten times that much now! Lars Here is a link that might be useful:

It sounds like you have three issues to deal with: (1) How to sell this idea to the others in your co-op, especially the board; (2) What machines could work for this purpose; and (3) What machines that would work could provide a valid warranty and fast service for your 10-apartment co-op. I mean, personally, if I were you, I would locate a 24"x24" area somewhere in my apartment in which it might conceivably be possible to place either a washer/dryer combo with condenser dryer (since those don't need a vent, you can put them anywhere) or a stacked compact washer and condenser dryer... That would probably be much easier than successfully dealing with all three of the issues above. Not seeing your floorplan, I have no suggestions for you, but I really find it hard to believe that there is any middle-class American family who does not have a 24" by 24" area somewhere in their home that they could spare, in return for saving $1200(!!!) a year. If you could find the space in your apartment, you would not only save that money, you would also have the co-op's laundry facilities to fall back on for those rare occasions when your washer/dryer breaks and you have to wait a few days for parts, as is typically the case for residential machines. And also for those rare occasions when you have to wash something so disgustingly foul that you don't want to put it in your own appliance. I know space is tight in NYC, and whatever solution you find might be less than optimal, but for $1200 a year??? I think for that much money and convenience I could give up a closet, or repurpose one of the cabinets in my kitchen, or hell, put a washer-dryer combo unit next to the couch and call it an end table. :-) Here is a link that might be useful: A sampling of washer-dryer combo units

Fun thread! Of course (as Elmer points out) not all yesteryear memories were wonderful or longed for by today's standards (DDT being sprayed on wasps in a summer cottage, cotton candy stuck in long hair, non air-conditioned summers, spankings, snowy TV reception, the horrid polio shots, for example). However some memories really stand out. A fish monger who came to our neighborhood in his horse-drawn wagon. His oyster-colored horse was equipped with blinders and I loved the smell of the horse, it's reins and the sounds of the whole setup. Any in those days, oysters were large and affordable. I loved going to the ice shop and then putting my child mouth on a large clear block of ice after wiping the sawdust from it. My father used to come home from work at the end of the day with large paper bags full of fresh garden peas that were best tasting right from the pod. Local grew real plums and peaches as well. No felt fruit. One great thing was that we didn't need a clamming or salt water fishing license. The beaches were clean and not crowded. No loud intrusive music. Lots of large salmon and trout (wild) from clean brooks. As a kid, occasional leaks in the roof were a fun occurrence, necessitating a wild scramble for pots and pails. We had a huge tabogin (spelling?) and could be towed through farmers corn fields. We could skate on or swim in just about any pond we came across. In the winters we could slide down large hills with abandon, on privately owned, undeveloped property. No one thought about law suits. What fun. I was always outside doing something fun like rowing, skating, sledding, walking through privately owned woods whose owners didn't mind. Coca cola from a machine hosting those thick pale green bottles never tasted as cold or as good. Three cents for the returned bottles. Chips, Oreos, ice-cream sandwiches, donuts were all enjoyed without the troublesome awareness that came later about the negative health effects. For many years our family had this incredible large metal, glass-lined vacuum bottle wide-mouthed Thermos. My father made batches of the most delicious lemonade. He'd add lots of ice cubes and some of the squeezed lemon halves to the mix. I regret no one was forward thinking enough to have bough a couple of cartons full of the wonderful large thermos jug. Although I probable couldn't get away with guzzling down homemade lemonade, I still would love to have one of those very same jugs. Heavenly, was my father's lemonade. Remembering those picnics now, I'm taken with all the caring, work and vigor my folks put into all they did. I see photos of events, dinners, and see how peopled dressed (better, more carefully) in those days and before carefree materials came about. I used to like being around when my mother was ironing -- the resh clothes from the line and the smell of the iron on clean cotton. As a youngster, few understood the amount of labor involved. Whew! Oh, and remember those wooden handled, wheeled metal garden cultivators?! Thanks for the interesting thread, seniorgal, and to all those sharing all sorts of memories.