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jennifer rose

Mar 20, 2007, 9:39 PM

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Mexico in the Days of Yore

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How much have the life and times in Mexico changed since your started visiting or living here?

I can remember when….

International airline tickets had to be reconfirmed 24 hours before the flight.
The peso was 8 to 1.
Telmex wasn’t the customer-friendly institution it now is.
The News was still in print, along with the Sunday Vistas section.
Anita Brenner edited Mexico Today magazine.
Two cigarettes were placed on a little tray on your table at the restaurant at the Camino Real in Mexico City, along with marzipan candies.
The Geneve was a really inexpensive hotel.
Highway 57 was 2-lane blacktop from Laredo to D.F.
The first McDonald’s made its appearance in the D.F.
There was still passenger train service.
We had no HomeDepot, OfficeMax or even Costco.
When you bought insurance from Sanborn’s, you receive a customized tope-by-tope Mexico Mike itinerary.
The Zona Rosa was actually safe and pleasant.

Now what do you remember about Mexico from the days of yore?

(This post was edited by jennifer rose on Mar 21, 2007, 7:17 AM)

Brian

Mar 21, 2007, 4:43 AM

Post #2 of 23 (2702 views)

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Re: [jennifer rose] Mexico in the Days of Yore

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Conosupo for basic needs and groceries

Pemex Nova hand pumped from 55 gallon drums

Casetas de Larga Distancia instead of Vonage

MexicoConnect when the postings were more about Mexico and not the personal lives and unrelated opinions of the subscribers.

Brian

Poncho32

Mar 21, 2007, 5:47 AM

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Re: [jennifer rose] Mexico in the Days of Yore

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Well where do you start Jennifer do you go back 10 years 20, 30 or I can relate to 37 as of today.
The only thing I can contribute is what we have experienced in Puerto Vallarta.
To start right by the Pemex station entering the town from the south there was a sign stating the population 12,500. The only major grocery store was Resso.The large restaurants you could count on 1 hand. The airport was a very small building. The Marina area was a swamp.To have Thanks Giving Turkey you brought it in in your suit case. All drinking water was in a bottle.If you made your own salad for dinner you had better purify it.Road conditions to go any where was a joke.Constant power supply was a joke.One of the nicest places to stay in those days was Garza Blanca , you could have your own caseta on the hill side with pool $36 U.S . a day.
Boy how times have changed. Bud

drfugawe

Mar 21, 2007, 7:04 AM

Post #4 of 23 (2674 views)

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Re: [jennifer rose] Mexico in the Days of Yore

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Jennifer said, "Telmex wasn’t the customer-friendly institution it once was."

OK Jennifer, help me out on this - does that mean that Telmex currently is, or is not, customer friendly?
jm
_________________________

"Self-respect: the secure feeling
that no one, as yet, is suspicious."
H.L. Mencken
____________###

jennifer rose

Mar 21, 2007, 7:19 AM

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Re: [drfugawe] Mexico in the Days of Yore

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Whoops. Thanks for pointing that out. I've edited my post.

Telmex wasn’t the customer-friendly institution it now is.

bournemouth

Mar 21, 2007, 7:55 AM

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Re: [jennifer rose] Mexico in the Days of Yore

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Infrequent Pemex stations, no tolls roads, trouble finding Magna fuel (I remember filling up with aviation gas in Guerrero Negro, Baja California once) no imported foods, no Dish or cable t.v. Life was a lot of fun in spite of the fact that our first home in Mexico had water once a week, if we were lucky (there was no aljibe) and no power - we eventually got an old rv gas refrigerator. I still mourn that little home.

jerezano

Mar 21, 2007, 8:04 AM

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Re: [jennifer rose] Mexico in the Days of Yore

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Hello,

Mexico in the days of yore. Way back about 1954 when flying on airplanes was still comfortable and the stewardesses were always pretty, always attentive, and made sure you had your pillow and piece of free gum to handle the pressure changes--there were still barf bags at each seat--I made my first visit to Mexico City. The air was pure, crystaline, and Popocatepetl was in sharp relief. The Hotel Geneve was not only inexpensive but excellent and the service was equal to what you now get in the Camino Real hotels. In fact better. The Pan American building was still a must-see and experience marvel. It had for Mexico the same reputation as the Empire State Building in New York. Chapultepec Castle was a glorious ruin. There were no demonstrations in the Zocalo. The Cathedral and the Bellas Artes were still sinking.

We made the standard swing at that time of Mexico City,the pyramids, Xochocomilco, Cuernavaca, and Taxco. In Taxco we were permitted entry into one of the mines, went down in the shaft elevator, explored about a quarter mile of tunneling, and came back up into the sunlight to the then beautiful city where the traffic was only Volkswagon bugs and vans with an occasional donkey. No donkey carts because of the steepness of the streets. Sterling Moss? was then only starting his resurrection of the silver jewelry business and the designs were a bit primitive. None of the elaborate and sophisticated jewelry we see nowadays. I still have a bolo tie clasp from that visit.

Oh, by the way that swing to Mexico courtesy of now defunct Pan American was free. I had a cross-country flight from San Francisco to Washington, DC and PanAm allowed a a routing and stopover in Mexico City gratis. Do any of the airlines still do things like that?

Adiós. jerezano.

(This post was edited by jerezano on Mar 21, 2007, 8:08 AM)

Brian

Mar 21, 2007, 8:32 AM

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Re: [jerezano] Mexico in the Days of Yore

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In Reply To

No donkey carts because of the steepness of the streets. Sterling Moss? was then only starting his resurrection of the silver jewelry business and the designs were a bit primitive.

I think you are referring to William Spratling. Sterling Moss was a race car driver.

saludos
Brian

Tequisbob

Mar 21, 2007, 9:19 AM

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Re: [jennifer rose] Mexico in the Days of Yore

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The clean pure air in Mexico City.
The train leaving Mexico City at 6:00pm arriving Monterrey at 6:00 AM...with a dining car, bar car and nice sleeping quarters.
Flying Mexicana for $189.00 with as many stops and layovers you wanted in a 30-day period.
Riding the pesero's and any taxi in Mexico City safely.
Staying at the beautiful Garza Blanca every year in PV as pointed out by Bud Crest.
The Latin America towers and the Muralto.
Crossing at Laredo in about 10-minutes.
Flying Mexicana DC 3 from Laredo to Mexico City for $48 roundtrip.
Being able to walk around PV, Ixtapa or any other seaside port without being hounded by Condo/Timeshare salesperson.
Mexico City before the Metro.
The first Soriana in Monterrey. A real supermarket !!!!
Chaparitas...
Shopping at the New Salinas Y Roche and buying Aramis cheaper than Neimans...
Walking through Chapultepec Park on Sunday safely and seeing all the families...
The dancing fountains at the Jacaranda...
Huachinango Vera Cruzana and the music at La Fonda del Recuerdo con Cuba Libre's...
The Original Harry's Bar and Grill 40-years ago in Cuernavaca...
Wonderful memories !!!

Bubba

Mar 21, 2007, 11:23 AM

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Re: [jennifer rose] Mexico in the Days of Yore

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The English news on radio at 10:00AM in Mexico City.
My first elote con mayonesa and real honest-to-God tacos with charred spring onions and cilantro.
Leaving my female companion at a country bus stop on the Mexico City to Acapulco road circa 1971 because she insisted I choose between her and another cold cerveza. Boy was that an easy decision. I wonder if she ever made it back to New York.

wendy devlin

Mar 21, 2007, 1:30 PM

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Re: [Bubba] Mexico in the Days of Yore

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"To all the girls, I've loved before"

Just imagine, Bubba.

Could have been you who teamed with Julio Iglesias instead of Willie Nelson, circa 1984.

My Mexican experiences started 1991. Since that time...so...many...people...have told me...you should have been here in.....1953, '70', 82...etc.

Trouble is...didn't get to Mexico until '91. So Mexico...as it 'existed' then, didn't exist personally... before that point of time.

Seems that this phenomena is somewhat common. Gives every generation a chance, to reinvent the wheel, figuratively speaking.

Hence, methinks the importance of learning the youngsters to respect the elderly.

Been hanging with the elderly since 1970 and looking after 'em in various and sometimes full-time regards...ever since then. Took our three children to Mexico, multiple times so that they could learn this attitude. Didn't chance that they would necessarily learn generational respect where we lived in Canada.

Mexico, has my full respect in this regard. At least as have experienced it.

(This post was edited by wendy devlin on Mar 21, 2007, 2:28 PM)

Oscar2

Mar 22, 2007, 12:59 AM

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Re: [jennifer rose] Mexico in the Days of Yore

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There are so many adventures one can reflect from but there is always a few whose candle will burn brighter, longer and sometimes forever.

In 1970 Ixtapa was but a couple of palapas and down the road apiece, Zehuatanejo was a very quaint, sparsely populated, tourist-fishing village with an even more gorgeous isolated strand of beach across its bay called La Roppa.

Having rented a house in Zejua back then, the young lady I was with at that time had reason to visit a young girl friend of hers from New York. She had lived almost a year by herself in a makeshift palapa behind this primitive, sandy, sun and wind soaked paradise, strewn with tropical coconut trees waving its frowns in the wind as if inviting you to relax in its shade in a land christened La Roppa.

What you would have called a road back then too La Roppa was a rut embedded scratch fit more for beast and foot. As I do now, I did back then and spoke to locals who did sign post sorta word of mouth advertising. Enquires brought to my door the local taxi fit for it’s time and place.

One axiom true of Mexico and like most places on this globe, where there’s will, there is a way. And back then luxury land travel too La Roppa brought a serape wrapped viejito with dos burros. Serapes’ for saddles and 2 gourds straddled across each borros neck, filled with water for treks to a beautiful, pristine solitary stretch of beach. Its solitude at times made one feel like it was yours and yours alone except for the occasional visit of the cool breezes reminding you of its gifts. Ahh, hindsight carries with it such charm and the quaintness of dreams.

Today La Roppa is gashed with condos and the like, paved roads and the crush. For me, today this is a place only in memory, felt in a land where believe it or not, solitude and beauty still exists when you scratch the surface of this land.

But now my old bones only venture out with visions and dreams of yore, when the heat of the sun once warmed the sand between my toes and the breath that filled my lungs carried with it a spirit and longing for more.

Anonimo

Mar 22, 2007, 5:07 AM

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Pay phones where you dialed the number, and only dropped the readied coin if the party answered. (Or was that in the Arkansas Ozarks about 1980?)

Saludos,
Anonimo

Georgia

Mar 22, 2007, 7:08 AM

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I lived in the Hotel Genova as a child and remember the bar area with a fountain at the end. The waiters treated me as if I were a lovely senorita and served me naranjadas with great flourish. And I don't think they even had the name "zona rosa" in those days: the 50's.

But I also remember that old crones would "rent" babies to beg with and injure them to get more money when they begged.

Georgia

Mar 22, 2007, 7:10 AM

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Re: [jennifer rose] Mexico in the Days of Yore

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Tel-Mex is customer friendly?

jerezano

Mar 22, 2007, 8:46 AM

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Re: [Georgia] Mexico in the Days of Yore

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Hello:

Quote

Tel-Mex is customer friendly?

Absolutely. Much friendlier than AT&T.

Adiós. jerezano.

TigerTonio

Mar 22, 2007, 9:10 AM

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Re: [jerezano] Mexico in the Days of Yore

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I'm a bit too young to go back as far as most of you -- but I do look at my parents' old travel guides with amazement...especially at the hotel prices!

jerezano

Mar 22, 2007, 10:45 AM

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Re: [Tio Toño] Mexico in the Days of Yore

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Hello,

What a trip to the past. I looked at the first one to Zijuantenejo and was struck by the fact that in those days one could travel by train from Laredo to Tequisquiapan.

And those hotel prices: $10 usd a night!

Thanks for posting these scans.

Adiós. jerezano.

La Isla

Nov 11, 2007, 6:27 PM

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Re: [bobr76453] Mexico in the Days of Yore

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Riding the pesero's and any taxi in Mexico City safely.
Walking through Chapultepec Park on Sunday safely and seeing all the families...

GueroPaz

Nov 11, 2007, 7:53 PM

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Re: [La Isla] Mexico in the Days of Yore

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I didn't start coming to the interior until 1984, by motorcycle. But my honeymoon was in Monterrey, in 1965. We hired a taxi to Cola de Caballo; 22 years later my coworker and I went above the falls and camped out in the front yard of some family he knew. The fancy French restaurant in downtown Monterrey served flaming ice cream for dessert in 1965. Hotel Ambassador....wonder what price we paid then.

I almost forgot one big trip. In 1968 I was a minister of youth, and took about 8 teenagers south of Zacatecas, totally off the road, for a week of medical missionary work. No electricity in the village. Now, my daughter takes a group of teenagers to Zacatecas city every spring break.

My son and I went to La Pesca, on the coast of Tamaluipas, around 1987. We stayed in a dormitory, alone, and paid US$1.98 for the two of us.

In 1986, my girlfriend and I rode a Yamaha 400 into western Chihuahua, west of Cd. Cuahtemoc, and camped along the river in Tarajumara country. Again, no electricity.

Yet when I served in rural Chiapas in 2001, there were villages without electricity.

Georgia

Nov 12, 2007, 7:38 AM

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Re: [jennifer rose] Mexico in the Days of Yore - My favorite memory

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Been thinking about this: back in the 50's when my father worked in Mexico City I remember his utter amazement when we observed a head on collision on a one way street ... and the two drivers jumped out of their cars and aruged about it! Actually, I guess not much has changed, after all.

La Isla

Nov 12, 2007, 3:30 PM

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Re: [La Isla] Mexico in the Days of Yore

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I meant to add that, of all the items on BobR's list, these are the only two things that you can still enjoy. Of all those things that are no more, I miss most the crystalline air of the D.F., which was once called "la región más transparente" (also the title of an early novel by Carlos Fuentes).

Marcy

Nov 14, 2007, 1:17 PM

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Re: [La Isla] Mexico in the Days of Yore

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I moved to Ajijic in 1965 as a teenager. There are so many things to mention that I hardly know where to start.
The old Posada Ajijic rivaled the current Nueva Posada in the gracious beauty of it's interior, the gardens, pool and Talevera tiled restrooms. It was the hub of all activities and celebrating in the village at that time.
There was one telephone at the Posada Ajijic. If someone from NOB needed to reach you, they sent a telegram to the post office.
We had electric outages and power surges daily. The majority of us used iceboxes rather than refrigerators, so it didn't make much of an impact. No TV's, washing machines or computers, of course.
Burros wandered the streets and the carraterra. We used to hitch rides on them whenever we became tired of walking. Cattle, chickens, pigs and horses also at large.
The great majority of homes and business in the village were only one story. No bars on the doors or windows.
Until the early 1970's there was no indoor grocery store in Ajijic. No theater or any other type of business that didn't cater to the local's needs. There were a few shops with local artesans goods for tourists and only one place to rent a room. (the posada) My father tried his hand at running a B&B but it didn't last long.
There was no litter or grafitti.
Dogs and cats weren't generally kept as pets and wandered the streets looking for food and subseptible to all the inherent diseases and injuries incurred by animals that are not cared for.
The homes along the lake front all had low walls enabling us view of the grounds and the houses.
Gypsies came to town a couple of times a year. They put on circus-like shows in a field above the carretara. They also would project a movie on someone's outdoor wall. They made money on chair rentals. Five centavos a chair. They were very unfriendly and suspicious. The locals kept an attentive eye on them, claiming they would steal any chance they got.
Woman washed laundry along the shores of the lake.
One could ride or walk to each village on dirt roads connecting them.
Along one such dirt road, just beyond the soccer field, was a huge grove of eucalyptus trees. Among these trees was the remnants of an old stage coach Inn. There was still a family living in some of the lower rooms. The upper portion of the building was on the fast lane to ruin. It was built in the old Hacienda style. It was still quite an impressive,albiet crumbling structure.
There were still men fishing in the lake. Fishing nets, drying fish and boats lined the lake shore.
Mariaches bands that came down from some of the mountain villages roamed the streets until the wee hours on Sundays playing music.
Fields of corn and other produce surrounded what is now the cemetary.
One drove through Chapala to get to Guad. The route was almost entirely lined with farms/fields. There were no houses above the carretarra and no business lining either side of the road until you got to Chapala either.
There was a large "beer garden" restaurant next to the pier, on the shore of the lake in Chapala. That place was really hopping on weekends.
Horses were not shoed or given veteranary care as there were none of those services available.
There were no doctors of any kind in the village.
Walking through the town at night could be a dangerous proposition. It was inky black and feral dogs roamed in packs.
You could rent a furnished,two bedroom house with garden in the village for $20.00 USD a month.
Driving in the small towns and Guad was actually worse than it is now. There were no stop lights, stop signs, oneway streets or bumps to slow traffic or give it any semblance of rules or order. Not to mention the constant presence of animals on the road day and night.
I loved my life in Mexico then.
I was very recently visiting the area for the first time since 1973. Once I got over my initial shock at all the changes, I fell in love with it all over again. I began to see that most of the changes were for the best.