Wednesday, February 21, 2018

Turning Up the Thermostat on a Formerly Cold War Household


Well, Stranger Things has brought the 80's back to the cultural forefront where it belongs!


I had an idea for this caption when I saw the picture, and thought that Helena wouldn't mind a bit of an experimental caption involving possible time travel, or at least a link from now to an alternate past. Not quite sure how it works, but the neighborhood definitely has vivid memories. I had viewed this photo a few hours after looking at a bunch of websites that deal with towns/facilities that are no longer inhabitable which is fascinating and creepy at the same time.

As for her reply, my fears were not realized, for she had this to say:
Love it! I don't know if it involved time travel, or if time was maybe preserved in an 80's bubble, but it seems like that neighborhood will find lots of new occupants that will adopt a cold war lifestyle. 
It's been a while since I looked at websites as you mentioned, and pictures Chernobyl always fascinate me the most, probably because that disaster had it's effect even in the Netherlands. Even *we* were adviced not to eat our home grown vegetables, and pregnant women were adviced to stay inside. The radiation had to travel over half of the Ukraine, Poland and at that time the Deutsche Demokratische Republik and the Bundesrepublik Deutschland to get to me. 
I have heard of Frederick's of Hollywood before, very likely because you mentioned it here or on your blog before :D. Going through some of the fashion catalogs that came to my house when I grew up definitely was among my highlights as well. Even if they didn't have that much lingerie. Simply imagining being able to wear these clothes did a lot for me ::).
Choosing someone not from America that was alive during this time frame was a good pick I think, even though I had her written as younger in the caption. It takes someone of our age to really get the feeling of how it was to live in that age, before glasnost and the thaw between the countries that seems to have started freezing up again. There wasn't paranoia by that point, but there was still a bit of uneasiness that permeated the pop culture of the country.

A note for those who didn't quite get the reference:  PS. For those not in the know, Frederick's of Hollywood was a lingerie store / catalog sales dealing with lingerie mostly, and some clothing. It was sort of like Victoria's Secret, but more slutty and fetishy since it's heyday was in the 70's and 80's. Think it went out of business in the early 2000's? One of the highlights of young Dee's life was finding a few catalogs that arrived at our house when I was hitting puberty.

Someone else had noted that FoH still exists today on the Internet as a web store. However, I am pretty sure the name was bought a number of years ago, and they don't have a physical store front. It's like what happened to Sharper Image or Kenmore .. names that used to mean something and were sold to another company that wants to try to connect the present to past name recognition.


DISCUSSION QUESTION: There doesn't seem to be as many time travel TG captions out there as you'd think, especially considering how many of the feminine ideals of the past seem to still be imprinted upon us today, especially in fancy dress and sissy tropes. Do you think it is a lack of high quality pictures for source material, plot construction on how to get someone not only in the past, but into a female's body as well, or a lack of interest with readers and recipients? Would you LIKE to see more time travel captions, and if so, what time periods would you want to see explored?

6 comments:

  1. I'd like to say that the first thing I'd do going into an abandoned city would be something like helping clean up the debris accumulated over the years....
    But honestly....I'd be in the dresser drawers and closets and trying on anything that suited me....
    Wrong maybe....hot..oh yes!!!
    Love
    Kaaren

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    1. I probably would do the same, after I went around looking for collectibles like vintage video games, comic books, albums, movies, toys, etc ...

      Though I have done some Urban Exploring, and you are supposed to leave it as you found it, not that many stupid thugs didn't tag the places up a bit.

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  2. Why shouldn't you wear Russian underpants? Because Cher-nob well fall out. Oh how we laughed in those days.
    I do like time travel captions, lots of different fashions and being burnt at the steak.
    I did start on a series "Forced feminization through the ages" It was formatted as an intellectual tome. It started with a cave painting and then Sumerian I expect it is still in my "Things to finish folder."

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    1. Did they have pink frilly fur back in the caves? I can only imagine!

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  3. I'd certainly like more time travelling TG... Victorian, 1950s, any era when fashion went wild with gender roles.

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    1. I think you hit it right in that sweet spot. The early 90's weren't exactly the time to differentiate women from men. I think that this caption's era is right around the time when the roles were still defined fashion wise, before it all went to hell!

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