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?