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Old 03-21-2016, 10:39 AM   #11
Miles
 
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Join Date: Oct 2009
Default Re: 1980s American Cars, Guns, Gadgets and Consumer Goods [Atmosphere, look, minutiae

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Originally Posted by Icelander View Post
--11b) What is the chance that records from the late 1950s and early 1960s would still be in paper form? Assuming that those chances are good, what are the odds that those records are mostly haphazardly arranged in a way that made sense to the Sheriff and/or Lieutenant of State Police at that time and extremely difficult to sort through for anyone else?
Very strong. The federal government is an early adopter of computer storage technology due to their combination of plentiful funding, national security interests, and sheer size of archives, but a place like this probably wouldn't think about computerization of records until the mid 1990s. I'd be surprised but not shocked if some archives were still paper-only today.

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--12b) Is there some local soft drink which is really common in Maine, but not elsewhere?
Actually, yes. \Moxie is ubiquitous in Maine, and near impossible to find outside of New England. It has a weird bitter sweet taste that puts in the Vegemite and licorice category of "love it or hate it".

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15) What are the popular local beers?
Local beer won't really be a thing until the 1990s. Budweiser, Coors, and Miller are all standard. You could probably find Sam Adams in Portland if you knew where to look for it, and Narraganset would probably be a sign of a Red Sox fan with a high susceptibility to marketing. Canadian beer would be Labatt, Molson's or Carling Black Label (if really hipster), in that order. The late 1980s also made malt liquor popular with people looking for a quick and dirty kind of drunk. Old English 800 and Colt 45 (hawked by Billy Dee Williams) were the biggest brands.

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16) What strong liquour do locals drink?
--16a) What is the bourbon of choice?
--16b) What do middle-class and over 'cultured' men drink?
Pretty much all the same question. Jack Daniels isn't technically bourbon, but it is standard, despite the much maligned lowering of alcohol content in 1987. However the 1980s see a huge surge in vodka in the US, especially among the younger and more fashion forward crowd.
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