1980s American Cars, Guns, Gadgets and Consumer Goods [Atmosphere, look, minutiae]

[Icelander]

11b)

Originally Posted by Miles

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.

Right, lovely.

So if a man born in Aroostook County, Maine were arrested for murder in New York on the 14th of December, 1988, it wouldn't be exceptional in any way for it to take a week until the NYPD and FBI task force assigned to the investigation had final information from the Maine State Police and Aroostook County Sheriff's Office?

I mean, in two days they might have spoken with the current Sheriff and the Lieutenant commanding the F Troop of the State Police in the region, but any follow-up such as tracking down incident reports or getting statements from responding officers from any events more than five years in the past might have taken up to a week, right?

Especially if these were not obviously relevant until after the first report went to the task force and they came back with a request for further information after bringing up certain events with the suspect.

12)

Originally Posted by Miles

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".

Splendid! Thanks for a lovely bit of local colour.

15)

Originally Posted by Miles

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.

Are Budweiser, Coors and Miller all equally popular in New England/Maine or might one of them be favoured over the others?

Do small town drinking establishments have all of them on draft at this time or is it more likely to be an exlusive contract with one of them, with others stocked only in bottles?

And would the US/State of Maine levy particularly high import dues/tarriffs/other additional taxes on Canadian beers or other alcohol?

14) Come to think of it, in the 1980s, would Canadians in border towns visit the US to buy cheap booze and other stuff as they do in the modern day, due to lower sales tax and lower taxes on alcohol and cigarettes?

Or might the US citizens visit Canada for cross-border shopping in the 1980s?

What about earlier? Was there anything much cheaper in Canada (New Brunswick or Quebec) during the late 50s, the 60s and the 70s than it was in New England/Maine?

Or much cheaper in New England/Maine than it was in Canada (New Brunswick or Quebec) at some periods from 1958-1980?

I'm wondering if the PCs hear local smuggling yarns, what were/are the locals smuggling after the end of Prohibition?

Cigarettes being smuggled from the US into Canada started to become very big business after 1990, but I don't know how much, if any, there was of it before the huge hike in Canadian excise tax in the late 80s/early 90s.

15)

Originally Posted by Miles

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.

Eugh.

My modern pop cultural osmosis insists that Colt 45 is an inner-city beverage, associated heavily with homeless black males in metropolitan areas, in particular Baltimore, Washington DC and certain neighbourhoods of Detroit, LA and New York City.

Would it also be appropriate for white rural drunks with trucker caps in northern Maine? Because if so, a faux-sophisticated 21-year-old might drink it 'ironically' with his buddies when home for the holidays.