Time Warp in Brazil

Sometimes living in Brazil feels like you've suddenly been transported through time back to the 70's.  A prime example is when I saw a dad driving his car with his 8 month old on his knee. Grandma was in the back with the toddler on her lap as he waved his arms out the window. When I was 3, the seat belt legislation passed in Quebec with highway signs reminding drivers: "Au Quebec, on s'attache." and I still remember getting into cars that didn't even have seatbelts. I'm not sure what the seatbelt law is here in Brazil, I'm sure there is one because every time I leave the Barra Shopping parking lot, the ticket dispenser machine reminds us to put our seat belts on : "Sempre use o seu cinto de seguranca" , but at times I guess, like many laws in Brazil, it's creatively not followed.

The absence of people of all ages riding bikes without bike helmets reminds me of when I was a kid. Just the other day, we were driving back from a restaurant when I saw a man riding with his wife side-saddle on the center bar. It didn't really faze me until I saw that she was holding her newborn! The first commercially successful bike helmet, a polystyrene hard-shell, the Bell Biker, was only first produced in 1975 and the mandatory helmet laws in Canada didn't pass until the mid 90's, early 2000's, so our feathered mullets and 80's hairsprayed updos were free to move (or not) in the wind for a long time before we started to get fined.

Another time warp back to the 70's is when you ask for the cocktail menu in a restaurant and all they have are tequila sunrises, sidecars and mint juleps. With the super large selection of tropical fruits available here you'd think the bartenders would be going nuts on inventing new drinks, but no. I suppose you could bring your own mini bottle of tequila, rum or gin to the local juice place and make your own afternoon aperitif. 

It's winter time now, apparently. Which means it's 21C when you wake up and 33C by noon. Where I come from, we call that summer. But here it means it 's time to wear pants, turtleneck sweaters and leather boots. Oh, and have fondue. Fondue? Yup. It's the thing. Weren't fondue parties fashionable way back when I was 3? You know it was big in the 70's because the sticks have that 70's je-ne-sais-quoi everything must be brown and orange color combination. The last time I had fondue, mind you, was about 4 years ago, in Canada, on a snowy cold night after a long day of cross-country skiing with my family! My Brazilian family-go figure.

What about the weird, white, knee high exercise socks and the spandex exercise body suits a lot of ladies wear in the gym? Reminiscent of leg warmers much? Or the stripped tube socks we wore when we were kids along with our terrycloth shorts and tubetops? LEOTARDS, people! Wasn't that a fashion atrocity? But the Brazilians keep the flame burning.





And to top it all off, seems like every time I turn on the radio in the car, to the English station, I hear "More Than a Feeling" by Boston or "Summer Breeze" by Seals and Crofts


1970's Time Warp, I tell you.