One of the things that's helped me (and my semi-westernized Thai wife) adapt to life in Thailand is realizing that many of the social ills here were common back in the US when I was young. Things that can drive a newbie up the wall.....like watching someone toss their soft drink cup out the back of a songtaew or the village immigrant who can't stand it when his neighbor burns his/her trash in the front yard each morning.
I've been watching Mad Men episodes on netflix recently. I was deprived of seeing this series when it first came out several years ago....but can now binge watch it, if I like, on netflix. Last night's episode featured Don and his flame wife, Betty, out on a picnic with their two children. Don finished up a can of beer and hurled the empty into the woods. When it was time to leave, Betty pulled up the picnic blanket, leaving a variety of wrappers on the ground. Packed the kids up in the new Caddy and off they went. I don't remember things being quite that bad back in the early 60's........but littering and burning trash in one's backyard certainly was not uncommon.
Watching scenes of incessant smoking in the 1960-era series (been there, done that)......in 2016. YGBSM! People really did that? Makes me wonder whether 10 or 20 or 40 years from now people will say the same thing about guns in the US.

Ultimately, remembering that Thailand is still classified as a developing country helps keep life here in perspective.
Slow news day.

yes, the U.S. certainly wended its way through a lot of things that are still endemic over here.. Guns? I don't know if the U.S. can ever shed itself of the gun culture... It goes hand-in-hand with cowboys, the Untouchables, and a leftward leaning anti-gun Hollywood industry that loves to glorify gun violence to sell movies.. Why some folks feel they need an arsenal of various firearms in their house in most cases is beyond me.. I've had guns in the past and progressed past the desire to own them... Over here of course, we furriners can't own guns although the gun culture also seems embedded here based on what I see on the Thai morning news daily..

Back when I first got to Thailand in 1973, after having visited the country-side and gotten out a bit, I felt things were comparable to the U.S. in the 30's.. Nowadays there's a definite dichotomy in my views of the culture.. I can go visit relatives who have a cellphone in their back pocket as they fish in the creek near their house.. The nets, the quest for protein is still the same today with few changes from what they did a century ago.. Out in the "Toong Na" their little hut is built of split bamboo with a raggedy old corrugated tin roof.. Much the same as they had 40 years ago.. Now, walk back into the village and they've got decent houses with electricity, running water, tiled floors, a big TV, an inside bathroom with (OMG) a farang style sit-down toilet for 76 year old Mae-Yi, a motorcycle on the porch and a iron buffalo walk-behind tractor parked under the rice shed.. On the flip side, I can visit nieces that live in Rayong and Bangkok and they're living on a much higher plane than the kin-folk still up in Issan working the fields.

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