Sue me for being an earth scientist for thinking "Oh, you mean back when it was covered by ocean?"

Yes you are right.
Also we didn't have Blocher but there was Kurt Furgler that people loved to hate. I actually thought he was brillant even if I didn't agree with some of his views. I wish we would still have politicians of his caliber when I see the current federal Council gang and how poorly they are dealing with the bank secrecy issue.

Actually, that changed only recently (and forced a huge number of smaller bakeries out of business) - I'd say Migros and Coop started having all-day bread about 4-5 years ago

Peter

my aunt still lets her bread sit in the cellar for a day before using it.. maybe this is how she got into the habit..

This is quite possibly the best thread on here for some time.

My Father in law was from Diesenhoffen and often spoke of sporadic gunfire between German and Swiss guard during WWII. Can anyone confirm/dismiss this? He usually told the story after a couple of bottles of Fechy and a Zwetchgen or three so would appreciate a more sober account!

In the olden days, in Switzerland, spaghetti used to grow on trees:

I remember the Swiss spaghetti harvest joke, it appeared as an April fools in England.

What was the chocolate like? Was it all Toblerone or were there other favourite chocolate bars which are now defunct?

Remember when all the shops were closed on Monday morining ?
In the 70s the bus only cost 50-70cts, there was this crazy fizzy candy in little square cubes called Tiki, and milk in triangle cartons.
Nobody ever ate square sliced bread and everyone stopped for a 2 hour lunch.
Kids would go to school on Saturday morning but had the day off on Wednesday. Twix chocolate was called Raider and MMs were called Treets.
There were loads of 2CVs cars and Citroën with yellow headlights from France.
There were these large super 8 cassette players and you could buy a service from the postoffice and the mail man actually would deliver croissants with the morning mail.
We'd get to stay up really late on Tuesday night because the 2nd movie of "La Dernière Scéance" was sometimes in English.

Yes, the 70s were something. Switzerland wanted to be hip. it mostly consisted of repainting our trolleybuses in bright orange.
Anybody remembers the "Denner Studio" on TV with a dorky mustachioed presenter telling us about those great discounts? hilarious.

And Lucerne's answer to McDonald's was a fast food restaurant called McCheaper. Worst fries I had ever tasted.

Slightly OT but I have to comment: Funny thing is, coming from Luxembourg, half these things still happen there; shops closed on Mondays, topless TB test in cold hospital when I arrived in 1993, school for kids on Saturdays, often no bread in the afternoons in supermarkets and certainly no sandwiches in the snack shops after 'lunch time' hours.... So for me, Switzerland is a veritable modern metropolis!

For a teenager, it was a culture shock to move from England to Zurich in the early 80's. The only pop music programme on radio was the Sunday night Top 20. The rest of the time, folk music, classic and old German hits were broadcast.

Thankfully, Roger Schawinski officially brought Radio24 to us in 1983. It was pirate broadcasting before then, on shaky airwaves since 1979.

Clem Dalton was an English-speaking DJ who had an hour's slot at 10pm. "Fly high in the Zurich sky.... with Clem Dalton".

English speakers were regarded as exotic and cool - as opposed to the Italians or other foreigners - which made integration that little bit easier and quicker.

There were no English magazines or other media for teens. Just 3 publications from Germany: Bravo, Pop Rocky and Popcorn (of which only the first is still available today). Having to read about your favourite pop group in German, though, certainly increased the speed in which the language was learned.

You have a point here - not sure about the eighties but in the seventies Coop and Migros didn't sell bread at all!

Speaking of Swiss culture of the time - There were two series of children's books around. I fear they have lost much of their popularity by now. Several drawing panels accompanied by rhymed couplets.

One is called Papa Moll and tells the misadventures of this family who consists of father, mother, two sons, a daughter and a dachshund. It was invented in 1952.




The other one is called Globi, the parrot mascot of the store company Globus. It saw the light of day in 1935:




Where I just saw an anthropomorphic parrot, others saw a lack of female role models. So in 1989 or 1990 Globi's sister Globine was born:



Globine at Swissair, audio book cover, 1990

Globine however shared the fate of Swissair and was never heard of since around 1993.

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An interesting new twist to an old story. Is there any source for this ? According to Wikipedia the circumstances were somewhat different.

What about Max and Morizt are they Swiss or German?

There german but Globi is swiss

Oh dear, I've totally forgotten about them
Written by Wilhelm Busch, a German. Love those bad boys stories

Just remember when I got myself a new hairdo back when I was working in a tiny village out side of Bern, everyone was calling me Moritz. Spose I looked like a "spitzbüb".

Max & Moritz

Preface

Ah, how oft we read or hear of
Boys we almost stand in fear of!
For example, take these stories
Of two youths, named Max and Moritz,
Who, instead of early turning
Their young minds to useful learning,
Often leered with horrid features
At their lessons and their teachers.


Look now at the empty head: he
Is for mischief always ready.
Teasing creatures - climbing fences,
Stealing apples, pears, and quinces,
Is, of course, a deal more pleasant,
And far easier for the present,
Than to sit in schools or churches,
Fixed like roosters on their perches


But O dear, O dear, O deary,
When the end comes sad and dreary!
'Tis a dreadful thing to tell
That on Max and Moritz fell!
All they did this book rehearses,
Both in pictures and in verses.

I did`t know there where popular in english speaking countrys