Brainstorming about Steve Rogers...

[neotoma]

Since my brain apparently wants to write 5 Things stories about Captain America some random ideas for you

Fic noodling:

Cavendish bananas -- what happened to the Gros Michel?
Sneakers -- those are athletic shoes, why would you wear them on the street?
Hats -- not part of standard dress anymore
Clean streets -- people pick up trash and throw it away. People pick up dog poop!
The Los Angeles Dodgers -- WHAT?!
Lack of smog -- no one uses coal for heat anymore. The city smells different.
Red Delicious Apples -- not delicious, not actually an apple in Steve's opinion
Nutrional Labels -- what the heck am I eating?
Anti-vaccination activism -- Do people not remember polio? Acutally, they don't, Steve
Antipathy to the FDA -- for Steve, the Elixir Sulfanilamide Disaster was 5 years ago.
Plastics -- everywhere, even his shoes. He's used to celluloid and bakelite.
Roombas!
Craft beers -- doesn't ever city have its own brewery or twelve?
Trousers that sit at the hips, not the waist.
Jeans -- those are work pants, not fashion items

Any other ideas about what Steve would have culture shock over?

Comments

[neotoma]

A menu from the Mann Fang Lowe Co. (Chinese Restaurant) from 1904, courtesy of the New York Public Library's What's on the Menu? project. Given that it was in Chinatown, near the Bowery, it may not have been a place young Steve would have gone, but Chinese food was available at the time in NYC. No idea if chopsticks were offered, but I suspect so. Chop suey and lo mein were probably the dishes Steve was most familiar with -- more authentic dishes became popular later.

Still, Thai, Vietnamese, and Japanese food would be exotic to Steve, and the popularity of sushi would just be baffling.

[hannah]

I don't have anything more to add to this conversation except that's such an adorable little icon I want to pat it on the head and coo.

[neotoma]

I'm not sure where I got it from... maybe copperbadge? He does interesting icons occasionally.

What will really shock Steve is the *price* of food -- he's from an era where you could get a good meal with pie and coffee afterwards for less than $5.

[hannah]

My mother talks about price increases sometimes, and when she does I ask her how much it would be with inflation taken into account. It comes out pretty much the same often enough I keep doing it.

Though as long as we're talking money, the near-complete absence of hard cash would be strange.

Mexican and Indian food might be new to him as well.