I have never understood the metric system. And I don't know how long it has been in use in the USA. I still use, pounds, pints, quarts, inches, feet.

I don't know meters. Like when a person is so many meters tall. I only know I'm 5 feet 6 and one half inches tall. How many meters am I??? lol

And you had to change from pounds and pence to dollars and cents??

I can only imagine what would happen if they did that to us here.

That reminds me of yet another funny story. I was 26 years old and working on a telethon in NYC. I worked on the One to One Telethon with Geraldo Rivera and an arthritis telethon. It was while I was working on that one that I met a gorgeous guy who invited me out to dinner. I told him I could not go but he said "hey, you have to eat don't you". so who was I to resist this 6 feet 5 inch gorgeous guy from South Africa. He owned a game preserve and he was a doctor. I will never forget him.

So he says: "pick out a restaurant" and I chose Chinese food. So after we ate, we went up to the register to pay and he opens his wallet and he says to me "Melody, how do you know what you are paying?" and I said "what??" Now he had a wallet filled with money so I didn't understand what he was talking about. Then when he said: "But everything is green, the one dollar bill, the 5 dollar bill, the 10 dollar bill, the 20 dollar bill, everything is green, how do you know what you are paying?? " I never laughed so hard in all my life. I took a $20 bill out of his wallet, and said 'here" to the guy behind the register.

Then I asked my date "what do you use for money in South Africa"?? and he said "Oh, everything is a different color, the 10 dollars, the 20 dollars. All different colors. But everything here is GREEN!!! Most confusing"

After I stopped laughing, as he was taking me back to the telethon, he says to me in this most prestigious South African accent: "Melody, do you know what they have on the Teleeee here in your country??" "They have this smashing tv show called MAGILLA GORILLA". That's exactly what he said and I remember it like it was yesterday.

I went back to the telethon, and he went home to South Africa.

Ah!!! the memories!!

mel