Back in the day for a couple of years I loved to watch the goings on of “Mac & Rachel” in Bay City of Another World, a soap on NBC. I definitely had a thing for Victoria Wyndham who played Rachel. Thanks to the miracle that is YouTube, I’ve been able to watch reruns of these mid-70’s cliffhangers! Complete with period commercials.

Aside from the unexpected, you knew what to expect each day in that world. No one was fat, dumb or ugly in Another World. No one ever had a flat tire. No one worked at the Quickie Mart, they were all doctors, lawyers and architects. Their living rooms were immaculate and their wardrobes were impeccable.

Swear to God the last time I checked in on some nameless soap, the modern day residents of “Pine Valley” or wherever were texting on their phones! Little conversational ‘balloon’ blurbs popped up on the screen so you could read their texts! What a sick world. Back in the day each scene was its own vignette as they held proper ‘sit-downs’, to discuss the latest gossip or plot their schemes!

Society really has tanked. A few soaps have hung on, but its not pretty. Mac & Rachel would not recognize this world. I suppose its why I like the world of the Mierlo-Hout Railcam. It never changes at least. Its also interesting the observations I’ve made about that world (in the Helmond district of the Netherlands).

In Mierlo-Hout most everyone seems to have a good BMI compared to Americans. They don’t drive 20 year old clunkers, I find this very odd. There do seem to be a larger number of bicyclists and pedestrians, perhaps that explains the lower BMI. The walking of dogs occurs, but not like it does in the U.S.

Nor the walking of baby strollers. People don’t seem to be into littering like they are here. I never see trash on this corner or someone tossing a McDonald’s drink cup out the window. At 5 o’clock in the morning here, it is high noon there. You can’t go 5 minutes without a small passenger train or a larger freight train go by.

They give you at least a 30 second warning before the actual train goes by, which rarely takes more then 25 seconds, even for a large freight train. Which brings me to the oddest observation of all. People follow the rules there. They ‘color between the lines‘ as it were.

When the crossing arms come down, they stop. They don’t gun their engines to beat the train. The pedestrians don’t walk around the arms. And when the arms come up, they wait until they are completely up and the bells have stopped before they proceed. There’s no trying to gain a few seconds by not following the rules.

Its a tidy world in Mierlo-Hout, and I like that.

If I hadn’t been kicked off YouTube and had an account to chat with on this live-cam, I’d suggest to those people (the camera has audio too), that they stand on the sidewalk at the bottom of the camera, and introduce themselves. Little interviews and such.

Pick a time say noon, and tell us of their world. Who they are, how long they’ve lived there, what takes them by this corner of the world. Bring a 4th dimension to our 1 camera world. It would be fascinating. Tell us about this other world.