Other things that come to mind:

The incredible ribs at Zachary's
The oisseau at Bar de la Mer
The crab races at Mullet Beach
No Pelican timeshare - perhaps no timeshares at all......
Our first trip was a packaged trip and we didnt even have to claim luggage at the airport. It was delivered to our room at Mullet.
Dressing in formal wear EVERY night for dinner and casino time
Our first dinner at Antoine's and meeting the Captain and Madame
The first year we brought our girls and they brought their friends and the van we rented
Simpson Bay lagoon before it was built up - no Lee's or restaurant row like we have today
And one of our favorite memories after 1983 - driving past the outskirts of Marigot and checking to see if the goats (sheep?) were still climbing on and all over the row of derelict cars parked on the right.
The wonderful little restaurants you 'heard about' but had to struggle to find
No TVs, no telephones to speak of
And someone mentioned the open air front desk at Mullet - we were there the week it was built. We checked in at the inside office and checked out at the new open air reception desk all in the same trip
We were on the island and got to see some of the drawbridge being floated in place and likewise, when the causeway span was brought through the same bridge

So many wonderful memories of island days. Over a lot of years we have vacationed throughout the Caribbean on Anguilla, Aruba, Barbados, Bermuda, Grenada, Saba, St. John, St. Kitts, Vieques and the Bahamas and we've visited a lot of the other near islands via daytrips and island hopping as well, but I have to say, to this day - none of them has ever satisfied our wishlist the way St. Maarten - St. Martin has. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" />