My very first iPod

↓ ↓   You can share this with your Facebook friends, Tweet it,

↓ ↓   Pin it, or even email it - by clicking one of the buttons below

Floppy diskettes

Remember these?

↓ ↓   You can share this with your Facebook friends, Tweet it,

↓ ↓   Pin it, or even email it - by clicking one of the buttons below

A brief look back at the World Trade Center - Where were you?

14 years ago, the whole world stood still and watched as two relatively young (just under 30 years old) towering office buildings were destroyed. To this day, I think it's pretty safe to assume that every one of you can remember exactly where you were - and what you were doing when it happened.

Tuesday, 9/11/2001  -  8:46 a.m.

First, let me tell you where I was...

I was living in Cleveland at the time - and ironically, I was packing for a flight to Chicago the following day (Wednesday) for a trade show.  My boss was to arrive in Chicago that Tuesday, and I later found out that he was actually IN THE AIR when the first plane struck.  Of course, all flights were cancelled for a number of days.  I ended up driving the 6 hours to Chicago.  The Trade Show was being held at the Merchandise Mart, and security at the building was tight.  The Twin Towers, The Pentagon, the foiled attempt at the White House, etc. - The Merchandise Mart was (is) an iconic building in Chicago.  When it opened in 1930, it was the largest building in the world, with 4 million square feet of floor space.  At that time, no one had any idea of how many attacks had been planned - nor how the terrorists chose the targets. Speculation at the time was that the Merchandise Mart may have have been one (in a very long list) of potential targets.  It was (needless to say) a very dismal trade show. But I'm getting off track here, sorry.

That day certainly changed the world.  Yesterday, I asked my [12-year-old] daughter what she knew about the [14-year-old] event.  She quickly rattled off a number of facts about 9/11 and then it hit me. They're teaching it in History classes now.  How's that for surreal?

Anyway, I've been meaning to put this together for a while now (for many years, in fact) - sort of a memorial or tribute. Not like one of those 2-hour TV specials (who has the time), but just something short, thought provoking, interesting and possibly different than everything else you might be seeing in your social newsfeed today. So here goes.

Here's some history and other interesting facts that I've gathered* (that you may or may not already know about The World Trade Center)

• The idea for establishing a World Trade Center in New York was first proposed in 1943, but plans were put on hold until 1949.

• The final location (then known as Radio Row) had not been decided upon until 1961.

• Business owners on Radio Row were each given $3,000 for displacement, regardless of how long they had been there - or how profitable their business was.

• The Port Authority spent nearly a year acquiring the property for the project.

• Demolition of 13 square blocks of existing buildings took a little more than 4 months.

• Groundbreaking for the twin towers was in the Summer of 1966. It took over a year-and-a-half just to prepare the foundation, before actual construction could begin on the first tower, two years later in August of 1968 - and then another 5 months later for the second tower.

• The first (North) tower was completed in 1972, and the second (South) tower in 1973.

• Tenants started moving into both towers more than a full year prior to their respective completion.

• World Trade Center was not rented out at full capacity until after 1979.

• The project was originally estimated to cost $350 million. Late in 1966, The Port Authority announced that it would be closer to $575 million.  Critics at the time (including The New York Times) argued that these figures were still way too low, and claimed that $750 million was a more realistic estimate. Once completed, total costs to The Port Authority had reached $900 million.

• The architect's original plan only called for 80 floors, but it was changed to 110 floors to meet The Port Authorities minimum requirement of 10 million square feet of office space.

• The narrow windows were due in part to the architect's own fear of heights, as well as to make occupants feel more secure.

• Both buildings were designed to support a tall rooftop communication antenna. But only the North Tower ended of getting an antenna fitted (and that wasn't until 1978).

• The World Trade Center had a total of 95 elevators

• In 1974, Philippe Petit walked between the towers on a tightrope (the steel cable between the towers was set with a bow and arrow). He actually did it a total of eight times.

• The complete complex (including building 7, which was added in the 80's) occupied 16 acres of land.

That's all I have for now - thanks for joining me.  I may come back and edit this post at a later date (although it might not be until next September).  Feel free to page-mark it, post it, tweet it, or whatever it is you do with random and interesting stuff (which for me, usually means just being able to know where I can go back and find it again at a later date if I want to).

Here's a brochure/advertisement that I found
(printed sometime in the early 80's)

*Wikipedia

↓ ↓   You can share this with your Facebook friends, Tweet it,

↓ ↓   Pin it, or even email it - by clicking one of the buttons below

My "Top 30" memories from going to school in the 70's and 80's

I was born in 1969, and started first grade in 1975. My guess however, is that the following memories will also resonate with those who started grade school 10 or even 20 years before me.  When I started collecting these images, there were more than 100 (far too many for one blog post); so I worked hard to get the list down to a manageable count of 30.

NOTE: if you prefer to click through these one at a time, I've also placed them (just the pictures, without the commentary) on our MyLikes page.

Here goes - enjoy!

  #1 - The Desk

Arguably, the most uncomfortable pieces of furniture on the planet. Somehow, that didn't keep us from falling asleep in them. I remember ones like this in the elementary grades; and then in middle school & junior high, we were upgraded to the ones that had storage under the desktop.

  #2 - Cursive

OMG - Cursive was the bane of my existence. Somehow, I managed to muddle through. To this day, capital Q's are still a pain in my ***

  #3 - Chalkboards & those chalk-holders

The only thing worse than the screech of chalk on a chalkboard was the screech of FIVE pieces of chalk on a chalkboard. Still, I was fascinated with this contraption. 

  #4 - The smell of fresh dittos in the morning

Do they even know what they were subjecting us to with this? Between dittos and the smells of #11 and #12 (below), it's a miracle that we could even walk straight.

  #5 - The pencil sharpener

Ok, so it's not so much the sharpener that I remember - but the fact that each class only had one (and we had to ask permission to go up to the front of the room to use it). It seemed like the class stopped and everyone watched and waited, while someone went up and ground down those pencils. Remember the smell of the shavings when you emptied it?  Oh, and the skinned knuckles I used to get when I wasn't paying attention.

  #6 - Movie Time

The BEST way to start a day was to walk into the classroom and see something like this. 

  #7 - Overhead projectors & slide projectors

We weren't as thrilled to see these when we walked in, but it still meant a break from books and papers. There was always something cool about the lights in the classroom being off. For some of us it meant sleep, for others the opportunity to pass notes, yet for most it just meant things would be a little cooler in the classroom (I don't know about you, but air conditioning was rare for us).

  #8 - Trapper Keepers

Only the coolest of the cool kids had these (and no, I wasn't one of them). C'mon, it's just a binder - but all the little pockets and compartments made it seem so high-tech back then.  Which one did you have?

  #9 Pee Chees and Big Chiefs

By the time I was in school, these were on the way out - we were using loose leaf paper and spiral notebooks. But I remember seeing a few of these, and always thought they were cool.

  #10 - Pencil Boxes

How many different things did you keep in your pencil box? Of course #2 pencils were a must, and a ruler.

  #11 - That Glue

Just like the Pee Chees above, this stuff had mostly been replaced by Elmer's by the time I got into school. But I do remember a few of the teachers had this, and WOW - that smell!

  #12 - Speaking of smells

I honestly think we were stoned most of the time, and didn't even know it. Even today, when I catch a whiff of an old Sanford - it always takes me back to third grade.

  #13 - Grocery Bag Book Covers

Yes, we were "Green" long before it was cool. Of course the best part of these home-made covers was decorating them (usually while getting stoned on a box of Sanford markers), LOL

  #14 - The Dyno

Long before the Brother "P-touch" this was quite possibly the most high-tech item we had access to. Of course, the first thing we did when we got our hands on one was to do our name (over and over and over again) and then stick them to everything in the house.

  #15 - The Pet Rock

I'm happy to say that this one passed me by.  We did eggs one year, but never got to do the rocks. It's probably a good thing,

  #16 - P.E. (we called it "Gym") Scooters

Our school used to have dozens of these, and I remember the racks that we used to wheel them out on. When a caster broke, the janitor was quick to repair - but wasn't always careful about the length of screw he used (we had a few that I regularly tore my shorts on).

  #17 - Passing Notes

Kids these days [SMH] - they literally have NO IDEA how hard it was to communicate (without getting caught).

  #18 - I forget what these were called

My daughter still makes these things, and I still don't know how :(

  #19 - Card Catalog

Oh yes, we never had Google - but we still knew exactly how to find what we were looking for, didn't we?

  #20 - Check 'em Out (old school)

No bar codes, no scanners, no electronic tracking - just a piece of cardboard to keep track of all the books.  Surprisingly, this was a very effective and accurate way of doing things - just not very efficient.  I often wonder if our government still uses methods like this, LOL

  #21 - Lunch Boxes

I could literally do an entire post JUST on lunchboxes. When you have some free time, Google images of 70's and 80's lunchboxes - it's an EASY two hours of entertainment. You're welcome.

  #22 - Swings at Recess

Regardless of physics and dynamics, we were still convinced that we could make the swing go all the way around the top, if we could just get going fast enough - right?

  #23 - Tetherball

My memories of tether-ball are not fond. I always ended up getting hit in the head.

  #24 - Hot Metal Sliding Boards

But I could easily spend an entire day on this thing

  #25 - Taking Tests

Not a fond memory, but still a memorable one. I remember being worried about going outside the lines of those little circles - and that somehow, it would make me flunk the entire test. I'm actually still quite amazed that this was a reliable technology back then - automated test grading, imagine that.

  #26 - "Greenbar" Paper

Didn't see this until high school. I remember tearing off the edges and folding them over and over and over themselves until I had a tall square sort of springy paper thing. And of course, this was the BEST paper for doodling because of its size (and because the sheets were connected). I made many long pictures back in the day.  Remember the constant dot-matrix printing sound echoing through the halls?

  #27 - Paper cutter

I actually still have one of these things floating around somewhere. The kids think its cool.

  #28 - Floppy diskettes

Another (later 80's) reference.

  #29 - The Eraser Cleaner Machine

Sounds like a vacuum (and I really never cared for vacuuming as a child) but I was enamored with this contraption. I used to volunteer to stay after class and help JUST so that I could use it. 

  #30 - ABC Afterschool Specials

Finally, after a very long day - this was my reward. I honestly can't remember a single movie or program that I watched on the ABC Afterschool Special, but I do remember being absolutely GLUED to that TV at 3:30 every afternoon.

What did I forget?  I'm sure that there are countless other memories worth mentioning. Leave a comment below, or on our Facebook page, or email us with your suggestions.  Thanks for spending the time here today.  Please feel free to share with your friends (below).


↓ ↓   You can share this with your Facebook friends, Tweet it,

↓ ↓   Pin it, or even email it - by clicking one of the buttons below

What's your Star Wars name?

↓ ↓   You can share this with your Facebook friends, Tweet it,

↓ ↓   Pin it, or even email it - by clicking one of the buttons below

This is me - not caring about football

↓ ↓   You can share this with your Facebook friends, Tweet it,

↓ ↓   Pin it, or even email it - by clicking one of the buttons below