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Thomas Kent Marquardt

Update - the celebration of life for Jim Lagocki will still be at the same location, however it will now take place on Sunday, 08/22/2021 at 11:30AM.  If you are planning to attend, please notify Jan's sister as in my previous post.

Camilla Ray (Farley)

Although, I drove around Europe in a VW beetle at age 19 &20, I did not get my driver license until I was 27. I lived in Minneapolis & went everywhere by bike- even with my first little boy in his ( very unsafe) seat behind me!

Mark Wieting

So I'm sittin' here thinkin':

"What were the top ten most significant innovations in the 20th Century?" Probably everyone would come up with at least 3 biggies all of us would agree with. But I started making a list in rank order. I wonder if you agree with me on any of them. Anyone agree with me on all of them?

Okay, wait for it, here is my list:

1. X-Acto Knife

2. Computer

3. The airplane

4. Bacon bits

5. The Ford assembly line and, well, FordsT

6. Television

7. Radio

8. DVD music

9. The internet

10. The four-blade razor

Some of you readers might dispute #1, but you've probably never used one, or haven't pasted up copy for a publication, dug a splinter out of your index finger, or cut a fine line in the wrapping paper you used for the holidays.

I've probably omitted your favorite among your top ten. So what should be in my list? Looking forward to hearing from you all.

Thomas L. Bakos

First, you do realize that you are nearly 22 years too late giving that a thought.  The 20^th century?  Even as old as we are we’ve only actually experienced a little more than half of that!

But, that aside, where in the heck is POPCORN?

“Bacon bits” – c’mon. go whole hog, BACON.  Although, I guess, bacon has been around for a while and it may be bacon bits that were new.  But, for all of us there was a first time for BACON.  It reinvents itself every time I fry it up, put it in that BLT, and eat it.  Besides. I can't help feeling that "bacon bits" are not the real thing.  That's another thing we learned, I think, over the 20th Century and heading now into the 21st.  You can't believe everything you hear.  Your "truth" may not be my "truth".  In effect, a multi-verse was invented sometime after 1945.

Yes, I think old cars of all types belong on the list.  They didn’t know and, probably, couldn’t imagine at the time they built them that many would become classics, objects of great desire, and the subject of retromods after the century closed.  My 1949 Dodge Power Wagon should be ready in the spring 2022.  So, maybe one of the big innovations of the 20^th Century was also that it unknowingly introduced the concept of patience into the 21^st Century.  

Sometimes when I look back I think we were born at the most perfect time of all – 1945 or thereabouts.  Everything on your list was an innovation the discovery of which became a pleasant memory.  What did our children have to discover – well, space flight, I guess.  You did leave that off your list.  How about our grandchildren in the 21^st Century?  What will they have been given to discover that can be compared to our adventures?  Certainly NOT Facebook or its ilk.  OK, maybe 3D printing.

I agree that there is a certain fascination with the X-Acto Knife.  It just seems to me like something I will always have a need for but never really do.  I have to buy one occasionally because I can never remember where I put the one I bought last time I thought I might need one.  

Mark Wieting

Okay, some other thoughts:

Perhaps on the list should have been

PBS

Flat screen TVs [anybody still using a CRT?]. [My brother-n-law bought a house in South Haven, Michigan, and the people he and his wife bought it from left EVERYTHING in the house from little soaps from the Marriott, Charleston, SC--and many other Marriotts--to the monstrous Sony big-screen TV--6' tall, 4' wide, 3' deep. It sort of worked but the picture was definitely non-HD. Probably cost $3,000 when new. A 43' LG TV at Costco these days is $329.

Splenda

Egg Beaters

Diet drinks [Coke, Pepsi, Tab, Royal Crown?]

Self-lighting charcoal, no liquid required?

Nike running shoes--if you are into running.

The cell phone masquerading as a paving brick

Solar panels? Gigantic windmills to generate electricity without fossil fuels? Nuclear?

The 1996 BMW 328i convertible that EVERYONE wants. [And is in my garage. Worth upwards of $3,000.]

And, Tom, yes, bacon has been around for hundreds of years. It's the bits in the bag in the refrigerator that make life much easier, unless you're a vegetarian. And there's probably a vegetarian equivalent.

I suppose we could start a list of innovations from the 21st Century that are just as important as Splenda, from Space Tourism [when are you going?] to flip phones to Teslas and Netflix. Anybody want to start a list?

Don Comfort

Many inventions and items we use daily have come from space technology such as: scratch resistant lenses, ear thermometers, shoe insoles, invisible braces for teeth, cordless tools, tap water filters, memory foam, smoke detectors, and many more.  At the top of my list is scratch resistant lenses, followed closely by shoe insoles.

William Gibson Heller

I have tended to think of the everyday items that extend Mark's and Tom's lists.  Things that I interact with every day or quite often.  As wonderful as the airplane has been it isn't without new problems (virus transmission for example) and it isn't something I engage with anymore. And TV I engage with too much!

A more prosaic list could include:

penicillin (anti-biotics in general but p was the first)

teflon

power windows on cars

starter motors on cars

electric clothes washer (sometimes twice a day)

2 ply TP (again, often)

CT/PET/MRI scans

orthopedic devices (esp. hips/knees)

clumping kitty litter

Don Comfort

Bill...two ply toilet paper and kitter litter leaves wondering about what you are focusing on!

Bob Dove

Or... we could look at the other side of this coin. What has disappeared, gone obsoelte, become extinct in the 20th century? What have our grandkids never seen?  In the tech world it's easy: floppy disks, tube electronics, transistor radios, pay phones, etc. In entertainment: the TV variety show, vaudeville, the travelling circus, black & white movies & TV, mother-in-law jokes, Kiddie Land, wooden toys, etc. 

Nothing turns off a kid faster than, "Back in MY day, we... (fill in the blank).

But for us there are a lot of good memories.

James Alan Bullard

William Gibson Heller

Happy Thanksgiving GEers!  Going to be a turkey fest here in Indiana, but no toilet bowl competition afterward, Mark.

Don Comfort

Bill...Patti and I wish you and yours a very happy and full tummy Thanksgiving.

Kerrin Anne Kinsey (Sgourakis)

Happy Thanksgiving to all who read this.  Hubby is working, so I am gettring together

with 2 girlfriends and the daughter of one of them for Pot Roast and the fixin's.  I

don't have to cook, so am bringing the champagne.  Sadly, the daughter does Not

play bridge, but I am sure we can fill in the time listing the many blessings we are

grateful for.  

Mark Wieting

Thanks for all of you who read this post. We all have much to be thankful for.

Aloha from Hawaii. I'm watching the Bears look pretty mediocre against the Lions at 9:45 am. Football in the morning is great--you have the whole rest of the day to cook or go to the beach while the turkey is cooking.

Don Comfort

I agree with Mark...there are so many things to be thankful for, but this year as I look to total knee surgery in a week, I am thankful for the wonderful medical care team that I have working for me.  If you are in the DuPage County area, and need orthopaedic work, I highly recommend Dr. Marc Asselmieir (DuPage Medical Group), who is doing my knee. His team is nothing but the best and he is highly regarded by all who have been his patient.

Don

William Gibson Heller

Don, just be sure Patti constantly reminds you to do your exercises post surgery.  Hard but essential to success.  Good luck with the surgery.  Will you then be able to kick fieldgoals for the Bears?  Or the Rams, your eligibility may still not be used up for the gridiron.

Don Comfort

Thanks Bill!

My med team is great and has emphasized exercise post-op.  I have been doing pre-op exercises and plan to continue after the surgery.

The left leg is the plant foot side, so I am sure I will be able to kick field goals better than most NFL kickers. Be looking for me!

Bruce F. Burianek

MERRY CHRISTMAS  and  HAPPY NEW YEAR  To  All

Don Comfort

AND TO YOU AND YOURS BRUCE.  LET'S PRAY 2022 WILL HAVE BRIGHTER DAYS THAN THE LAST COUPLE OF YEARS.

James Alan Bullard

Kerrin Anne Kinsey (Sgourakis)

Merry Christmas and we hope you all have a happy, healthy and peaceful new year.

Mark Wieting

Happy New Year, y'all [my father was born in Kentucky...]!

Gotta thought: What's your favorite movie that almost no one else has seen? While you're thinking about that, here's mine: "Medium Cool," released in 1969. Some key scenes were shot DURING the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968 [remember? Hippies, anti-war protesters, National Guard, "Police riot," Richard J. Daley, etc.]. That was an intense period of my life--though I did not attend and join either the police or the Grant Park group, as I was safely ensconced in Urbana watching on TV. Anyway, the main character is a TV film camerman whose desire to record what he sees on film I can relate to. But of more import to me was that the guy's girlfriend lives on the north side of Chicago and there are scenes of kids playing in backyards of 3-flats that have gray-painted wooden porches, just like the ones I lived in for the first 5 years of my life. When my mother wanted to get us out of her hair for half an hour, she'd send us out with a tin can and a brush with the instruction to "paint the porch with water," and we were happy to oblige. There's a scene of the camerman watching a replay of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Dream speech" [MLK had been assassinated the April before the convention], and the guy says out loud, "Jesus I love to shoot film." The grand words of the speech were less relevant to him than the fact that someone had captured it on film. Robert Forster [who?] starred, along with Verna Bloom, who gained actual fame playing Dean Wormer's wife in "Animal House."

So what movie favorite of yours comes to mind? Hint: "The Sound of Music," "Gone With the Wind," etc. don't qualify.

Bruce F. Burianek

My all time favorite   "Brian's Song"  the original not the remake

Don Comfort

I loved Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid.  The music by Burt Bacharach was superb and woven into the scenes beautiful.  Remember the famous words of Butch as they were being chased by the feds, "Who are those guys?" A great movie!

Philip M. Scaccia

My favorite movie was back in 1964 The Pumpkin Eater with Anne Bancroft and Peter Finch.