I Never In A Million Years...................................

[dnalexander]

Waldo I too have long had my checks deposited by direct deposit. I would have it no other way.

David

[Tobina+1]

David; wow, thanks for the info!  They make it sound so simple on the ad's... "nothing will change.  If you have an antenna, just get a converter box or buy a D-TV."

Speaking of direct deposits... how about ATM machines?  Get money day or night, anywhere there's one of those handy cash-spewing boxes.

[dnalexander]

Tobina I agree. Though I remember when all ATM transactions were free no matter what. So I will extend it to the fact that you can use your card to pay for your groceries and get cash back from those fancy POS machines the grocery stores have now and there is no fee.

David

[W. Gray]

Some old timers who served in the military might remember when everyone, but everyone, was paid in cold hard cash.

The last day of each month was payday and literally hundreds of side armed cash payment officers, with one or two additional armed guards, would descend on the finance office and each officer would take out at least one standard large size brown grocery bag filled with nothing higher than twenties—sometimes amounting to one or two hundred thousand dollars. The grocery bag was stapled closed with one staple. Sometimes, the pay officer would bring a duffel bag if he had more than one grocery bag to handle.

The pay officers would go back to their units and begin the process of paying every single person within their unit. Payment was in round dollars only. Any cents due was carried over to the next payday. Afterward, the pay officers had to go back to the finance office and settle their account.

Most everyone got at least half of payday off because the process was such a manual effort and so time consuming. After receiving cash, many responsible GIs would trot over to the long line at the base bank and deposit their money. Others kept their cash on them all during the month.

Gradually more and more people opted for a check and then direct deposit, but paying in cash on payday as one method of payment did not end until the mid 70s.

[Catwoman]

Thought I'd see a day where a plane could take you into the near reaches of outer space.

[dnalexander]

Since I was very young I have been intrigued and awed by outer space.. I think there is a good chance that before I die I will be able to take a trip to outer space. I may be old, but the dream is closer than ever. I can't explain what fulfilling that lifelong dream would mean to me. If I don't make it the dream alone and being so close is just as great.

David

"Oh I Have Slipped
The Surly Bonds of Earth...
Put Out My Hand
And Touched the Face of God"

[indygal]

Dreamed I would be able to have conversations and make friends with people from all around the world while sitting in the comfort of my own living room. Or that letters to family and friends could be sent and answered almost instantly. Or that photos could be shared so quickly, so easily, and with folks hundreds or thousands of miles away. That I could find the most obscure information I could ever want with just a few keystrokes instead of hours poring over microfilm/fiche, books, newspaper archives.

I also never dreamed I'd use on a daily basis the skills I learned in my high school typing class!


(P.S. I loved the Connections show. It was the most entertaining and least painful way to really understand history and why it's still relevant. Names, dates and places bore me, but tell me the story and I'll listen.)

[Catwoman]

Since I was very young I have been intrigued and awed by outer space.. I think there is a good chance that before I die I will be able to take a trip to outer space. I may be old, but the dream is closer than ever. I can't explain what fulfilling that lifelong dream would mean to me. If I don't make it the dream alone and being so close is just as great.

David

"Oh I Have Slipped
The Surly Bonds of Earth...
Put Out My Hand
And Touched the Face of God"

The Air Force Academy Anthem is cool!!!! 

[dnalexander]

  Dec. 11, 1941: The 19-year-old pilot who wrote the famous poem High Flight -- ''Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth... Put out my hand, and touched the face of God." -- Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee Jr. was killed only three days after the United States entered World War II. He joined the Battle of Britain like hundreds of Americans who crossed the border into Canada to enlist with the Royal Canadian Air Force. Pilot Officer Magee was killed when the Spitfire V he was flying, VZ-H, collided with an Oxford Trainer from Cranwell Airfield flown by one Ernest Aubrey. His famous poem was sent to his parents after his death and the Librarian of Congress acclaimed Pilot Officer Magee ''the first poet of war."-- Archibald MacLeish. (Information from www.airforcehistory.hq.af.mil⁄www.skygod.com)

[Catwoman]

You are a great history teacher, David...where were you when I needed to be learning this stuff in school?  Oh yeah...you were seated in the row ahead of me! lol