Interesting bit of History

[Fulcrum]

While researching equipment I was directed to speak to one of my largest competitors. I pulled up their website and they had their corporate history listed. In and of itself nothing spectacular; however, it turns out that a large part of their business was initially started by my mom's uncle back in 1950 and operated by him until 1984.

[Harold Mansfield]

Wow! That is interesting.

[cbscreative]

Definitely interesting. It's amazing what you can discover sometimes.

This is unrelated but it's interesting history that I just ran across recently doing research that had nothing to do with the discovery itself. Maybe some of you know this but I didn't. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died on the same day. That would be pretty interesting just by itself, but the day of their death is July 4, 1826—the 50th Anniversary date of when they both signed the Declaration of Independence, plus the fact that they both served as President of the United States. That would have been huge news at the time and now most people are probably like I was and unaware of it.

I suspect a lot of us here could share tidbits of interesting history we've discovered.

[David Hunter]

Just goes to show how small of a world we really live in. :-)

[LogansWalk]

Ha! What a trip! That's pretty cool, though - what is now one of your main competitors was originally started by a family member - what a strange world we live in.

[turboguy]

Sometimes it can be a small world. I had a secretary who worked for me for about 5 years. She was going through so old family records and found a letter by her grandfather and her grandfather had worked for my grandfather in his auto selling business in the 1920's They had 4 car manufacturers they sold for. As I recall two were Reo and Durant but I don't remember what other cars they sold. I have a faded photo taken in front of the dealership that shows my grandfather and probably her grandfather.

[Fulcrum]

Very cool Ray.

There's another twist to this story. It turns out that this same company is currently owned by an uncle(s) of another aunt's (dad's side this time through 2 marriages) step sons.

[Harold Mansfield]

My Mom is retired and likes technology and is pretty savvy about how to do things on her computer and online.
One day we were talking and she mentioned how she wishes that she had learned something about computers and programming when she was younger.

I reminded her that years ago when I was probably around 10, I remember going to her job at the time where she worked as a key punch operator.
A key punch was a card with carefully placed holes in it that you fed through a mechanical machine. The holes caused specific arms to move up and down, which coincided with information that was programmed into a very large computer.

So in essence, she didn't know it but 30+ years ago she was indeed programming a computer.

She thought that was pretty fascinating.

[billbenson]

Wanna find out what a small world it is, cheat on your wife (I don't BTW). Of course there are small signals you give out and most women are pretty perceptive. But most men always get caught.

And I'm not talking about a marriage falling apart, I'm talking about some guy who has a midlife crisis but has a good marriage or the likes.

[turboguy]

Wanna find out what a small world it is, cheat on your wife (I don't BTW).

I spent the first half of my business life in a job where I traveled a lot. I came to the conclusion that there were two types of men in the world. Those who cheat on their wife and those who don't have an opportunity to do so. I will agree with you that most get caught. I had a couple of guys who struck me as straight arrows. One was a sales manager that would ride with me for a week each year. I noticed when we pass some hot chick walking down the street he never even glanced. The other seemed like the most devoted family man you would ever find. He would spend a month each year doing missionary work. Both told me their wives had caught them cheating.

Then there was Frank. This one struck me as Funny. We were at a show and Frank was a friendly competitor. One morning he spent an hour telling us how his wife had found his girlfriends phone number in his suit coat when she wanted to send it to the cleaners. She had called the girlfriend and he had decided that he would reform and would never, ever, ever cheat on his wife again. That night after dinner we stopped in at the hotel bar for a drink and Frank was in there with his arm around a girl he had met there.

I could add more to this post but it's probably better if I don't.

[billbenson]

I also had a traveling job for years. And it was in Latin America and the Caribbean. I had fun. The thing is, I wasn't married and didn't have a girlfriend. I don't have a problem with that.

It's the 'cheating' aspect I have a problem with.