Hi Everyone:

Recently, I celebrated another in a long line of, what were thankfully unbroken, birthdays. I had a marvelous day and I want to thank all of you who sent me your good wishes. They were much appreciated.

Casey and my wife sent me one of those cards that list a lot of events that were going on during the year of your birth along with interesting statistics. I remember President Roosevelt's first term but my conscious recollections do not go back to 1930 when Herbert Hoover resided in the White House.
It's funny, but unless they are later elevated to office of President, we seldom recall who was elected Vice President. In Hoover's case, that was Charles Curtis.

In these times of racial discord, it may be good to remember Curtis. I looked him up. He served in the House and in the Senate before serving two terms as Vice President. And here's the kicker--he was part Indian. His mother was half-Indian. His early youth was spent with the Kaw Indian tribe. Even then we were a diversified nation. Back in 1930 we had only about one-third of our current population.

Things were a lot different back then, the Federal Government spent only 3.3 Billion and, the great depression was fully underway. Jobs disappeared and Hoover appointed a Commission for unemployment-relief. Prices of just about everything fell. You could send a first class letter by affixing a two-cent stamp.

Times were tough but they weren't all bad, Astronomers discovered Pluto. All Quiet on the Western Front won the Academy Award and the Hays office established its code of decency. 1930 was also the year that Gallant Fox won the Derby and Vannevar Bush built his differential analyzer, the first analog computer. (See what you can learn when you celebrate a birthday.)

Now, we have low unemployment and prices keep going up and up and . . .  Why you might even have to pay as much as $30 bucks for a good book, but on the other hand, with almost any electronic reading device you can go to> www.amazon.com to find one or more of my published novels for a fraction of that. Here are the novels currently available:

                                                          Alex, Peanut Butter and Me.
                                                          Palm Beach Style.
                                                          The Eindhoven Strategy.
                                                          Path to a Pardon.