25 Equals A Quarter, Right??

In honor of her 25th birthday on June 24th, SilverNeurotic has asked those willing to participate in creating posts about our experiences or memories of the last 25 years. Since she is a great blogger and I’m always looking for easy post ideas (that’s a joke, I would have done this anyway), I was more than happy to participate. However, since I have trouble conforming, I am going to write about my coworker Mr. Socially Oblivious Guy’s most vivid memories of the last 25 minutes. I’m kidding Silver. Happy Birthday. Now let’s board the memory train and see where it dumps us off.

I’m pretty bad at math so I can’t really tell you how old I was 25 years ago, but I can tell you that I’m pretty sure I’m 33 now. I’ll let you confirm the math, but I believe that means that 25 years ago for me was about 1956. That was the year that Elvis made it big. I have no first hand experiences of Elvis, but I’ve seen a lot of footage and listened to (and like) a lot of his music. I also have become a big fan of his fried peanut butter and banana sandwich. I think eating them is clogging my arteries, but they are very tasty and since I pay so much for healthcare anyway, I might as well get my money’s worth. I also hope to shoot out my TV screen with a gun one day when there is something on that I don’t like. Yes, Elvis was cool. That’s a nice memory, isn’t it Silver?

I also remember that 1956 saw the release of the very first compact disc. It was a recording of Abraham Lincoln’s Jettysburger address. Although I’ve never heard it, I believe it was his dedication speech for the opening of the first Illinois franchise of the Jetty’s Burger Shack. On that special day, Lincoln told onlookers that The Jetty Jumbo Burger was only a dime and Jetty Soda was a nickel. In fact, Lincoln enjoyed the meal so much, he was heard to have said ‘let’s get this stuff catered at Ford’s Theater and let’s go there tonight. A play without a Jetty burger is like a gun shot to the head from the rear by a Southern Rebel sympathizer,’ or something like that.

Guess what also happened on this day, 25 years ago in 1943, Silver. There was a ton of celebrity birthdays. Here’s just a few of them. 25 years ago on June 24th, Paris Hilton, Regis Philbin, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the doctor from House, Homer Simpson, Donny Most (the actor who played Ralph on Happy Days) and the deceased Bob Hope were born. Yes, 25 years ago today was quite, quite special.

In politics, Thomas Jefferson was in the middle of his 14th term as President. 1938 was also the year that food preparation changed forever. The microwave was debuted on this day 25 years ago in 1938. The microwave promised to cook food ‘somewhat faster than your conventional oven, but with many more harmful rays and side effects.’ The new kitchen gadget flew off the shelves. Then, microwave builders realized they could be bolted down during food reheating and they no longer flew off the shelves, but they did sell a lot. It’s rather surprising that so many microwave units were sold when you consider that one unit cost $13.4 million dollars.

Speaking of a lot of money, Microsoft released its first version of Windows 25 years ago today in 1927. Named Computer Ready Application Program or CRAP for short, it caused a buying frenzy for the world’s 13 computer users. Microsoft Windows CRAP featured many user-friendly applications that had never been available on a computer before. There was a version of Pong, a calculator and a little blinking cursor that you could not do anything with. Microsoft Windows CRAP could not be used or interfaced with anything, but people really enjoyed looking at it. Another fantastic memory, don’t you think?

Although the information was a little sketchy, it appears that the birthday cake was also invented 25 years ago. How appropriate that we celebrate Silver’s birthday on the same day that we celebrate the cake she’ll be presented with on her birthday. I hope you get everything you want for your B-day Silver, especially that Apple Ipod, which, yes, was invented on this day in 1956, some 25 years ago.

Happy Birthday!