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"104 Years Ago" in the USA - the year was 1901:
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The average life expectancy in the United States was forty-seven. Only 14 percent of the homes in the United States had a bathtub. Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone. A three minute call from Denver to New York City cost eleven dollars.
There were only 8,000 cars in the US and only 144 miles of paved roads. The maximum speed limit in most cities was ten mph.
Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa, and Tennessee were each more heavily populated than California,with a mere 1.4 million residents, California was only the twenty-first most populous state in the Union.
The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower.
The average wage in the U.S. was twenty-two cents an hour.
The average U.S. worker made between $200 and $400 per year.
A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year, a dentist $2500 per year, a veterinarian between $1500 and $4000 per year, and a mechanical engineer about $5000 per year.
More than 95 percent of all births in the United States took place at home.
Ninety percent of all U.S. physicians had no college education. Instead, they attended medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press and by the government as "substandard."
Sugar cost four cents a pound. Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen. Coffee cost fifteen cents a pound.
Most women only washed their hair once a month and used borax or egg yolks for shampoo.
Canada passed a law prohibiting poor people from entering the country for any reason,either as travelers or immigrants.
The five leading causes of death in the U.S. were:
1. Pneumonia and influenza
2.Tuberculosis
3. Heart disease
4. Stroke
The American flag had 45 stars. Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Hawaii and Alaska hadn't been admitted to the Union yet.
Drive-by-shootings -- in which teenage boys galloped down the street on horses and started randomly shooting at houses, carriages, or anything else that caught their fancy -- were an ongoing problem in Denver and other cities in the West.
The population of Las Vegas, Nevada was thirty. The remote desert community was inhabited by only a handful of ranchers and their families.
Plutonium, insulin, and antibiotics hadn't been discovered yet.
Scotch tape, crossword puzzles, canned beer, and iced tea hadn't been invented.
There was no Mother's Day or Father's Day.
One in ten U.S. adults couldn't read or write. Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school.
Some medical authorities warned that professional seamstresses were apt to become sexually aroused by the steady rhythm, hour after hour, of the sewing machine's foot pedals. They recommended slipping bromide -- which was thought to diminish sexual desire -- into the women's drinking water.
Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at corner drugstores. According to one pharmacist, "Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and the bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health."
Coca-Cola contained cocaine instead of caffeine.
Punch card data processing had recently been developed, and early predecessors of the modern computer were used for the first time by the government to help compile the 1900 census.
Eighteen percent of households in the United States had at least one full-time servant or domestic.

A letter from a Redneck mother to her son
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Dear Son,
I'm writing this slow 'cause I know you can't read fast. We don't live where we did when you left. Your dad read in the paper that most accidents happen within twenty miles of home, so we moved.
Won't be able to send you the address as the last Arkansas family that lived here took the numbers with them for their house, so they wouldn't have to change their address.
This place has a washing machine. The first day I put four shirts in it, pulled the chain and haven't seen 'em since.
It only rained twice this week, three days the first time and four days the second time.
The coat you wanted me to send to you, Aunt Sue said it would be a little too heavy to send in the mail with them heavy buttons, so we cut them off and put them in the pockets.
We got a bill from the funeral home, and it said if we didn't make the final payment on Grandma's funderal bill, up she comes.
About your sister, she had a baby this morning and I haven't found out whether if it is a boy or a girl so don't know if you are an Aunt or Uncle.
Your Uncle John fell in the whiskey vat. Some men tried to get him out, but he fought them off playfully, so he drowned. We cremated him and he burned for three days.
Three of your friends went off the bridge in a pickup. One was driving and the other two were in the back. The driver got out. He rolled down the window and swam to safety. The other 2 drowned. They couldn't get the tail gate down.
Well, that's about all the news this time. If you don't get this letter, please let me know and I will send another one.
---Love, Ma

Logistic Corp. System Keyer
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The foregoing eight program modes represent the main features of the Logistics Corp. system keyer. However, some additional switches are available.
(1) Introducing hum on the CW carrier. This provides notes ranging from T3 to T8, depending upon the setting of the "fuzz" pot.
(2) There is a switch that controls chirp (requires a coaxial cable to the local oscillator or synthesizer VCO in your transmitter). A varactor diode in the keyer pulls the transmitter oscillator each time the key is closed. The degree of chirp can be regulated by adjustment of still another internal trimmer potentiometer. Finally, there is a PULSE mode switch that can be used to superimpose pulses on the leading and trailing edges of the CW waveform. This will cause key clicks that are difficult to equal by normal means. This is actually a center-off switch. In its opposite function position it creates the effect of excessive shaping, thereby rendering a bell-like tone to the CW note. This type of soft keying imparts a CW note that sounds as if it were coming from the bottom of a deep well. This is great in a pileup, for no one can figure out your call!
ELECTRONICS FEATURES...
Apart from the usual massive collection of OR gates, AND gates, NAND gates, ROMs, PROMs, and what have you, the FF-1000 contains 17 GO-NOGO ICs. These are essential in generating erratic CW. There are also six KANT-READ ICs in the system---a totally new concept in the LSI technology. These are used to generate CW that can't be deciphered by the most skilled of high-speed operators. Code readers with visual displays or video terminals can't handle this type of CW either.
SUMMARY COMMENTS...
I highly recommend this system to those who have jaded CW appetites, or wish to do their own thing on the CW bands. The manufacturer is offering a 30% discount for quantities greater than 10 units. This should be especially appealing to the instructors of Amateur Radio classes. The discount deal should be popular also with the DXpedition groups. After two months of home use with this system I have finally broken the habit of conforming. No longer do I have that boring fist that puts people to sleep. Now they have to pay attention to what I'm sending, and at last I have a captive audience.
----Zender Bawdrite, Y0OP.
FROM QST FOR APRIL 1983, pages 43 & 44.

Taco Bell Robber Nabbed After Waiting for Chalupa
FORT WORTH, Texas (Reuters)

- A youthful thief on a bicycle and brandishing a toy gun held up a Taco Bell through the drive-up window but had to wait so long for a chalupa that he ended up getting caught, authorities say.
The robber pedaled up to the fast food outlet's window just after midnight on Monday.
Waving what appeared to be a gun, he threatened the staff and demanded money and a chalupa, a soft taco-style specialty.
But a Taco Bell worker called police, who arrived while the thief was waiting for his food.
The teen-ager took off, and kept bicycling even after an officer shot him in the arm and leg. He dismounted and surrendered once a second cruiser cut him off. The gun turned out to be a toy.
"He got the money but then waited there while his food was being prepared," said Fort Worth Police Lt. Duane Paul.
"He never got his chalupa".
The alleged robber was identified as 17-year-old Lakount Maddox.

Taxi Driver
--------------------

Guy in a taxi wanted to speak to the driver so he leaned forward and tapped him on the shoulder.
The driver screamed, jumped up in the air and yanked the wheel over.
The car jumped the curb, demolished a lamp post and came to a stop inches from a shop window.
The startled passenger said "I didn't mean to frighten you, just wanted to ask you something."
Taxi driver says "Not your fault sir. It's my first day as a cab driver. I've been driving a hearse for the past 25 years!"

Home MECHANIC'S TOOLS.... and their usage....
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HAMMER:
Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is used as a kind of divining rod to locate expensive parts not far from the object we are trying to hit.
MECHANIC'S KNIFE:
Used to open and slice through the contents of cardboard cartons delivered to your front door; works particularly well on boxes containing seats and motorcycle jackets.
ELECTRIC HAND DRILL:
Normally used for spinning steel Pop rivets in their holes until you die of old age, but it also works great for drilling mounting holes in fenders just above the brake line that goes to the rear wheel.
PLIERS:
Used to round off bolt heads.
HACKSAW:
One of a family of cutting tools built on the Ouija board principle. It transforms human energy into a crooked, unpredictable motion, and the more you attempt to influence its course, the more dismal your future becomes.
VICE- GRIPS:
Used to round off bolt heads. If nothing else is available, they can also be used to transfer intense welding heat to the palm of your hand.
OXYACETYLENE TORCH:
Used almost entirely for lighting various flammable objects in your garage on fire. Also handy for igniting the grease inside a brake drum you're trying to get the bearing grease out of.
WHITWORTH SOCKETS:
Once used for working on older British cars and motorcycles, they are now used mainly for impersonating that 9/16 or 1/2 socket you've been searching for, the last 15 minutes.
DRILL PRESS:
A tall upright machine useful for suddenly snatching flat metal bar stock out of your hands so that it smacks you in the chest and flings your beer across the room, splattering it against that freshly painted part you were drying.
WIRE WHEEL:
Cleans rust off old bolts and then throws them somewhere under the workbench with the speed of light. Also removes fingerprint whorls and hard-earned guitar calluses in about the time it takes you to say, "Ouch...."
HYDRAULIC FLOOR JACK:
Used for lowering a motorcycle to the ground after you have installed your new front disk brake set-up, trapping the jack handle firmly under the front fender.

PHONE:
Tool for calling your neighbour to see if he has another hydraulic floor jack.
SNAP-ON GASKET SCRAPER:
Theoretically useful as a sandwich tool for spreading mayonnaise; used mainly for getting dog-doo off your boot.
E-Z OUT BOLT AND STUD EXTRACTOR:
A tool that snaps off in bolt holes and is ten times harder than any known drill bit.
TIMING LIGHT:
A stroboscopic instrument for illuminating grease build up.
TWO-TON HYDRAULIC ENGINE HOIST:
A handy tool for testing the tensile strength of ground straps and brake lines you may have forgotten to disconnect.
CRAFTSMAN 1/2 x 16-INCH SCREWDRIVER:
A large motor mount prying tool that inexplicably has an accurately machined screwdriver tip on the end without the handle.
BATTERY ELECTROLYTE TESTER:
A handy tool for transferring sulphuric acid from a car battery to the inside of your tool box after determining that your battery is dead as a door nail, just as you thought.
METAL SNIPS:
See hacksaw.
TROUBLE LIGHT:
The mechanic's own tanning booth. Sometimes called a drop light, it is a good source of vitamin D, "the sunshine vitamin," which is not otherwise found under motorcycles at night. Health benefits aside, its main purpose is to consume 40-watt light bulbs at about the same rate that 105-mm howitzer shells might be used during, say, the first few hours of the Battle of the Bulge. More often dark than light, its name is somewhat misleading.
PHILLIPS SCREWDRIVER:
Normally used to stab the lids of old-style paper-and-tin oil cans and splash oil on your shirt; can also be used, as the name implies, to round off Phillips screw heads and can double as oil filter removal wrench by stabbing through stubborn oil filters.
AIR COMPRESSOR:
A machine that takes energy produced in a coal-burning power plant 200 miles away and transforms it into compressed air that travels by hose to a Chicago Pneumatic impact wrench that grips rusty bolts last tightened 60 years ago by someone in Springfield, and rounds them off.
PRYBAR:
A tool used to crumple the metal surrounding that clip or bracket you needed to remove in order to replace a 50 cent part.