August 24, 1937

In the news:
Amelia Earhart vanishes
War Admiral wins Kentucky Derby
Golden Gate Bridge opens
Snow White movie debuts
Glenn Miller Band debuts
Dust bowl in Oklahoma causes mass migration
George VI crowned King of England
Edward VIII marries Wallis Warfield Simpson
Joe Louis becomes World Heavyweight Champion
Franklin Roosevelt is President of the United States

What things cost:
First class stamp 3¢
Loaf of bread 9¢
Gallon of gas 20¢
Gallon of milk 50¢
New car $675
New house $4,100
Average wage $1,700

People were reading:
Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

Also born in 1937:
Bill Cosby
Hunter S Thompson
Dustin Hoffman
Diane Canon
Margaret O’Brien
Vanessa Redgrave
Tom Smothers
Warren Beatty
Jack Nicholson

All that was 72 years ago in the year I was born. My parents lived with my grandmother in the big house near Valentine Road in Kansas City. My sister was 16 and about to leave for college at Lindenwood in eastern Missouri. Gramma Barnes was 72 then and considered an “Old Lady.” Now that I am the same age and caring for my little granddaughter, I can understand what it meant for her to have us as part of her household. Gramma read The Kansas City Star every day and she would have known of all the events above. Topics for the dinner table conversation. I think, from all I’ve heard, that it was a happy day for all concerned when I arrived.