Cutting Corn 1940

From left to right: Our father, Clifton J, is on the tractor. Marilyn Ann and I are standing in front of the steel wheel. Uncle Johnny Haskin is in the white shirt and Albert Reed is to the right. My father was 32, younger at the time than both my sons now.

In 1940: Only a third of American farms had electricity. Our's did not. The U.S population was 131.6 million. Only 4.2% of Americans could not read. Fanklin Delano Roosevelt was elected to a third term. The Selective Service System was created by Congress, requiring all American men between the ages of 21 and 36 to register for military service. Walt Disney released Fantasia. Color televison, Jeeps and Bugs Bunny were new. Vermont widow Ida May Fuller received the first Social Security check for $22.14.

At noon on October 1 the Pennsylvania Turnpike, the first modern highway in the United States, opened; local feed-and-tallow dealer Homer D. Romberger takes the first ticket. By October 6 the highway has its first traffic jam.

Ringo Star, Tom Brokaw, Ted Koppel, Peter Fonda, Mario Andretti, Chuck Norris, Anita Bryant, Al Pacino, Ricky Nelson, Mary Jo Kopechne, Martin Sheen, Raquel Welch, John Lennon, Cliff Richards, Bobby Knight, Bruce Lee, Richard Pryor, Gary Gilmore, Dionne Warwick and Frank Zappa were born in 1940.

Leon Trotsky, founder of communism, Robert Pershin Wadlow, the tallest man in the world at the time, and F. Scott Fitzgerald died....and I was two years old.

Click On The Picture For A Larger View.