Invitations Have Been Sent (and other stories)

The invitations for out 50^th Reunion went out this past week. Please reply – with the dough, preferably – as soon as possible so we can get a count. Will update with the attendees weekly in this space.

We are currently having a respite from the summer heat here in Dallas. Rare for mid-August, but not unprecedented. Had one in August 1963. Here's the high-tech weather map from the Dallas Morning News:

 

Our astute classmate Mike Daniel comments (Tuesday August 13) on the $1,000 cost for the then "most lavish prom in Jesuit History" as being illustrative of the distance between our graduation year and today. I expanded on Mike’s observation in a comment, and made a few comparisons based on an inflation calculator on the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank’s website. To take that conversation a bit further, I looked at some advertised prices in the Dallas Morning News for August 16, 1963, and compared them using the MFRB’s calculator.

Sears: Washer $159 & dryer $99. (2013 equivalents $1,212. & $755)

Skillern Drugs: Toothpaste $0.44 ($3.55); Lavoris mouthwash $0.56 ($4.27); charcoal briquets $0.87 ($6.63).

Ward’s Cut-rate Liquors: Pabst Blue Ribbon beer $0.99/6, $3.65/case of 24 ($7.35 & $27.80).

Also, the advertised no-haggle price for a new 1963 Volkswagen beetle, 4 speed, no A/C, at Economy Cars on Lemmon was $1,595 (today $12,160).

Also in the news:

Annette Funicello, who passed away earlier this year, was in Dallas for the opening of the movie Beach Party at multiple first runs at the Circle, Inwood, and a number of drive-ins.

You could have "all you can eat" (except for the meat) at Underwood’s Bar-B-Q for $1.20.

And there was free admission for ladies to see "Jada – the "world’s hottest exotic," at the Carousel Club, corner Field and Commerce. We would hear a bit more about that place and its infamous proprietor later in the year.

Finally, from the Dallas Time-Herald spread on the school’s re-location: