I know it’s been a few years since the last post, but the rusty Fallout Shelter sign on my building prompted another trip to the library like in the olden days when I kept this blog up. Apparently the entire 7-county Kansas City Area Community Shelter Plan was published as an insert in Kansas City Star on May 17, 1970. The whole fallout preparedness thing was going on since the early 60’s when President Kennedy told the nation to get ready, but it never left people’s minds since the end of the World War II. However, in the 1983 movie The Day After you don’t see too many people using the extensive shelter network mapped out in the pages below. Maybe because people eating dehydrated food in the shelters are not good for a dramatic plot. Or maybe because none of them saved this plan like it begged them to do.

Each image should be linked to a pdf file I scanned from the microfilm; you should be able to zoom in and read the maps and locations. I tried to make the best scans, but if you don’t like the quality, you are welcome to visit the library on your own; Johnson County Library has microfilm and Kansas City Library may have the original.

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The following photos were taken in 1945 in Josephsville, MO. Narrated by some old guy.

In my day we didn’t have the Easter Egg Hunt, we had to hunt for eggs every day, because we were hungry, that’s why.

In my day there was no entertainment, we had to quilt all day long and listen to Eunice’s old jokes every day; that damn Eunice, I get a heartburn just thinking about her.

In my day kids didn’t sit around and watch TV, they had to haul firewood long distance uphill both ways, and only rich people could afford wheels.

In my day we didn’t go fishing for fun and we didn’t have us no fancy boats; we had to go catch us some dinner.

In my day we had to churn our own butter, and churn and churn and churn; damn kids get off my lawn!

In my day we only got to keep the back side of a cow, we had to sell the front half to the government.

In my day we couldn’t afford the rubber tires, you were lucky to get round wheels on your tractor. Have you ever tried tractoring with square wheels? I thought so!

In my day you’d already get yourself a whipping if you sat around and read all this stuff for this long. Damn whippersnappers!

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On the morning of August 19, 1991 I was eating breakfast and watching news on my TV (something like this) when the announcer reverted to the official voice they used when someone died and announced that due to the health reasons M.S.Gorbachev can no longer perform his duties and  the control of the country is being taken over by a State Committee of the State of Emergency. This was the beginning of the 1991 Soviet coup d’état attempt. People had different reactions to the events; I for one wasn’t surprised at all: many people weren’t happy about Gorbachev’s reforms and were hoping for some form of reversal, and this was just what they were asking for.

This is what their first press-conference looked like (in Russian). For a group of conspirators they acted too strange and spaced out. Some of them were not exactly well-known before the events.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4eV8ffgDF8

The coup was over in 3 days with the press and the army refusing to support the conspirators and suppress demonstrations in Moscow and other places.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqoAhfEIfXo

Gorbachev returned to Moscow but never regained his full capacity and the USSR was over before the year’s end.
One might say that right there over my breakfast I witnessed the beginning of the end of the country I grew up in. Recently I had a chance to find out how these events were covered in the American press. After the the putsch was over the Kansas City Star combined all of its coverage into a special insert.

18 years later people still argue if this was the right way to go. At that time it probably couldn’t go in any other way, but every forum is overloaded with people mourning the loss of the USSR – the superpower.
I witnessed it then and thanks to one of my readers had a chance to revisit it now from the other side of where the Iron Curtain used to be.
More videos of the American news coverage.

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Every year I have an idea to write a post about a Jewish veteran for the upcoming Veterans Day, but with my lack of interviewing skills and not personally knowing any veterans, every year I come up with nothing. Last year I took a few photos of the Jewish Veterans Museum and since my email to the local post of the Jewish War Veterans went unanswered, I decided to search for something interesting online. Only few names come up when searching for the Jewish Veterans in Kansas City and one of them is Bert Berkley – veteran, civic leader and the Chairman of the Board of Tension Envelope.

The article below was published in the Outlook – Kansas City Business Journal in May of 1979. The issue is available at the Missouri Valley Special Collections at the  Kansas City Public Library (if you have a Twitter account, you should follow @KCPubLibrary).

The article is presented almost entirely with an exception of the discussion of the envelope business and its future as seen in 1979; I felt these details were irrelevant. Many of the things the article talks about in the future tense are now well in the past, that’s why I enjoy reading the old magazines.

This is the most typing I’ve done in the past ten years, and even though I am positive no one will finish reading this, I still liked doing it.

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No tax is more objectionable to me than the Kansas City, MO earnings tax.  While I can somehow justify federal, state, county, property and sales taxes that may be needed to maintain the welfare of the country, state, schools in my community, etc., there is no discernible benefit I can see resulting from me paying a share of my earnings to the greedy inhabitants of Kansas City, MO. I’d rather burn the money than give it to the city that mugs non-residents for one percent of their income just because it can’t generate enough money from its own residents and/or sales and business activity. Unfortunately burning the money doesn’t absolve a person from paying taxes. I know, I know – many other cities have earnings tax and somewhere in Philadelphia it is over 4.5% so you don’t need to try to convince me that it’s a great idea; by some strange  coincidence 100% of the people who like the earnings tax reside inside the city limits of the KCMO. I don’t and I don’t.

Back to the tax advice part of this post. If your place of employment is located in Kansas City,MO but you worked at least one full day outside the city limits i.e. went to an out-of-town conference or spent a day at the customer site in the beautiful Johnson County AND you are a non-resident, you are owed a refund. Lets say that you made $100,000 last year and Kansas City wants to confiscate $1,000 from you just because your employer made a horrible mistake when picking a location for the business. If you work 260 days a year, your earnings tax is little less than four dollars a day, therefore, if you traveled for 20 days that year you are owed close to $80. These calculations will not come up in your tax software, you will have to fill out a form and provide some supporting documentation such as travel records or an appointment book.

Lots of work for just a few dollars a day? When was the last time the city of Kansas City let you get away without paying  for a parking ticket? Get your money back! They are counting on your inaction so they can keep your money. Even if your refund is five bucks it will require a lot more than 5 dollars worth of work at the City Hall, they will read your forms, review your paperwork, issue a check, buy a stamp – more action than you will ever get for your money, and you will spend your money the way you see fit, hopefully in your own community, where people are thankful for your business.

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