The Union Ruler, circa 1984

Growing up my Father had an odd obsession with attending irrelevant conventions and expos.

For instance, despite not owning our own home, we often attended the Home Builders Expo at State Fair Park. While we only went fishing a few times in my childhood, were never hunters, and didn't enjoy boating or camping, the annual Milwaukee Journal Sports Show was a frequent stop around my birthday.

I'm actually not complaining. Some of my best memories are of those times: tasting buffalo at the sports show, collecting free samples at every expo, being awed at the new home remodeling products, and so forth.

Of all my nostaligia driven memories of my youth, those are some of the fondest.

One of these expos was a large Union show held downtown. I don't *think* my Dad was in a union at the time, although he might have belonged to one at the hotel where he was employed.

I think it was 1984 or thereabouts, putting me at ten years old at the time, and Dad took the whole family. We spent the day walking around, looking at this or that, and collecting the free giveaways around the hall.

[A dim snippet of conversation left in my head recalls that this was some big national event, something unique that wouldn't happen again in Milwaukee for a long time. Come to think of it, I don't think it's returned since.]

Anywho, one of the neatest giveaways - and certainly the one with the longest life - is this great ruler.

I ADORED this ruler (still do, actually) because it not only showed a picture of each President, but his name and years in office (note that Reagan still had an open ended date at the time). On the reverse it had each state capital.

I memorized the Presidents in sequence because of this ruler (and some Harry Lorayne tricks). I tried to memorize their faces. I tried and failed to remember all the capitals.

In short, I was a big dork.

None-the-less, I love this ruler and still have it in my home office. Mind you, from time to time Lisa makes a run at having me get rid of it, as it is redundant and out of date, but pshaw!

If I have my druthers I'll own it until the day I day.

Thanks for taking us Pop.