I have known George O'Grady for more than 65 years. We went to grammar school and high school together. Last week, George sent me some clippings from our Leo High School days, a trip down memory lane. Leo was an all-boys school on the South Side of Chicago. When we started our sophomore year in 1948, the average annual income was $2,936; a new car cost $1,230, a new house around $7,700; tuition was $12 a month; and a gallon of gas was 16 cents. Milk was 87 cents a gallon and the Dow Jones industrial average was 179. And the average male life expectancy was 62.9 years, no problem funding Social Security if most folks would be pushing up daisies before their 65th birthday. Today, with male life expectancy at 74.1 years, it's no wonder the Social Security watchers are cracking their knuckles.

O'Grady also sent along a copy of the May 1951 issue of our Leo High School newspaper, which included a writeup on what each graduate was planning for the future. It was pretty amusing stuff: "Tom Doherty will work for Mickleberry's Food Products and go to Loyola night school if he doesn't get drafted first. Paul Berry plans to go to Wilson Junior College or join the Marine Corps. Ed Cunningham is going to be an electrician. Wilf Barowsky plans to be an apprentice sheet metal worker (in the summers, I was a sheet metal helper, which turned out to be a good-paying job). Joe Vales will become a television technician. Floyd Ray is going to work at Mutual Truck Parts Co. and attend Mechanics School in the fall. George Ferguson plans to work in the Loop this summer and go to Alaska in the fall." No one seems to know if Fergie ever came back.

About 80 percent of the guys in our class planned to go to college. Loyola University, the Illinois Institute of Technology, DePaul University and the University of Illinois at Navy Pier were the most popular destinations. And a fair number of our classmates enlisted in the Navy or Marines rather than wait until they were drafted.

I ended up joining the Coast Guard Reserves, did basic training at Cape May, N.J. My buddy George was in the army ROTC and after he graduated from Loyola in 1955, he became a second lieutenant and was stationed in Japan for his entire tour. Back in the states, he got an MBA from the University of Chicago, sold for Burroughs, went into the Hispanic food and liquor business and retired at 51. Then he went to art school, became an accomplished artist and an active volunteer at a local senior citizens home. On July 31, my longtime friend George O'Grady will celebrate his 70th birthday with a party at an Irish restaurant in Chicago, and all our buddies from the old neighborhood will be there. What a grand day it will be, for all of us.

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