Perpspective... submitted by Larry Staker and Ruth Ann Beck

For a small amount of perspective at this moment, imagine you were born in 1900. When you are 14, World War I starts, and ends on your 18th birthday with 22 million people killed. Later in the year, a Spanish Flu epidemic hits the planet and runs until you are 20. Fifty million people die from it in those two years. Yes, 50 million.

When you're 29, the Great Depression begins. Unemployment hits 25%, global GDP drops 27%. That runs until you are 33. The country nearly collapses along with the world economy. When you turn 39, World War II starts. You aren't even over the hill yet.

When you're 41, the United States is fully pulled into WWII. Between your 39th and 45th birthday, 75 million people perish in the war and the Holocaust kills six million. At 52, the Korean War starts and five million perish.

At 64 the Vietnam War begins, and it doesn't end for many years. Four million people die in that conflict. Approaching your 62nd birthday you have the Cuban Missile Crisis, a tipping point in the Cold War. Life on our planet, as we know it, could well have ended. Great leaders prevented that from happening.

As you turn 75, the Vietnam War finally ends. Think of everyone on the planet born in 1900. How do you survive all of that? A kid in 1985 didn't think their 85 year old grandparent understood how hard school was. Yet those grandparents (and now great grandparents) survived through everything listed above.

Perspective is an amazing art. Let's try and keep things in perspective. Let's be smart, help each other out, and we will get through this. In the history of the world, there has never been a storm that lasted. This too, shall pass.
 

 
































When I received this from Larry, I thought about my mother-in-law Alice Hafen who often told us about the Spanish Flu and that they missed two years of school and then had to combine classes to catch up.  The following is her class and names she remembered. 

If you double click the picture it will enlarge itself. However, to read the names, you will have to stay in the smaller window.

Alice has helped me identify these children as it is her class. 

They are numbered in red in the enlarged view. Some were not identifiable but here is what we have:
Teachers
1.Vern Seely
2. ? Rasmussen
Students:
3. Alice Hafen
4. Sylvia Hutchison
5. Nellie Wilcox
6. Phyllis Matson
7. Fern Olsen
8. Vida Allred
9. Birdella Peterson
10. Ruth Christensen
11. Grace Simpson
12. Ada Wright
13. Mary Trontwine
14. Eleanore Peterson
15. Wanda Matson
16. Iris Rasmussen
17. Wanda Nelson
18. Esther Madsen
19. Arvina Monsen
20. Lizetta Seely
21. Ina Rowe
22. Goldie Coates
23. Brooks Madsen
24. Ray Christensen
25. Harold Beckstrom
26. Warren Nolan
27. Elmer Syndergaard
28. Rex Anderson
29. Morris ?
30. Margaret Jensen
31. Cleo Staker
32. ? ?
33. Margaret Stansfield
34. Louise Fowles
35. Margaret Peterson
36. Ina Seely
37. Eva Monroe
38. Dale Nelson
39. Eva Beck
40. Ila Draper
41. Ila Allred
42. Wanda Smith
43. Rowe Olson
44. Grant Brotherson
45. Ivan Gunderson
46. Ralph Brotherson
47. ? ?
48. Roy Weech
49. Armond Wright
50. LeRoy Moss
51. Ivan Christensen
52. Dick Candland
53. Alan Smith
54. Cheratin Jacobs
55. Morris Olsen
56. ? Allerton
57. ? ?
58. ? ?
59. Asa Reynolds
60. Clarence Anderson
61. ?
62. Grant Larsen
63. ? ?
64. blank
65. Dean Peterson
66. Royal Sorensen
67. Roy Romero
68. ? Marx
69. ? ?
70. ? ?
71. ? ?
Please let us know if you have any corrections or questions.