This afternoon, I went to the bike path in nearby Ramsey (I seem to go to this town every other day anyway) to look for the B & O RR geocache. It was a short walk from a dead-end road in the neighborhood and I found the cache right away in the first spot I thought of checking. A historical note on the cache page prompted me to look up the town's history. It had slipped my mind that the town's centennial was a few days ago, so it was a good time to review this history page on the town's centennial website.
Ramsey was named after the Ramsey family who owned land in the area some 200 years ago. In the mid-19th century, the area was known for its strawberries. In 1851, one million baskets of strawberries (roughly 24 berries per basket) were shipped to New York City by rail. (At the same time, the neighboring town of Saddle River became the basketmaking center of the US because they needed all those baskets to put the strawberries in!) Back in the 1850s, strawberries sold for 2 to 5 cents per basket. I checked the A&P this evening and strawberries were anywhere from $2 to $5 per container, depending on berry size and brand name, so let's assume a factor of 100. Thus, the annualized price increase over 150 years is: 100^(1/150) = 1.031, or a 3.1% long-term rate of inflation.
Of course, the berry patches have long since been built over for housing.
From the
altfriday5:1. How many places have you lived in your life?
7 places. I did move a couple of times on-campus in college but I would count those as one place.
2. What's the longest and shortest you've ever been in one place?
Apartment in Manhattan: 1 year.
Northern NJ: 13 years 1 month and counting.
3. Which place did/do you like the most? The least?
Most: In spite of all the complaining, right here.
Least: Wallach Hall on campus. Oy! I'm not sure the Washington Heights apartment I moved to when I went off-campus was that great either, but it was away from any noisy streets and there were far worse places.
4. How have you chosen the places you live?
Where I had a hand in the decision, there wasn't much of a choice. Those were places that happened to be available.
5. If you could live anywhere, where would it be, and why?
If I could buy an island and start my own micronation, that'd be ideal. Otherwise, Delaware near a Wawa store for sales tax freedom and convenience.
From
thefridayfive:1. What do you see when you are looking out of the window closest to you?
Just a street light on a dark street.
2. Who was the last person coming into your room?
No one else comes here so it was I.
3. What is the most predominant colour around you?
Black. Well, the notebook computer is black anyway. Aside from that, there are many blue and dark blue items.
4. What is right behind you?
A barely-functional air conditioner.
5. What is on today's calendar sheet?
The "Kiss Me, I'm Irish" geocaching event, which I won't be attending.