There have been a number of updates that should have been posted on ARCONATI.NET over the past year that have been missed or lost. There have been a number of technical issues that have caused this, but I’m confident that we have a relatively stable platform (for the price) that we shall continue to use moving forward. In summary, here’s a quick overview of the changes here since the last reunion in 2010. Fair warning: some of this is technical jargon.

I migrated to a web host at the time that Blogger stopped supporting FTP. At that time, since I was dropping a hosted service, and installing a CMS, I thought I’d like to get to know Drupal.

Boy, was I wrong. It seems powerful, but difficult to set up for my purposes. So I switched to WordPress, with which I’m more familiar. Later, I updated the theme with some ancestor photos, added a few posts to catch some recent events and had plans for more.

Then everyone’s favorite web host had a security snafu and my updates and content were lost. When I noticed, it was too late to restore my small amount of work from backup. I was also in the middle of some heavy work-related projects without any chance to redo it.

We are back in business now. I don’t have the changes redone yet, but I’ll be starting on some important additions. As I write this, the most recent post is current the one from Reunion 2010. I’ve got an archive of a post I made shortly after the reunion that I’ll import here.

More information, news and announcements should be coming real soon. Stay subscribed here for information about the Arconati Family Reunion 2012 as soon as it becomes available.

Until then,… Happy Thanksgiving!

WHEN?

Sunday, August 15^th, 2010, 12:00noon – 5:00pm

WHERE?

Creve Coeur County Park
Taco Bell Shelter (Lakeside) – Map
2348 Creve Coeur Mill Road
St. Louis, MO 63146

WHAT’S AVAILABLE AT THE PARK?

[Here is more information direct from St. Louis County Parks and Recreation, that does seem to indicate there are outlets.]

• Covered pavilion, no electrical outlets
• Barbeque pit
• Restrooms – reasonably close
• Sand volleyball court
• Fishing, with valid MO fishing license
• Hiking, biking, rollerblading trails

WHAT SHOULD I BRING?

Please provide food and drinks for your family.

As the Arconati Family continues to grow, it is hard to keep track of everyone’s current address, so please pass this information along to any of your immediate family who did not get this note.

Questions, please call Linda or Joe Filla at 314-382-9724-home, 314-434-2300-work.

Can’t wait to see everyone!

I also found this link on TheCabinet.com’s Dark Destinations pages regarding the legend surrounding the lake and park as well as the waterfall near where we will be having the reunion. This is going to be fun! We will see you there.

Today is George Washington’s birthday.

ALSO

• Drew Barrymore
• Frederic-Francois Chopin 1810
• Robert Baden-Powell 1857
• Edna St. Vincent Millay 1892
• Robert Young 1907
• Edward M. Kennedy 1932
• Jonathan Demme 1944

A N D

JIM ARCONATI 1976

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ! ! !

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Also on Feb. 22:

1879

Frank Winfield Woolworth opened his first “Five Cent Store” in Utica, New York.

1924

Calvin Coolidge made the first presidential radio broadcast from the White House.

1956

Elvis Presley entered the music charts for the first time with “Heartbreak Hotel.”

1963

The Beatles formed their Northern Music Publishing Company.

1965

Filming for the Beatles’ second movie, “HELP!” began in the Bahamas.

1986

MTV aired 22 hours of the Monkees TV episodes in celebration of their 20th anniversary as a group.

This was a pretty interesting list. Thanks dad!

Test

Happy Birthday to Olivia! For her birthday, we threw her a rather loud but fun party at Chuck E. Cheese. Many friends and family joined us and we had a great time.

Happy Birthday Reese Monster!

The current buzz over swine flu reminds me…

The Year 1976, HEADLINE: President Gerald Ford Orders Nationwide Vaccination Program to Prevent Swine Flu Epidemic!

President Ford was acting on the advice of medical experts, who believed they were dealing with a virus potentially as deadly as the one that caused the 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic.

The virus surfaced in February, 1976, at Fort Dix, New Jersey, where 19-year-old Pvt. David Lewis told his drill instructor that he felt tired and weak, although not sick enough to skip a training hike. Lewis was dead within 24 hours.

The autopsy revealed that Lewis had been killed by “swine flu,” an influenza virus originating in pigs. By then several other soldiers had been hospitalized with symptoms. Government doctors became alarmed when they discovered that at least 500 soldiers on the base were infected without becoming ill.

It recalled 1918, when infected soldiers returning from the trenches of World War I triggered a contagion that spread quickly around the world, killing at least 20 million people. Fearing another plague, US health officials urged Ford to authorize a mass inoculation program aimed at reaching every man, woman and child. He did, to the tune of $135 million (over $500 million in today’s money).

Mass vaccinations started in October. In churches, temples, union-halls, and schools, hundreds lined up for a shot of “swine flu vaccine.” I remember it was a beautiful fall day (Jimmy was about 8-months old) and I was in the cafeteria of St. Christopher Church getting my flu shot from a white-gowned ‘nurse’ who wielded a special vaccination device that shot the fluid at high-pressure directly under the skin – the pressure was so high that no needle was required. The actual shot took only seconds, and was accompanied by very little of the expected bureaucratic paperwork.

Whether it was a bad batch of the vaccine, wrong dose, an allergic reaction, or just side-effect from the vaccine, I’ll never know. Both Jimmy’s mother and I began to feel queasy within 20-minutes. Before I got home, I had to stop the car to throw-up. And the severe flu symptoms continued for both of us for nearly a week. My mother (who got her shot at a different time) came over to take care young Jim, and also wound up taking care of both of his parents.

There were other problems with the program.  Within weeks reports started coming in of people developing Guillain-Barré syndrome, a paralyzing nerve disease, right after taking the shot. Within two months, 500 people were affected, and more than 30 died. Amid a rising uproar and growing public reluctance to risk the shot, federal officials abruptly canceled the program Dec. 16.

In the end, 40 million Americans were inoculated, and there was no epidemic. More technically advanced examination of the virus revealed later that it was nowhere near as deadly as the 1918 influenza virus.

The only recorded fatality from 1976 swine flu itself was the unfortunate Pvt. Lewis.

History’s verdict of the program is mixed. Critics assailed Ford, accusing him of grandstanding during an election year — it did him no good, because he lost anyway — while kowtowing to the pharmaceutical companies. Supporters laud the ability of the nation’s health bureaucracy to mobilize so effectively.  (It still amazes me that they were actually able to immunize 40 million (!) people in a very short period of time. …amazing also that we all did it with very little panic or controversy… Similar circumstances today would see 20-million lawyers filing maybe 160-million lawsuits!)

I am guessing that whatever today’s flu is, it has mutated enough that I probably have no immunity resulting from my 1976 inoculation. In any case, I hope there is no need to go through that again!

Credit: Historical details courtesy of wired.com; personal recollections are my own.

Here’s just one of several public service announcements that were broadcast in 1976 regarding the possible impending epidemic.

Luke 24

The Resurrection

¹On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. ²They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, ³but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. ⁴While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. ⁵In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, Why do you look for the living among the dead? ⁶He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ⁷The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again. ⁸Then they remembered his words.

⁹When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. ¹⁰It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. ¹¹But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. ¹²Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.