Prep '58 Blog - March 2025

There was a discussion about the usefulness of daylight savings time. A majority thought it was time to eliminate the changing of the clocks, but there wasn't consensus on where to leave it - and hour ahead or an hour behind. There was one suggestion that we move it 1/2 hour instead of an hour. I don't think this is the last of this discussion. 

We got into Canada and it's new Prime Minister, tariffs, and eventually got into a pretty wide-ranging discussion of various economic issues, including the German model of compensation and bringing manufacturing back to the US.

We launched into a great discussion about working conditions, the impact of unions on the economy, the treatment of employees and other issues that affect the economy of the US and the world. It is worth a listen!

Bill Wittman shared a story with us about his father-in-law and his experience at the company he worked for more than 40 years. Bill's take on the current notion that we can bring manufacturing all back to the US is that it is an idea that may have been relevant in the 1940's, but is no longer relevant today. And beyond manufacturing in the US, he believes the next hurdle we will have to deal with is Artificial Intelligence.

Jack weighed in about why people didn't leave jobs, particularly during the 30's and 40's when there was no guarantee that they could find another job, and the lingering effect that thinking had well into the 50's and 60's.

Phil Campana shared his thoughts about the German economy and the requirement that part of workers compensation during their first year of employment was an investment in the firm's shares, which built in a rationale to stay, since their subsequent compensation was in 2 forms - salary and the residual dividends of their first-year investment.

Jack offered the opinion that unions are looked upon as good in some countries, but not in the US. Walt Braun offered a stat that only 11% of the private work force are represented by unions.

That led to a discussion about companies that had a reputation as good places to work, considering conditions, salary and other factors concerning employment, and Tom Reilly mentioned Kroger's as one such a company, along with Trader Joe's, which turns out to be owned by Aldi's - a German company.

Somewhat off the employment stories, Tom Reilly shared news that he received one (or more?) emails apparently from EZ Pass looking for payment. The gang thought it sounded like a scam, so be on the lookout.

There was a lot more discussion, and as we approached an hour into the call, we signed off.  You can see the video of the Zoom call here.

If you can't make it to an in-person Cuppa, you can join the gang in a Zoom Cuppa, wherever you are. We have plenty of room, and there's no entrance fee.

The next Zoom Cuppa is scheduled for Monday, Apr 14th @ 12:00 pm EDT.  Vince will send out the meeting invitation with the pass code.     Please keep the email!

That was exactly the answer he was looking for. So, we now have 13 guests committed to attend, and we're hoping for a whole lot more. In fact, we would love to make it past 40, which would be a record. Stay tuned for further news. 

Joe Machewirth let us know that his wife had been having some health issues, and we send her good wishes for a speedy recovery.

We then got into a discussion of where we all lived while we were at Prep. Jersey City was the predominate answer, but there were quite a few from Union City. From there, we got into high schools in our neighborhoods, and how some of us found their way to Prep. Vince told the story (for the 100th time) about how his mother tied him to the roof of the car and drove him down to the Prep, rather than have him go to Emerson HS in Union City.

Vince recollected that we had our graduation at the Snyder HS auditorium, and several guys remembered the Senior Prom at the Fiesta, which still is a popular venue for weddings, and even proms.

Bob Filoramo told us a story about a $1,000 bottle of wine, which got us talking about how much wine you can drink at a time, and what you do with the left-over wine. Someone said that left-over red wine can be put in the refrigerator to keep it from spoiling, but that it should be taken out and left to get to room temperature before drinking it. Vince mentioned his father-in-law's reaction when he mentioned he had a great tool to store left-over wine - "I never heard of left-over wine" he said.

Frank Geremia started telling us about the (summer?) interns he hires and how he deals with interns who show great promise, and about the Kelly School of Business, which had a great curriculum for business majors.

Next up were comments about Florida timeshares, and just about then,  our lunches showed up. We gathered around for a photo and said our goodbyes.

Please join us at the next Cuppa Club lunch on Tue, Apr 15th at noon EDT at the Reo Diner in Woodbridge.