California Retired Teachers' Association

Happenings and times important to CRTA people:
1913 First retirement law was passed by the Legislature granting teachers $500 annually.
1925 A group of nine teachers met in Pasadena and created what would later become the first division of CRTA.
1929 The first car radio was made by Motorola.
1929 Retired teachers met at Sycamore Grove and organized the "Southern California Retired Teachers Association." At a second meeting that year they dropped the word "Southern."
1931 The Star spangled Banner became the national anthem.
1939 WWII began.
1941 CRTA Board signed the Articles of Incorporation.
1951 Laura E. Settle died and CRTA created the Laura E. Settle Loan and Scholarship Fund.
1954 Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama which set the American Civil rights Movement in Motion.
1964 The Beatles appeared on the E Sullivan Show.
1968 The First CRTA Business Office was opened in Napa, California
1969 Man first walked on the moon.
1989 The www was 'invented.'
1989 The Supplemental Benefit Maintenance Account (SBMA) was established to maintain the purchasing power of retired teachers.
1996 The first sheep was cloned.
2000 The Fremont-Union City-Newark Division was formed bringing the total number of CRTA divisions to 88.
2008 CRTA successfully lobbied to increase the SBMA to 85% from 80%.
2009 You identify and help create your lobbies.

Charles Leiper Grigg and Elzi Crisler Segar

I note, in "CRTA Contact" magazine, that it is the California Retired Teachers Association's 80th anniversary. That means that the organization began in 1929, the year the Great Depression began. An article in the mag. notes that a retired teacher received a maximum pension of $500 a year at that time. I'm proud to note that I receive a bit more than that a month! In an accompanying article we are reminded that our pension fund has lost a third of its value since this past fall.

I quote a section from this issue of the CRTA mag. called "Remembering 1929:"
~ Herbert Hoover was president of the United States
~ US population reached 120 million (over 300 million today)
~ Dow reached a peak of 381.17 on September 3rd, prior to the slide and eventual Wall Street crash in October
~ Cost of a first-class stamp was 2 cents (now we don't even use a cent sign)
~ Bread cost 10 cents (for a good size loaf)
~ Popeye, a comic strip character created by Elzi Crisler Segar, made his debut
~ Academy Awards, popularly know as the Oscars, were started
~ 'The Broadway Melody' became the first major musical film of the sound era
~ The soft drink 7-Up was invented by Charles Leiper Grigg
~ The first car radio was made by Motorola
~ Sir Alexander Fleming discovered Penicillin
~ The first public phone booths appeared in London.