THE GINGHAM DRESS

THE GINGHAM DRESS

A lady in a faded gingham dress, and her husband,
dressed in a
homespun
threadbare suit, stepped off the train in Boston,
and walked timidly,
without an appointment, into the Harvard
University President's outer
office. The secretary could tell in a moment that
such backwoods,
country hicks had no business at Harvard, and
probably didn't even
deserve to be in Cambridge.

"We'd like to see the president," the man said
softly.

"He'll be busy all day," the secretary snapped.

"We'll wait," the lady replied.

For hours the secretary ignored them, hoping that
the couple would
finally become discouraged and go away. They
didn't, and the secretary
grew frustrated. Finally, she decided to disturb
the president even
though it was a chore she always dreaded.

"Maybe if you see them for a few minutes, they'll
leave," she said to
him.

He sighed in exasperation and nodded. Someone of
his importance
obviously didn't have the time to spend with them,
and he detested
gingham dresses and homespun suits cluttering up
his outer office. The
president, stern faced and with dignity, strutted
toward the couple.

The lady told him, "We had a son who attended
Harvard for one year. He
loved Harvard. He was happy here, but about a year
ago, he was
accidentally killed. My husband and I would like
to erect a memorial
to
him somewhere on campus."

The president was not touched. He was shocked.
"Madam," he said
gruffly, "we can't put up a statue for every
person who attended
Harvard
and died. If we did, this place would look like a
cemetery."

Oh, no," the lady explained quickly. "We don't
want to erect a statue.
We thought we would like to give a building to
Harvard."

The president rolled his eyes. He glanced at the
gingham dress and
homespun suit, then exclaimed, "A building! Do you
have any earthly
idea
how much a building costs? We have over seven and
a half million
dollars in the physical buildings here at
Harvard."

For a moment the lady was silent. The president
was pleased. Maybe he
could get rid of them now.

The lady turned to her husband and said quietly,
"Is that all it would
cost to start a university? Why don't we just
start our own? "

Her husband nodded.

The president's face wilted in confusion and
bewilderment.

Mr. and Mrs. Leland Stanford got up and walked
away, traveling to Palo
Alto, California, where they established the
university that bears
their
name, Stanford University, a memorial to a son
that Harvard no longer
cared about.

You can easily judge the character of others by
how they treat those
who
they think can do nothing for them.

A TRUE STORY by Malcolm Forbes

that's one of the worst poems i've ever read… plus i really don't think "»" rhymes with "> »"!!!

Cool Story. Here's another one, although a wee bit shorter.
A couple, both school teachers, were having an aniversary party. They invited several neighbors in an effort to get to know them better. One of the guests brought a gift in the form of a manila envelope stuffed with papers. The couple opened it but had to ask the giver what they were. The gentleman told them they were stocks in a company he worked at. "They're not worth much now, but they should be valuable in a few years". The couple, not financial savvy, thanked the man politely and carried on with the rest of the party. Afterward, they wondered what to do with the envelope, and stuffed it in a drawer so they could decide later.
Years later, after several moves and eventually retirement, they decided to sell their home and move into a smaller, more affordable place. They decided to clean house and take only the essentials. During this process they found the envelope given to them years before. Before throwing it out, and careful old school teachers that they were, they took them to a stock broker to see if they had any value. The stock broker was astonished to find 100 shares of Berkshire Hathaway stock, now worth over 3.5 million dollars. The party guest: Warren Buffet.

Old story that's been around a while. Here's the real story.

And Idjit's story is interesting in that it sounds unlikely, but I couldn't find any evidence to to either prove or disprove it. You got me on that one!

Just wondering Pooga. even though unlikely.. it is very possible.
Just a thought back to coca-cola. If you bought 100 when they started on the stock market, would it not be worth an amazing amount of money now?

The story was part of a documentary on Warren Buffet and Berkshire Hathaway that I watched a few years ago. Funny that what impressed me most was this story- I was hoping to see something exiting about investing, but Buffet, as succesful as he is, is not that interesting- just a good ol' boy making sound but boring investments.