Verson Thompson

The Atlantic Ocean seemed like it was light years away.  Verson watched the wheels of his toy train spin as it floated down the track on his bedroom wall.  With autumn rapidly approaching,  he thought about the world news that he had heard recently.  On August 27 a tropical storm begn in the Central Atlantic.  It was growing larger with passing time.  Becoming a hurricane,  the Galveston Hurricane devastated Texas in early September.  The Galveston Hurrican occurred on September 8,  1900.  It was the deadliest hurricane in the history of the country that had happened until that time.

Verson could name the forty five states.  He had memorized all forty four before the close of the school year.  His teacher,  Mrs Boswell,  had given him a piece of chalk and a ruler in exchange for reciting them in front of the class towards the end of the school year. During the summer,  a new state had become part of the country.  Hawaii became a US territory on June 14,  1900.  Verson looked forward to the beginning of the school year when he could impress Mrs Boswell with his knowledge about Hawaii.  Even though he had never been to Hawaii,  he still read a lot about it in the newspaper and once saw it at the theatre.  The year before,  he also told Mrs Boswell about a new field of science.  It was named genetics.

Planning a career in farming,  Verson was interested in growing fruits and vegetables more than farming animals.  Grapes were one of Verson's favorite foods.  The state of Virginia was ninth in the production of commerical grapes in 1900.

Verson had a vegetable garden at home.  That summer,  he sold the vegetables that he grew at the local farmers market.  His garden was large and included corn,  beets,  potatoes,  cabbage,  lettuce,  tomatos and cucumbers.  Berry vines climbed the fence located near Verson's garden.  It had existed before he was born and his father had had a garden there.  A nest sat settled in the tree which gave afernoon shade to part of the garden.  A cardinal was seen frequently bringing food to the nest for her baby birds.

Verson's father had explained to him that currency had changed since he began working.  The currency in the country had increased from one paper bill in 1875 to three in 1880.  A year after the summer of 1900,  a ten dollar bill was introduced as American currency.  It is still in use today.

Under one of these subheadings, it's a good idea to list recent updates to my site so that visitors, especially return visitors, can check out the new stuff first. For example, I could list the date and a brief description of the update.

I could also list updated news about my site's topic. For example, if my site were about a particular sport, I'd could discuss the outcome of a recent competition.

The year 1888 began on a Sunday.

In June 1888,  Casey at the Bat was published.

On June 19, 1888 the Republican Convention opened in Chicago,  Illinois the Auditorium Building.

On Jun 29, 1888 Handel's Israel in Egypt was recorded onto wax cylinder at The Crystal Palace.  It is the earliest known recording of classical music.

I might not want a large amount of text on my home page if I want to guide visitors toward my other pages. Instead of text, I can add others' buttons to this first page, and I'll be rewarded for people who click on the buttons. For example, if a visitor signs up for a Visa using the NextCard button on my site, I earn at least $20!

Even if I don't put much text on my home page, it's a good idea to include hidden tools that will help me promote my site, so people other than my friends and family actually see it. For example, I could add meta tags, which are hidden codes that allow search engines to find my site. I could also install stats and a counter so I know how many people are visiting. If not many are visiting, submitting my site to search engines will guide more traffic to my site.