• Jessica Kneiff was installed as the Vice President of Membership at the October 20th Formal Chapter Meeting.
• Registration for Province Day 2020 is live! Check out the website for more information on how to register (https://saidenver.org/xic2020/) and help us "CELEBRATE (Sisterhood, Strong Women, and Women in Music)"
• University of Denver Chapter, Sigma Upsilon, initiated two new members on November 17th.
• Look out for a date in February for an outreach service project performance at a local retirement community.
• Don't forget to bring something to share in the time capsule at the December 7th Incorporation Day Luncheon.
• Between September 21st and October 20th, chapter members participated in a 30 Days of Philanthropy Calendar to help raise funds for Philanthropy.

Written by Linda Rolf for FRED at the Chapter Meeting on Sunday, October 20, 2019, Afternoon Tea

What was life like for the first ladies of the Denver Alumnae chapter in 1940..  Their new charter would be presented to them by National President Gertrude Evans on March 22, 1940.  Sigma Alpha Iota had been in existence for almost 37 years. They would have driven or carpooled to the historic meeting in their car which cost approx. $800 and had no seat belts.   Gas was a whopping .18 a gallon. A new kind of military vehicle called a Jeep would be invented in 1940 and synthetic rubber tires. Her home would have cost about $3,000. The coffee they drank would have cost about 40 cents a lb.  A chicken for dinner that evening would have cost about 41 cents a lb.

It was the beginning of a new decade.  The United States was making a slow recovery from the Great Depression of the 30’s.  There were ominous reports of Germany’s advance through Europe but the United States was almost two years away from entering the war.  News came via the radio or the newspaper. The voice of Edward R Murrow had become familiar as he reported from London and other European locations for CBS news.  If you were fairly well off you might own a black and white television. In 1940, color television would become available. Wonder of wonders!

The president at the time was Franklin D.  Roosevelt. He was nearing the end of his second term in office and would be reelected to an unprecedented third term in November of 1940. There were 48 stars in the flag – Alaska and Hawaii became states in 1959.

The governor of Colorado was Ralph Carr and the mayor of Denver was Benjamin Stapleton.  The Denver airport had been named for him.  

But on to more fun things.  The number one song on the hit parade in 1940 was  “In the Mood” by the Glenn Miller orchestra. Glenn Miller went to high school in Fort Morgan and attended CU in Boulder so had a special connection to Coloradoans.   People were singing “When You Wish Upon a Star” from the new Disney movie, “Pinocchio”. There would be other great movies such as “Rebecca”, “Grapes of Wrath” starring Henry Fonda”, Disney’s” Fantasia”, ”The Philadelphia Story”,  “His Girl Friday” and “The Great Dictator”.

Orchestras and symphonies  were playing the music of American composers such as George Gershwin, Amy Beach and Aaron Copeland as well as traditional composers.

Big band, pop, jazz, country and many other kinds of music flourished during the new decade of the 1940’s.  Denver’s SAI sisters, with their passion for music and a new chapter to nurture, would wholeheartedly work to fulfill the SAI mission of promoting and performing  music in their chapter and the community. They would also actively support the Sigma Upsilon chapter at the Lamont School of Music at the University of Denver.

• The SAI Singers, Directed by Donita Banks, performed for the first time at our first meeting of the year. Members performed works from the SAI Songbook.

• Catherine Rands on harp, Anna Maria Manalo on violin, and Rachel Stone on flute filled the beautiful Capital Hill home of Catherine Rands with beautiful music of the 1940s bringing all in attendance back to the time when our chapter was founded.

• The SAI Singers performed again the 'ODE TO pAn's CottAGE', and 'S.A.I. Philanthropies, Ink!' from the SAI Songbooks featuring Alyse Greenberg on Flute and Anna Maria Manalo on piano.
• Donita and Anna then performed Piano Duets by Cecile Chaminade followed by solo piano moments for both ladies.