An illustration of a jester on a red background with blue and red text on a white background circling the image

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An abstract  illustration of a smiling face made of simple red lines and shapes with black and red text below the image. Bot the image and text sits on a white background. 

Rockaway’s Playland was an amusement park that opened in 1901 in Queens, New York and closed around 1986. The park was originally known as Thompson’s Amusement Park after the owner LeMarcus Thompson. Thompson was the inventor of the modern rollercoaster that debuted at Coney Island. Playland’s famous rollercoaster was called the “Atom Smasher.” The New York Times reported in 1987 that the amusement park would be permanently closing due to the high costs of insurance and the lack of clientele. The area of the park was sold to housing developers. The image of a clown has always been associated with the amusement park, but shifted at some point to the more abstract version shown on this button. For additional images of Rockaway Beach and Rockaway Playland from the 1800s until its destruction in the 1980s visit this site. 

An illustration of a windmill with text on all sides of the illustration on a dark blue background. 

IBEW Local 231 Charter was issued on May 10, 1916 in Sioux City, Iowa. They represent about 350 members. Their jurisdiction covers 26 counties in all - 16 counties in Northwest Iowa, three counties in Southeast South Dakota, and seven counties in Northeast Nebraska. http://ibew231.com/

An illustration of an golden hour glass on a red background with blue text above and below the hour glass. 

This button may be from The Golden Hours Club, a club for active seniors at Saint Tarcissus, a Catholic Parish in Chicago. The group meets biweekly and provides speakers to help seniors stay active and informed; they also volunteer and go on outings outside the parish. 

Illustration of a lake with a fish leaping out of the water, a duck flying next to a cloud and a hunting rifle and fishing rod criss-crossed over the image. There is black text along the top edge and centered under the illustration on a white background.

The East Palestine Sportsmen’s Club is located in East Palestine, Ohio, very near Pennsylvania. According to the website (http://www.epsportsmensclub.org/) of this club they are a non-profit organization who strives to “bring closer cooperation between sportsmen, farmers, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, the National Wildlife Service and the general public in an effort to increase awareness of wildlife and its habitat.” The club dedicates itself to education through training in hunter safety and firearms. Furthermore, the club works towards the improvement of hunting and fishing environments through educating members and nonmembers. The club also puts on benefits and events for community members. For example, they have held numerous fishing events for handicapped community members.

An illustration of a smiling man in a hat and overalls holding a corn stalk and waving. The illustration is outlined in green on a white background. There is a thicker green border with white text arching around the button.

Country Home Magazine was a publication that ran from 1984 to 2009 and was published by the Meredith Corporation. The magazine targeted an audience from more rural areas as well as people living in cities that wished to have a more "country" feel in their apartments or homes. The magazine ceased publication because of a drop in advertising and as a cost cutting stratagy of the parent company.

Black text along the top and bottom edges of the button and on a a blue stripe that goes across the center of the button on a white background. 

The Consolidated Steel Corporation was created in 1929 as a result of a merger of Llewellyn Iron Works, Union Iron Works, and Baker Iron Works. According to a small article that appeared in the Berkeley Daily Gazette, December 12, 1928, the consolidation of the three iron companies was going to occur before 1929. The consolidated company was in two locations, Wilmington, California and Orange, Texas, and was an American steel and shipbuilding business. Both shipyards were commissioned in the 1940s to build ships for the U.S. Navy. The Consolidated Steel Corporation built 39 destroyers and 100 destroyer escorts at their shipyards during World War II. 

A large blue C sits right in the center on a white background. In the center of the C is a blue X symbol made of railroad spikes and smaller letters in blue colored text.  Around the C are blue letters in a circle formation on green background.

Just five months before the meeting this button commemorates, was a strike of the Chicago Tunnel Company's union members. The union, Chicago Tunnel Lodge 125, protested the increasing shipment of goods by on-road trucks. The lodge member's worked underground downtown Chicago in the matrix of narrow-gauged railroad tunnels. The railroad served Chicago between 1906 and 1959 and had, at its peak, 60 miles of track, 149 locomotives, and over 3,000 freight cars. The tunnels laid abandoned until 1992 when a worker driving wooden piling into the banks of the Chicago River pierced a tunnel arch. About 124 million gallons of river water flooded the tunnels. 

An illustration of the Teamster logo sits in the center of the button, an image of two horses facing opposite directions connected to/or above a wheel. The illustration sits on a grey and white background with black text. On the edge of the button is black text on a red background that circles the illustration.   

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) is a labor union in the United States and Canada. Formed in 1903 by the merger of several local and regional locals of teamsters, it was originally known as the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America. Jimmy Hoffa, General President of the union, was instrumental in using the assets of the Teamsters' pension plans, particularly the Central States plan, to support Mafia projects, such as the development of Las Vegas in the 1950s and 1960s.

A close associate of Hoffa during this period was Allen Dorfman, who owned an insurance agency that provided insurance claims processing to the Teamsters' union, and which was the subject of an investigation by the McClellan Committee. Dorfman also had increasing influence over loans made by the Teamsters' pension fund, and after Hoffa went to prison in 1967, Dorfman had primary control over the fund. Dorfman was murdered in January 1983, shortly after his conviction, along with Teamsters' president Roy Lee Williams, in a bribery case.

An illustration of the Teamster logo sits in the center of the button, an image of two horses facing opposite directions connected to/or above a wheel. The illustration sits on a orange and white background with black text. On the edge of the button is black text on a mustard-yellow background that circles the illustration.   

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) is a labor union in the United States and Canada. Formed in 1903 by the merger of several local and regional locals of teamsters, it was originally known as the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America. Infiltration by organized crime dominated the agenda of the Teamsters throughout the 1950s.  Although the more extreme, public forms of corruption had been eliminated after General President Cornelius Shea was removed from office, the extent of corruption and control by organized crime increased during Daniel J. Tobin's time as General President of the union from 1907 to 1952. In 1929, the Teamsters and unions in Chicago even approached gangster Roger Touhy and asked for his protection from Al Capone and his Chicago Outfit, which were seeking to control the area's unions.