Happy Anniversary!

Since 1987, ELITeXPO has been providing truly specialized and personalized trade show shipping services to its partners, our customers. We have specific programs designed to enhance and simplify the trade show experience.

We are truly thankful to all of our customers who have been there with us over these past twenty years. All of us at ELITeXPO look forward to continuing to provide the best trade show shipping services available to our customers for many more years to come.

Employee Stories (&Pics) From 1987

Submitted by Ingrid Main / ELITeXPO Account Executive

1987 - I was pregnant with my daughter Jackie, I was working in Elk Grove, IL at Speedy Inc / Dayton Freight Lines. I was soon to become the first female manager in Dayton Freight Lines history, as back in 1987 women were the new faces in the trucking industry!

Now here is some trivia .... we dispatched trucks on the CB not on their cell phones, we would snoop on our drivers by calling the airlines to make sure they were still in line as there was no GPS tracking back then, we were using the first computers the companies ever had and for the first time we were typing trucking manifests in the computer but we all had a typewriter with our carbon paper ready in case the computers went down. We all worked for trucking companies back then, but when asked what we did, we proudly professed we were in the "AIR FREIGHT" industry. Ah yes, 1987 was a great year....

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Submitted by Jenny Bess / ELITeXPO Client Service Rep

In 1987, I was a 4th grader at John F. Kennedy Elementary School in Raritan, New Jersey.  Mrs. Brunnabend was my teacher and she wore big earrings.  I spent most of my time playing my Nintendo and lawn darts.  My favorite television shows were Unsolved Mysteries and Full House.  Cheers was on too late, so my parents wouldn't let me watch it.  But, I would sneak down our hallway, just so I could get a glimpse of the show!

 

On the weekends, friends and I would spend some time at the Bowl-a-Rama.  The Bowl-a-Rama is now an electronics store, but in its hayday, you could bowl to the sounds of NJ's own BON JOVI.  "WOAH-OH!  LIVIN' ON A PRAYER!"  My favorite tunes of 1987 were Michael Jackson's BAD, Debbie Gibson, and "Walk Like and Egyptian".  (In my bedroom, I would sing both parts to "Somewhere Out There" at the top of my lungs.)

 

And, according to my diary... Steve is the CUTEST (insert bubbly hearts) and Katlyn was being SO rude to me.

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Submitted by Lara Davie / ELITeXPO Show Management Supervisor

1987 was a year of major change for me.  I lived in Riverside, CA. My family home caught on fire, I was turning 20 and later that year I discovered I was pregnant with my son Joshua.  I was working part-time at a fast food restaurant in the local mall by day and at night I worked at a local night club and competed in the lip syncing contests there.  I even won a couple of times! (this was very big in the 80's!)I was driving my parents Pontiac station wagon that had a faulty hood, it would just fly open at the most inopportune times! I saw my first concert in 1987, it was a Rick Springfield concert, I loved Rick Springfield! My father is a retired computer programmer, so in 1987 we had one of the first "home" computers.  We weren't allowed to look at the computer or touch it, it was a very expensive piece of equipment!   At the time I had one friend that had been my friend for 5 years and I thought that was quite an accomplishment and she is still my friend 20 years later!  In 1987 I had no idea what a tradeshow was, now I can't imagine my life without them!

 

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Submitted by Heidi Maschmann / ELITeXPO VP of Information Systems

By 1987, I had already been working in the "air freight" industry for 3 years. Like Ingrid Main, my older sister, I too worked for a trucking company in ELK Grove, AC Express. I was 21 years old that year and working the night shift as a truck dispatcher. Yes, Elite was one of our customers in 1987.

ACX had just installed computers the year prior and they were slow. You could type all the information for the entire first screen in, go out and pick up dinner, eat it, come back to your desk and find the green letters of the words you typed just starting to fill in half way down your tiny black screen.

I was on my second drumset, a burgundy Pearl Export series 5-piece which I used to play with some guys on the dock at a trucking company in Milwaukee. We used to open the dock doors and play to all the folks passing by on their way to the Summerfest grounds two blocks away.

I saw Deep Purple with Bad Company, Bon Jovi with Cinderella, Heart, Boston, and Steppenwolf with Foghat & the Outlaws. The funniest part of my concert going habit was that in October of 1987 I bought tickets to see Ronnie James Dio with opening act Megadeth and next month, in May 2007, I am going to see Ronnie James Dio with opener Megadeth once again. Some things never change.

 

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Submitted by Brad Jarzemski / ELITeXPO Account Rep

In 1987 I was still known as Brad Corey. Jarzemski was not a cool name for a rock star, and I was all about long hair and fast guitars. I was in a band called "Jimmy Stretch" and working as a receiving manager at a warehouse for aircraft engine parts. I graduated high school (on schedule) in 1986 and started with Elite in 1988. Here we are 19 years later, only a lot less hair and a much better guitarist. Rock on! 

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Submitted by Virginia Russo / ELITeXPO Weekend Operations

I wasn't in the freight business at the time, I was in the check making business. I worked for Safeguard Business Systems as an order processing supervisor. I also belonged to the Just Bikers Club with my husband, I was their secretary. I enjoyed the bike runs...and the parties.

 

 

 

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Submitted by Michelle (Roger) Kujawski / ELITeXPO Operations Supervisor

In 1987, I looked like the typical 80's girl would. I loved Def Leppard and still do.

 

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Submitted by Michael Reed / ELITeXPO Show Management

In 1987, I was working for NEC Technologies, splitting my time between the Customer Services Dept, The Shipping Dept and the Trade Show Dept (little did I know). Personally, I was married, no children (I have three now) and I was still licking my wounds from the Red Sox losing game 6 (& 7) from the year before. 

I was a typical 23 year old in that I loved the 80's for the variety of music it offered. I still listen to much of it now (Wall of Voodoo, The Hooters, Howard Jones, Def Leppard, Toto, The Smiths....It was a great period). I drove a dark red Nissan 280ZX with T-Tops and thought I was the cat's meow ( I didn't mind that the floor boards were rusted out and it was actually a bit of a "Flintstone mobile"). I never did own a "Members Only" jacket though.

 

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Submitted by Christina Miller / ELITeXPO Client Services Rep

In 1987, I was 7 years old and in second grade at Orchard Place school in Des Plaines, IL. That's about all I can remember.

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Submitted by Tammy Rood / ELITeXPO Client Service Rep

In 1987, I was 24 working full time nights at Crest Photo Lab in Elgin. I was getting quite the "education" seeing other peoples pictures.

 

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Submitted by Helen Wilkinson / ELITeXPO Accounting Manager

This picture was taken at a co-worker's wedding. I was 27 years old and the office manager of Skyline Displays Chicago. While working at Skyline I met Dave Mihalik and agreed to use Elite Cargo Systems as my #1 carrier. 10 years later, Dave decided he wanted to be the boss and hired me. The rest is history...

 

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Submitted by Scott Mc Clain / ELITeXPO Account Manager

In 1987, Scott was still acting. Some of his credits include several music videos with Neil Young, a Married...With Children Christmas episode, and Gremlins II.

 

 

 

 

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Submitted by David (CEO) & Leslie (VP of Finance) Mihalik / ELITeXPO Founders

1987- Elite Cargo Systems was born in May and was incorporated in October of 1987. I called in all my markers and found a 10x10 office in Addison on an Atlas Van Lines dock. Leslie typed the invoices on the dining room table and I picked up, answered the phones, tracked, routed, delivered and dropped off the freight from our Bright Yellow rental truck, 7 days a week. I had one of those early portable cell phones. They used to call them bag phones, because you literally took them around in a bag. I had one that didn’t need the bag. It was definitely a fashion statement. But it used a VCR battery that was around the size of brick. The phone itself was about the size of a good sized Bible. When I had to leave the office, I would forward my phones to that portable that sat on the seat of my rental truck. For years my customers and agents thought I had a speech impediment as I attempted to talk while I bounced up and down in that Ryder Truck.

Through the years we graduated from that office in Addison to a larger 5k office in Addison. Then to 8k in Wood Dale. Then 10k in Bensenville in our own rented stand alone building. Then to 20K on Supreme Drive in Bensenville before we purchased our current home in South Elgin in 2001.

Those first years were rough. In our first year of business we did about 300K in business and lost 150K of that to a company that went belly up on us within 8 months of being in business. It was either fight or flight and we decided to stick it out, pay off all of our creditors and continue to make this thing work. It took 5 long years to settle that score and to this day I still remember sitting at the 286 PC and writing off all those invoices with tears in my eyes. But what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. It took time, but we did get stronger. In the midst of that we started a small local cartage company named Absolute Delivery Network. Was it named for the superlative service that we offered our customers. Nope it was named after the favorite Vodka of one of our largest clients from Puerto Rico, whom we fondly called the Mayor of San Juan. We at one time had 19 trucks on the streets along with as many drivers. And it was run by an unsearly type who came in and answered my ad for a truck dispatcher with lots of experience and who could work for peanuts. That guy was Jim Hayes. That was 15 years ago. Jim’s first impression of the place was that he was going to be working along side an office full of women. Aside from myself that was there, Jim looked into the dispatch office and saw what appeared to be a young woman with hair down to her behind in gym trunks. But he still stayed on and took over the job even after learning that long haired chick was really Brad. Or Brad Corey as he was known in his previous David Lee Roth, Rock and Roll phase.  (SEE PICTURE ABOVE)

We were the main company providing local delivery service in and out of McCormick Place. But after the first Union election, we elected to get out of that side of the business and sold the company to an ex-manager who promptly ran it into the ground. But not before they promptly decided to stop paying us for it. Another donation.

But it was with that major change that we focused on what we did best and that is what drove us to be who we are today.

1987 - Notables

Median Household Income in the U.S. - $26,061.

Average Cost of a New House - $92,000

Average Cost of a New Car - $10,305

Gallon of Gas - $ .89

World Population Reaches Five Billion.

71,751 Cases of AIDS had been reported worldwide with 47,022 being in the US. The World Health Organization estimated 5-10 million people were actually infected worldwide.

A Unabomber detonates 2 bombs in Salt Lake City.

Margaret Thatcher is elected to a third term in England.

Telephones become available on Japanese airliners; calls are relayed by satellite.

The first "naked eye" viewable Supernova since 1604 is observed.

The Stock Market Crashed in what came to be known as Black Monday.

Microsoft introduces Windows 2.0.

Cellular Phone subscriptions exceeded one million.

Microsoft also release Microsoft Works.

IBM introduces the PS/2 Personal Computer along with OS/2 to allow the first use of a mouse with an IBM PC.

The first criminal is convicted using DNA evidence.

Construction on the Channel Tunnel between England and France begins.

thirtysomething debuts on ABC. Married...with Children, Full House, and Star Trek: The Next Generation also debut on the small screen.

Moonstruck, Wall Street, Dirty Dancing, Full Metal Jacket, Lethal Weapon, The Last Emperor & Fatal Attraction Hit Theaters.

"Trump" from Donald Trump was on the Best Sellers List along with "The Cardinal of the Kremlin" by Tom Clancy and "Alaska" by James Michener.

Prozac was released in the US.

Delta Airlines adopted the slogan "We love to fly, and it shows".

Starbucks is purchased by Howard Schultz who begins supplementing the company's wholesale and mail-order operations with an empire of coffee bars.

Snapple Iced Tea is released.

America Online (AOL) begins using that name to run an on-line service company to compete against competitors CompuServe and Prodigy.

The band Nirvana formed and Wham! disbanded

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted The Coasters, Eddie Cochran, Bo Diddley, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, Bill Haley, BB King, Clyde Mc Phatter, Ricky Nelson, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, Smokey Robinson, Big Joe Turner, Muddy Waters and Jackie Wilson.

The Grammy's awarded Steve Winwood's "Higher Love" the Record of the Year award with Paul Simon's Graceland winning Album of the Year. Song of the Year went to "That's What Friends Are For".

Births

January
January 2 - Lauren Storm, American actress
January 11 - David Allen, American Actor/Comedian/Writer
January 14 - Kristin Cavallari, cast member of MTV's Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County
January 15 - Jake Epstein, Canadian actor
January 15 - Michael Seater, Canadian actor
January 21 - Ian Garvey, Pokémon League Champion
January 28 - Chelsea Brummet, American actress

February
February 2 - Martin Spanjers, American actor
February 24 - Daniel Reilly, British entrepreneur
February 24 - Mayuko Iwasa, Japanese entertainer and model
February 26 - Julia Bond, American actress

March
March 9 - Bow Wow, American rapper
March 13 - Marco Andretti, IRL driver
March 16 - Tiiu Kuik, Estonian model
March 26 - YUI, Japanese musician

August

August 11 - Clara Peller, American actress (b. 1902)
August 16 - Nick Vanos, Basketball Player (b. 1963)
August 17 - Rudolf Hess, Nazi official (b. 1894)
August 26 - Georg Wittig, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1897)
August 29 - Lee Marvin, American actor (b. 1924)

September

September 4 - Bill Bowes, British cricketer (b. 1908)
September 11 - Lorne Greene, Canadian actor (b. 1915)
September 11 - Peter Tosh, Jamaican singer and musician (b. 1944)
September 16 - Howard Moss, American poet, dramatist, and critic (b. 1922)
September 17 - Harry Locke, British character actor (b. 1913)
September 21 - Jaco Pastorius, American bassist (b. 1951)
September 23 - Bob Fosse, American theater choreographer and director (b. 1927)
September 25 - Harry Holtzman, American Abstract Artist (b. 1912)
September 29 - Henry Ford II, president of Ford Motor Company (b. 1917)

October

October 2 - Peter Medawar, Brazilian-born scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1915)
October 3 - Jean Anouilh, French dramatist (b. 1910)
October 3 - Kalervo Palsa, Finnish artist (b. 1947)
October 9 - William Parry Murphy, American physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1892)
October 13 - Walter Brattain, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1902)
October 19 - Jacqueline du Pré, British cellist (b. 1945)
October 20 - Andrey Nikolaevich Kolmogorov, Russian mathematician (b. 1903)
October 22 - Lino Ventura, Italian actor (b. 1919)
October 28 - André Masson, French artist (b. 1896)
October 29 - Woody Herman, American jazz musician (b. 1913)
October 31 - Joseph Campbell, American author on mythology (b. 1904)

November

November 1 - René Lévesque, Canadian politician and premier of Quebec (b. 1922)
November 25 - Zohar Argov, Israeli singer (b. 1955)

December

December 1 - Punch Imlach, Canadian NHL coach (b. 1918)
December 2 - Luis Federico Leloir, French-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1906)
December 2 - Yakov Borisovich Zel'dovich, Russian physicist (b. 1914)
December 10 - Jascha Heifetz, Lithuanian-born violinist (b. 1901)
 

Handling of exhibit properties between the loading dock and the booth area. Also includes handling of goods from advanced receiving and the removal and return of empty containers.