It’s all about budgets this time of the year.  And 100 years ago, the story was the same — except there was a lot of haggling over a lot less money. When you’re talking schools budgets these days, you’re talking about hundreds of millions of dollars. A century ago, they were talking tens of thousands. Granted, the dollar figures are all relative to the times. Tens of thousands was like hundreds of millions back then. But, the issues surrounding spending are still pretty much the same: salaries and wages and construction. Forget about health benefits. There weren’t any. There was no insurance…

“Policemen, tramps, farmers and hoboes” were the common costumes of more than 100 years ago, according to the Nov. 4 1908 issue of the Red Bank Register. It has a kinda catchy cadence to it, doesn’t it? Think about that one for a second. Has all that much changed in more than a century? OK. Instead of the general costuming of generic characters, we now see pop and reality stars emulated, kids running from cops after curfew rather than dressing as one, McMansion residents replacing farmers (because real farms have been replaced by developments) and people who have fallen on bad economic times …