$7 Buys Honeymoon Memories

--Management at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York was probably just as surprised as Elizabeth and Sol Richman at the cost of the Richmans’ honeymoon night hotel bill 40 years ago--a modest $7. Intrigued by the reminder of those less financially trying times, the hotel extended the couple a 96% discount rate on its current room rate of $220 a night so they could relive their honeymoon in a truly 1940s style. The trip down memory lane got its big push when Elizabeth Richman found the old bill at their Raleigh, N.C., home. “When I came across the bill, I thought it must be $169 by now,” she said. “I ran in to Sol and said, ‘Do you believe we spent this much in 1946?’ ” She sent the receipt to the hotel, which stands on the site of the old Commodore Hotel in which the couple spent their honeymoon. The hotel even gave the Richmans room 1946, in honor of the year of their wedding.

--She had been a collector most of her life, and that drew more than 400 other collectors to a Raleigh, N.C., auction hall for a sale of items from the estate of singer Kate Smith. On sale were antique furniture, porcelain figurines, paintings and furs, including one appraised at $1,000 that sold for $300. And a 1936 first edition of “Gone With the Wind” with a $1 Confederate bill pasted inside sold for $225. Another item on the block was a signed photograph of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his wife, Eleanor, which Roosevelt personally gave to Smith. “She was collecting about five or six different things at the same time and was always enthusiastic about many things,” said Smith’s sister, Helena Steene. Smith, best known for her rendition of “God Bless America,” died June 17 at age 79 at her Raleigh home.

--It was turning out to be a beastly week for some members of the working world who were forced by layoffs to take off their traces for the last time. In Texas City, Tex., five mules that were used to pull lawn mowers at a refinery were retired along with their drivers because the company can no longer afford the 50-year-old practice. Amoco Gas Co. workers will miss seeing the mules on the grounds, but mechanical mowers and chemicals that control weed growth are cheaper, said Ray Thompson, the plant’s public affairs coordinator. And in Methuen, Mass., a German shepherd police dog that had patrolled the streets for six years got the golden handshake and a pension of $1.58 per day--enough to cover the cost of dog food. Eight-year-old Lucky, who has developed hip problems, will stay with his former partner, Officer Larry Giordano, who is leaving the force to take a seat in the state Legislature that he won this month.