Isn't That Interesting Dept.

Supporters of the current health care reform bill despite its acknowledged flaws like to point out that Social Security and Medicare weren't so hot when they started either and improvements can be made as we go along.
So I did a little browsing at Wikipedia and saw, much to my amazement, my Gramma Bertha.
Well, not really, but she looks like her.

The first monthly payment was issued on January 31, 1940 to Ida May Fuller of Ludlow, Vermont. In 1937, 1938 and 1939 she paid a total of $24.75 into the Social Security System. Her first check was for $22.54. After her second check, Fuller already had received more than she contributed over the three-year period. She lived to be 100 and collected a total of $22,888.92.^[24]

How Ida May got SS is in itself a story, since most women workers weren't covered because the jobs they tended to hold weren't covered, e.g. teachers, social workers,domestic workers, etc.