I recently found the companies I used for a stock market activity for class in 2007 and updated the value with current prices. The number of shares I purchased is in the second column.
I fictitiously invested $25,000 in each of these companies. You can see the results below.
Inflation was roughly 18% over that time span, so my overall rate of return is pretty darn good!
Wish I had the money at the time! :)