Slower than molasses in January

Did you know that today is the 95th anniversary of the Great Molasses Flood?

Molasses is a brown, syrupy by-product of the refining of sugarcane, grapes, or sugar beets into sugar.

Momma has loved molasses ever since reading about Laura Ingalls Wilder eating it on her cornbread in Little House of the Prairie. Over the years she has collected many molasses recipes, so she was quite interested to hear about the Boston Molasses Disaster.

Also known as the Great Molasses Flood and the Great Boston Molasses Tragedy, it occurred on Jan. 15, 1919, in the North End neighborhood of Boston, Mass., when a large molasses storage tank burst, and a wave of molasses rushed through the streets at an estimated 35 miles per hour, killing 21 and injuring 150.

Several factors might have contributed to the disaster. The tank was poorly constructed and insufficiently tested. It leaked regularly and Boston's poor frequently collected the leaking syrup for home sweetening. In fact, it leaked so often that the owners painted the tank brown to hide the leaks.

Jan. 15, 1919 was also unseasonably warm for Boston. The temperature had risen above 40 °F, climbing rapidly from the frigid temperatures of the preceding days.

It took four days before they stopped searching for victims and many of the dead were so coated in molasses, they were hard to recognize.

It took more than 300 people about two weeks to remove the molasses from the cobblestone streets, theaters, businesses, automobiles, and homes. The harbor was brown with molasses until summer.

The event has entered Boston folklore, and for many decades residents claimed the area still smelled of molasses on hot summer days.

Nothing up my sleeve

What actually hides under Edwardian sleeves.

My dear Miss Sparrow and I (being the Perfectly Awful Girls that we are) were discussing a recent news article about literary tattoos.

That lead us to talking about the tattoos adorning her illustrious (illustrated?) ancestor's back.

I, of course, had my tummy signed by Evil Wil Wheaton - which is pretty darned permanent in my case.

But she and I started discussing literary tattoos and what we would get IF we were to get one.

Personally, I would probably get something from the Betsy-Tacy or Little House books. Or Spock's, "Live Long and Prosper." Or maybe my flag.

Or maybe, "My ♥ belongs to Momma."

Miss Sparrow declined to say because she was afraid I'd publish it here (true), but I think she secretly wants an "I ♥ Joe Willard" somewhere.

Any suggestions?

On the fourth day of Christmas

On the fourth day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
Four calling birds
Three French hens, two turtle doves
And a partridge in a pear tree.

Dec. 28, 2000 was a sad date in retail history when U.S. retail giant Montgomery Ward announced it was going out of business after 128 years.

Montgomery Ward was founded by Aaron Montgomery Ward in 1872. Ward had conceived of the idea of a dry goods mail-order business in Chicago, Illinois, after several years of working as a traveling salesman among rural customers. The business grew at a fast pace over the next several decades, fueled by demand primarily from rural customers who were also attracted by the innovative and unprecedented company policy of "satisfaction guaranteed or your money back", which Ward began using in 1875.

Laura Ingalls Wilder fans recognize the importance Montgomery Ward catalogues had for those who lived far from the big city:

For themselves, they decided to buy a present together, something they could both use and enjoy. After much studying of Montgomery Ward’s catalogue, they chose to get a set of glassware. They needed it for the table and there was such a pretty set advertised, a sugar bowl, spoon-holder, butter dish, six sauce dishes, and a large oval-shaped bread plate. On the bread plate raised in the glass were heads of wheat and some lettering which read “Give us this day our daily bread.”

Laura Ingalls Wilder

The First Four Years

That breadplate was one of the very few things to survive the housefire that destroyed their home a few years later.

One of Momma's treasures includes an identical antique glass breadplate. (She loves to collect antique china and glass patterns mentioned in her favorite kidlit books. So far she has Laura's breadplate and Blue Willow china as well as Tacy's china pattern in a teacup and saucer. She's trying to hunt down a sandwich tray in Mrs. Ray's china pattern, too.)

A few of my favorite things

And Momma (in her ‘kerchief) and I in our nook,
Had just snuggled down with a long winter’s book.

After all this talk about Christmas movies and TV shows I thought I'd better address my first love -- books.

(That's not to say some of those moving pictures and TV shows haven't been based upon books, but it's the very rare movie or TV show that is better than the original book it's based upon.)

So what are some of my favorite Christmas books that I read every Christmas?

Bess Streeter Aldrich
Journey Into Christmas (1949) are stories about reunited families, good fellowship, and restored faith. This is not to say that all is sugar candy. The mother in the title story faces a lonely Christmas in an empty house; but then something quite ordinary but miraculous happens. In "The Drum Goes Dead," a small-town bank cashier, a solid citizen and sterling friend, is dispirited by hard times until he discovers that it is indeed a wonderful life. In the closing piece, "I Remember," the author recalls her own childhood in Iowa. 

Charles Dickens

A Christmas Carol (1943) is the story tells of sour and stingy Ebenezer Scrooge's ideological, ethical, and emotional transformation after the supernatural visits of Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come.

Kate Douglas Wiggin
The Birds' Christmas Carol (1887) is the story is about Carol Bird, a Christmas-born child, who as a young girl is unusually loving and generous, having a positive effect on everyone with whom she comes into contact. By the time she is 10, she is bedridden and physicians say that she does not have long to live. The novel primarily involves Carol making plans for a Christmas celebration for the nine Ruggles children, a poor, working-class family living near the Birds. The book is a wistful moral tale about a saintly child, but is enlivened by many humorous scenes, particularly those concerning the home life of the Ruggles family.

Maud Hart Lovelace

Heaven to Betsy (1945) and Betsy and Joe (1948)

Nobody celebrates Christmas like the Ray family, but my two, absolute favorite Christmas stories in Lovelace's books are found here. We get to read about the family's traditions in Heaven to Betsy and feel like we're there, too. In Betsy and Joe the warmth and merriment is still there, but Betsy learns she must put on a brave face when she and Joe quarrel. I dream of a Betsy-Tacy Christmas Treasury (Are you reading this HarperCollins?)

O. Henry 
The Gift of the Magi (1906) is a short story written about a young married couple and how they deal with the challenge of buying secret Christmas gifts for each other with very little money.

Clement Clarke Moore 

A Visit from St. Nicholas (1823), also known as The Night Before Christmas and 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, is largely responsible for the conception of Santa Claus, including his physical appearance, the night of his visit, his mode of transportation, the number and names of his reindeer, and the tradition that he brings toys to children.

Laura Ingalls Wilder

A Little House Christmas (1995) describes some of the Christmases she and her family celebrate on the frontier. Even if they don't have much money for presents, they always have one another, and that's enough to make any Christmas merry. This lavish gift book gathers together five of Laura's classic Christmas stories from Little House in the Big Woods, Little House on the Prairie, and On the Banks of Plum Creek, and is illustrated with gently colorized (boo hiss) versions of Garth Williams' original art.

A Little House Christmas Treasury (2005) is pretty much the same as above but it does include a Christmas story not found there and vice versa.

And last but certainly not least: 

The American Girls Holiday Treasury (2005) of holiday stories and songs takes girls back in time to Christmas celebrations with their favorite American Girls characters. From Christmas Eve during the Great Depression to a Civil War fellowship dinner, these timeless stories illustrate the importance of family and the cherished traditions that are at the heart of the holiday season. Includes a CD of classic Christmas songs, a ribbon bookmark, and a special cover with gold foil stamping and glitter.

From sea to shining sea

 
You know how excited you were when you went wireless?

Well, that's how excited folks were when we got wired 150 years ago today.

The First Transcontinental Telegraph line across the United States was completed on Oct. 24, 1861, ending the 18-month-old Pony Express which had boasted it could deliver a letter from Sacramento, Calif., to St. Joseph, Mo., in 10 days when it first began on April 3, 1860.

With the push of a button, California's chief justice, Stephen J. Field, wired a message from San Francisco to President Abraham Lincoln in Washington, D.C., congratulating him on the transcontinental telegraph's completion that day.

To Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States:

In the temporary absense (sic) of the Governor of the State I am requested to send you the first message which will be transmitted over the wires of the telegraph line which connects the Pacific with the Atlantic States. The people of California desire to congratulate you upon the completion of the Great Work. They believe that it will be the means of strengthening the attachment which binds both the East and the West to the Union, and they desire in this--the first message across the Continent--to express their loyalty to the Union and their determination to stand by its government on this its day of trial. They regard that government with affection and will adhere to it under all fortunes.

Stephen J. Field
Chief Justice Of California

The First Transcontinental Telegraph was a milestone in electrical engineering and in the formation of the United States of America. It electronically connected a nation from sea to shining sea that was also tearing itself apart in the Civil War.

The overland telegraph line was operated until 1869, when it was replaced by a multi-line telegraph that was constructed beside the route of the Transcontinental Railroad.

(Incidentally, when the final piece of track connecting the transcontinental railroad was laid in Promontory, Utah in 1869 a young news organization called The Associated Press sent out a story about it on the wire.)

Finally, telegraph operators were one of the few socially acceptable jobs for young "bachelor" working girls at the time. Rose Wilder Lane learned telegraphy after high school graduation in 1904 at the Mansfield, Mo., railroad station where the station master was a school friend's father.

By the age of 18 Lane was working for Western Union in Kansas City as a telegrapher. She worked as a telegrapher in Missouri, Indiana and California for the next five years before becoming a newspaper reporter.

Her famous mother, Laura Ingalls Wilder, later visited in her in San Francisco where she lived in an apartment on, where else? Telegraph Hill.

Little Banned House on the Prairie

Original artwork by Garth Williams.

It simply boggles my imagination that anyone, ANYONE, could ban Laura Ingalls Wilder's classic Little House on the Prairie.

I mean, yes, some of the characters don't like Indians and say so, but what they overlook is that Pa and Laura both like, admire and respect them.

Yes, there are a couple of tense chapters where Indians consider going on warpath but they don't. And Pa salutes the leader who saved them all.

Even when forced to leave their home, Pa is (understandably) furious at the government - not the Indians.

See yesterday's comment about white-washing the past (future?) to make it more acceptable - or politically correct.

Philosopher George Santayana said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

Do we really want to repeat the shameful chapters of our past?

I, for one, don't. Even with a time machine.

Well, she was an American Girl

Boy howdy, was I mad when I saw there was an American Boy Day at the St. Louis World's Fair on July 5, 1904.

Excuse me, but what happened to American Girl Day?!

Upon further investigation  I discovered it was sponsored by a then-popular magazine called The American Boy. 

More investigation showed it to be two hours of speeches in Festival Hall.

Yawn.

The American Boy was a monthly magazine published from November 1899 to August 1941. At the time it was the largest magazine for boys, with a circulation of 300,000, and it featured action stories and advertising for the young boy.

In 1929 the magazine merged with its rival, Youth's Companion. (Hey, Laura Ingalls Wilder read that as a girl!)

 
Out of curiosity, I looked and Girl Scouts published a magazine from 1917 until 1979, originally called The Rally (1917–1920) and then The American Girl, with the The later being dropped.

At one time this magazine had the largest circulation of any magazine aimed at teen-aged girls.

(The American Girl is not to be confused with the currently published American Girl magazine. Launched in 1992, the new magazine reaches 470,000 girls every other month.)

I am now somewhat mollified since girls have better things to do than to sit around listening to speeches.

Like explore the World's Fair with friends and discover new foods....

Let the hurricane roar

It's funny how our minds work.

You start thinking about one thing (earthquakes) which leads to another (hurricanes) which leads to yet another (Laura Ingalls Wilder).

Obvious, right? I thought so. 

And just before Pa laid the fiddle in its box ... he played a gallant, challenging tune that brought them all to their feet, and they all sang lustily,

Then let the hurricane roar!
It will the sooner be o'er.
We'll weather the blast
And land at last
On Canaan's happy shore! 

The Long Winter, Chapter 13
"We'll Weather the Blast" 

"The Evergreen Shore" was written by William Hunter and set to music by William B. Bradbury and was first published in 1861. Bradbury also wrote the music to Sunday School standard "Jesus Loves Me"! 

Both Wilder and her daughter Rose Wilder Lane used a different fourth line of the chorus, "On Canaan's happy shore," instead of, "Safe on the evergreen shore," which may have been how the Ingalls family learned the song.

Wilder began writing about her Little House books after the deaths of Ma and Mary and the stock market crach of 1929. Published during her lifetime were:

• Little House in the Big Woods (1932)
• Farmer Boy (1933)
• Little House on the Prairie (1935)
• On the Banks of Plum Creek (1937)
• By the Shores of Silver Lake (1939)
• The Long Winter (1940)
• Little Town on the Prairie (1941)
• These Happy Golden Years (1943)

Lane used the first line, "Let the Hurricane Roar," as the title of a serialized story using the names of her grandparents as characters and family stories. (Apparently this caused some friction between Wilder and Lane since Wilder felt the family stories were hers to tell.) It was published in 1932 by the Saturday Evening Post and as a book in 1933.

Let the Hurricane Roar has since been renamed Young Pioneers and the names of Charles and Caroline changed to David and Molly. 

But I digress. Again.

For those on the East Coast who have endured the 2011 Virginia Earthquake and are preparing for Hurricane Irene, I encourage you to remember:

Then let the hurricane roar!
It will the sooner be o'er.
We'll weather the blast.

A tip of the Tiny Top Hat

My dearest Steampunk Jess,

(Or Claire, depending on what you are calling yourself today.)

I take pen in hand (Thanks for the lovely Quick-Quotes Quill!) as I gaze upon your picture. And wear your Dress.

Mere words cannot Describe how I feel about this Dress. Momma and I have discovered  it is Hot in Arizona. Really Hot. Really, really Hot! 

Thankfully your Dress arrived before I Melted. 

Ahh, silk. Nothing beats the lovely feel of that deliciously cool Silk Skirt. And the sleeveless Cotton Shirtwaist! (Momma is a bit Scandalized but I have assured her it is Just the Thing.)

The lined jacket will feel Lovely in the evenings since I have been told that it gets Quite Chilly here at Night. It will also Protect my arms from the Nasty bugs buzzing around - mosquitos and a Really Ugly Beetle that keeps Annoying Me.
 

Do you like the Boots I found to go with it? I know you said the lining of the jacket was a Poison Green (and the Manufacturer called it Spinach!) but I think of it as Absinthe.

Sadly, I do have to Tell You that the Tiny Top Hat Suffered a Little in the Heat while in transit. I Know you will Recognize this quote, being a Fellow Time Traveler and all:

... And it blew the lovely, cream-colored ostrich feathers off Laura's hat.

She caught them with the very tips of her fingers as they were being whirled away. "Oh! Oh!" she exclaimed in vexation. "It must be they were not sewed on well."

"Miss Bell hasn't been in the west long enough yet," Almanzo said. "She is not used to prairie winds. Better let me put those feathers in my pocket before you lose them."

 

Do not despair though. I am respectably Hatted while Momma repairs the lovely Hat Your Momma made. 

Meanwhile, I remain yours,

Faithfully,

Steampunk Addie

P.S. I am Scouting for Places to Take You when you Arrive in the Cooler Fall Weather.