Last night, just before bed, Katie called me outside to look at the moon. I didn’t want to do it; I was tired, but she insisted, so I went. She took me into the backyard and pointed at the corner of the yard, behind the live oak near my bedroom.
“Up there!” she said. “See it?”
Well, I didn’t, but she made [...]
Archive for the ‘Events’ Category
The Woman in the Moon
Posted in Events, Full Moon, People, Robert Louis Stevenson, tagged Alice in Wonderland, face in the moon, full moon, Lisa Waller Rogers, man in the moon, poems by Robert Louis Stevenson, Robert Louis Stevenson, The Candy Ravers, the Cheshire Cat image, The Moon by Robert Louis Stevenson, young adult mystery on August 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The Murder of President Lincoln. Appeal to the Colored People!
Posted in Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth, People, The American Civil War, Wars, tagged Assassination of President Lincoln, Booth manhunt, Edwin Stanton, John Wilkes Booth, Major W.S. Hancock on June 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
It was April 24, 1865 – ten days since President Lincoln was assassinated – and his killer still remained at large. On the night of April 14, John Wilkes Booth had shot the president in the head, jumped on a horse, and slipped across the Potomac River undetected. He had disappeared into Maryland, a state that [...]
The Bug that Ate Topeka
Posted in Events, Frontier Tales, tagged 1874, Governor Thomas A. Osborn, grasshopper infestation, Kansas frontier, Kansas grasshopper, Kansas history, Laura Ingalls Wilder, On the Banks of Plum Creek, Rocky Mountain locust on March 30, 2009 | 6 Comments »
Early Kansas settlers had a rough time of it. For the first twenty years of Kansas settlement, homesteaders had to battle hot winds, drought, Indian raids, and hailstorms to save their crops. But the year 1874 promised to be different. “In the spring of 1874,” wrote Mrs. Everett Rorabaugh, “the farmers began their farming with [...]
Buffalo Chip Gals
Posted in Events, Frontier Tales, tagged buffalo dung, california gold rush, covered wagon, meadow muffins, Oregon trail, pioneer children, pioneer women, westward movement on March 30, 2009 | 2 Comments »
In the 1840s, many thousands of families left their homes and headed west searching for California gold or a plot of cheap but good Oregon farmland. It was usually the man of the family who got “Western fever” and made the decision to uproot the rest of the family. They loaded up their possessions, stocked [...]
The Civil War: The High Price of Peace
Posted in The American Civil War, tagged Abraham Lincoln, Civil War statistics, the Civil War, the Confederacy map on March 24, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
THE PRICE OF THE CIVIL WAR
UNION
Soldiers 2,500,000-2,750,000
Soldiers wounded who survived 275,175
Soldiers who lost their lives 360,222
Civilians who lost their lives None
CONFEDERATE
Soldiers 750,000-1,250,000
Soldiers wounded who survived 102,703
Soldiers who lost their lives 258,000
Civilians who lost their lives 50,000
The total cost of the war was $20 billion (approximately $250 billion in today’s money), or five times the total expenditure of [...]
Abe & Elvis Whistling “Dixie”
Posted in Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln, Elvis, People, The American Civil War, tagged Abraham Lincoln, Appomattox Court House, Civil War, Confederacy, Confederate flag, Confederate rebels, Confederate surrender, Daniel Emmett, Dixie, Elvis Presley, General Ulysses S. Grant, Gideon Welles, Lee's surrender, Mary Lincoln, Mathew Brady photographs, Richmond, Robert E. Lee, Tad Lincoln, the Union, Virginia, War Between the States on March 23, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
At daylight on April 10, 1865, the firing of 500 cannons spread the news throughout Washington, D.C., that the War Between the States was over and the Union preserved. The cannons were so loud that they broke windows on Lafayette Square, the neighborhood around the White House. (1) “Guns are firing, bells ringing, flags [...]
Audrey Hepburn: Growing Up Among Nazis
Posted in Audrey Hepburn, Fashion, People, Style Setters, World War II, tagged Arnhem, Audrey Hepburn, Audrey Hepburn's childhood artwork, Audrey Ruston, black performances, Breakfast at Tiffany's, British Union of Fascists, Dutch Resistance, Dutch Underground, Ella van Heemstra, fascism, German occupation of the Netherlands, Joseph Ruston, Joseph Ruston-Hepburn, Nazis, Oswald Mosley, Queen Wilhelmina, Sadler's Wells Ballet, the Netherlands, World War II on March 13, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
It was May 9, 1940, and Audrey Kathleen (Hepburn-) Ruston had just turned eleven. To celebrate, her mother, the wealthy Dutch Baroness Ella van Heemstra, had bought tickets for them to see a performance by the great English troupe, The Sadler’s Wells Ballet. Ella and her children had not been in the Netherlands very long. [...]
Bad Omen #3 : Lincoln’s Final Dream
Posted in Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln, Paranormal Experiences, tagged Robert Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln, the Civil War, John Wilkes Booth, Edwin Stanton, Ford's Theatre, the Lincoln Assassination, Elizabeth Keckley, Lincoln's dream, Lincoln's premonition of death, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses Grant, Salmon Chase, Schuyler Colfax, William Crook, Our American Cousin, Laura Keene, Clara Harris, Major Henry Rathbone on March 5, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
April 14, 1865, was one of the happiest days of Abraham Lincoln’s life. It was Good Friday. General Robert E. Lee had surrendered five days earlier and the Civil War was over. The Union had been saved. Lincoln had a relaxing breakfast with his 21-year-old son Robert, whom he called “Bob,” who had just arrived [...]
Bad Omen #2: Lincoln Sees His Corpse
Posted in Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln, Paranormal Experiences, People, tagged Abraham Lincoln, the Civil War, Lincoln Assassination, Alexander Gardner photograph, Lincoln's dream, Lincoln's premonition of death, Pinkerton Detective Agency, Allan Pinkerton, Major John McClernard, Battle of Antietam, Lincoln's corpse on March 4, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Since he stepped foot into the White House, President Lincoln was dogged by rumors of assassination and kidnapping. Threatening letters arrived on an almost daily basis. Lincoln stuffed them away in a bulging envelope marked ASSASSINATION. (1)
Abe’s friends were worried. “I long ago made up my mind that if anyone wants to kill me, he will do [...]
Bad Omen #1: Lincoln’s Doppelganger
Posted in Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln, Paranormal Experiences, People, tagged Abraham Lincoln, Alexander Gardner photograph, Civil War, Lincoln Assassination, Lincoln's doppelganger, Lincoln's premonition, Lincoln's psychic power, Lincoln's vision, Mary Todd Lincoln, Mathew Brady photographs, mediums, Noah Brooks, Victorian séances, White House séances, Willie Lincoln on March 3, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Abraham Lincoln was deeply interested in psychic phenomena. Following the death of his eleven-year-old son, Willie, (1850-1862) of typhoid fever, Lincoln was consumed with grief. He was persuaded by wife Mary to participate in several séances held in the White House. Mary believed that professional mediums could pierce the veil between this life and the [...]
The Scalping of Robert McGee 1864
Posted in Events, Frontier Tales, tagged cowboys and Indians, frontier, indian attack, Kansas, Robert McGee, scalping, wagon train on February 19, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
In my last post, I wrote about the scalping of Texas settler, Josiah Wilbarger, who lived to tell the tale. I’ve come across another scalping survivor account, that of teamster Robert McGee, who agreed with Josiah Wilbarger who said the scalping sounded like “distant thunder. The following is excerpted from the blog, The Road to [...]
Mama and Daddy Remember World War II
Posted in Events, Wars, World War II, tagged Edward R. Murrow, Eric Sevareid on February 15, 2009 | 6 Comments »
My mother underwent a hip replacement last week. While waiting for Mom to be wheeled off to surgery, I had an opportunity to talk with both Mama (Carolyn) and Daddy (John) about their growing-up years in the thirties and forties.
Carolyn:You want to remember that in the 30s and later, the iceman brought ice to [...]
The Return of Pooh Bear
Posted in Events, Teddy Bear History, The Wind in the Willows, Winnie-the-Pooh, tagged e.h. shepard, teddy bear, Teddy Bear History, winnie-the-pooh, winnie-the-pooh sequel on February 3, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Reuters new service released this announcement on 01/09/09:
“The first official sequel to the original Winnie-the-Pooh books will appear in October, its publishers said on Saturday, more than 80 years after the honey-loving bear first appeared in print.”Return to the Hundred Acre Wood” is the follow up to A.A. Milne’s “Winnie-the-Pooh” and “The House At Pooh [...]
Winnie-the Pooh
Posted in Events, Fictional Characters, Teddy Bear History, Winnie-the-Pooh, tagged A.A. Milne, Christopher Robin, Harry Colebourn, London Zoo history, Teddy Bear History, winnie-the-pooh, Winnipeg the Bear on February 3, 2009 | 3 Comments »
This is the story of how A.A. Milne came to write the stories of Winnie-the-Pooh, or just plain Winnie the Pooh, as Disney would have it.
It was the beginning of World War I. A Canadian lieutenant, Harry Colebourn, a veterinarian in Winnipeg, offered his services to his country. He was already a trained officer attached to the [...]
