America's Long Line of Presidential Military Heroes-- Part 4: More World War II Presidents

World War II presidents, continued.

Richard Nixon, Navy,  began the war in Iowa, despite its lack of a coast, then was transferred to the Pacific where he never saw action either.  Gerald Ford was on an aircraft carrier and won ten battle stars.  Jimmy Carter was still a cadet at the U.S. Naval Academy during WW II and served on submarines and battleships in the late 1940s and 1950s and never saw action.

Ronald Reagan , who many thing never served, enlisted in the Army in 1942 but was classified 4F due to bad eyesight and remained stateside.

Of course, there was also George H.W. Bush, who flew planes off the USS San Jacinto aircraft carrier during the war and almost lost his life when he was shot down.  The other man in his plane did die.  Bush was rescued by a submarine.

--GreGen

America's Long Line of Presidential Military Heroes-- Part 3: Eisenhower to Kennedy

As the presidency is by definition a political position, the issue of exactly what kind of a military service a president had becomes important.  Seeing combat is the general measure of worth, but not always.  Dwight Eisenhower, the first World War II veteran elected president, graduated from West Point in 1915 and was never under fire during his nearly 40-year military career, yet that was not held against the Supreme Allied Commander.

Ike was in the Army; six of the seven other World War II-era presidents were in the Navy, starting with John Kennedy, who turned his heroism aboard PT-109 into a best-selling book that helped rocket him to the presidency.

Lyndon Johnson was already a congressman when he entered the Naval Reserve -- there is some question whether his sole moment of combat experience and resulting Silver Star was real or prevarication.

I wrote several posts about Johnson getting his Silver Star in my Tattooed On Your Soul:  WW II blog in 2015.  Go to it and click the Lyndon Johnson tag in the labels section.

--Cooter

America's Long Line of Presidential Military Heroes-- Part 2: Jackson and Tippecanoe Too

Military heroism helped a number of presidents win office.  Andrew Jackson, the first president born in a log cabin, gained fame for his victory over the British at the Battle of New Orleans.  William Henry Harrison was so linked to a particular battle that it could serve as his name --  his 1840 campaign slogan was  "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too" referring to the 1811 battle against a confederation of Indians at the confluence of the Tippecanoe and Wabash rivers in Indiana.

Many presidents not generally remembered as soldiers, in fact did serve.  Abraham Lincoln was an Illinois militia captain during the Black Hawk War.

And sometimes "service" is a broad term -- seven presidents claimed to have fought in the Civil War, though that includes Andrew Johnson, who was military governor of Tennessee  in 1862.

--CootPres

George H.W. Bush Among a Long Line of American Presidential Military Heroes-- Part 1: George Washington Was the First

From the December 3, 2018, Chicago Sun-Times by Neil Steinberg.

The first president of the United States was a military man.  George Washington not only led the Continental Army during the American Revolution, but also fought in the French and Indian War.  As a matter of fact, 26 of our 44 presidents served the country in uniform in some capacity.

With the death Friday of George H.W. Bush, the most recent military president, this is a good time to take a look at the link between the armed forces and the Oval Office.

Washington was followed by two decades of non-veterans.  Washington left office in 1797, and the next military man to be sworn in was James Monroe in 1817, who had dropped out of William & Mary College to fight in the American Revolution in 1775 and was wounded in the Battle of Harlem Heights.

James Madison, while not in the military, saw more combat than many who were in the military and this will be discussed later.

--Cooter

Deaths in 2018: Ken Berry, Known Best for Role in TV Sitcom 'F Troop'

From the December 3, 2018, Chicago Sun-Times "Actor was known for role in 1960's sitcom 'F Troop."

KEN BERRY, 85

Died December 1, 2018

Played the affable and clumsy Captain Wilton Parmenter in the 1960s sitcom "F Troop."

It was only on from 1965 to 1967 but has lived on in syndication.

After "F Troop" he appeared in "Mayberry R.F.D" and "Mama's Family" beginning in 1983."

What a funny cast:

Sergeant O'Rourke (Forrest Tucker)
Corporal Agarn  (Larry Storch)
Wrangler Jane  (Melody Patterson)

And all the other inept soldiers as well as the equally inept Hekawi Indians

This was one funny, although today politically incorrect TV show.

I Am Chuckling as I remember how the Heckawi Indians got their name right now.

Where the Heck Are We?  --CootKawi

Hold On To That Old Sports Memorabilia

From the December 23, 2018, Chicago Tribune advertisement of Heritage Auctions who was to have an auction February 23-24, 2019.

They showed what five earlier auction items had sold for.

**1908 Chicago Cubs World Series Championship Last Out Baseball     Sold for $119,500.

**  1964 Mickey Mantle World Series Home Run Record Setting Game Worn New York Yankees Jersey.    Sold for $1,320,000

**  1970 Dick Butkus Game Worn Chicago Bears Jersey, MEARS A10.    Sold for $1,320,000

**  1948 Original Study for "Tough Call" by Norman Rockwell.  Gifted to Legendary Umpire "Beans" Reardon.    Sold for $1,680,000    (The one with the umpires gathered and checking the rain.)

**  1916 M101-5 Blank Back Sporting News Babe Ruth Rookie #151 PSA NM 7.    Sold for $717,000  (Shown, of course, as a pitcher for the Red Sox.)

And My Mom Threw Out All My Old Baseball Cards.  --CootCard

Judge Orders Wine Barrels To be Poured Into Kishwaukee River in 1919

From the Nov. 27, 2019, MidWeek  (DeKalb County, Illinois) "Looking Back."

1919, 100 Years Ago.

"Groans from both court attaches and spectators were audible in the county court room on Monday when Judge Pond rendered his decision in the case against an Italian resident of Kirkland, accused of selling intoxication liquor against the law , and who was the first person arrested in DeKalb County under the state search and seizure act.

"The groans came  when the judge ordered two whole barrels of perfectly good wine, seized from the defendant to be pored into the Kishwaukee river."

--CootWiner

Snowball Fight in 1919 Leads to Injury

From the December 18, 2019, MidWeek  "Looking Back."

1919, 100 Years Ago

"The first serious accident due to snowballs occurred yesterday when Dale Chapman, 10-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. H.R. Chapman was quite badly injured.

"The Chapman boy in company with several others was returning home from school when the crowd engaged in a snowball fight.  The young fellows were packing them pretty hard and one hit master Dale when he stood near the thrower.

"Though it is thought that the Chapman boy will recover with proper treatment, the young folks are cautioned about the danger of snowballing."

I'm sure this caused an immediate cessation of hostilities.  Even so, snowballs hurt much less than a direct hit by a dirt clod.

Ouch!!  --DacootDuck

Stores Open Later for Christmas Shopping in 1919

From the December 18, 2019, MidWeek (DeKalb County, Illinois)  "Looking Back."

1919, 100 Years Ago.

"Those who find it inconvenient to shop during the day will now have the opportunity of doing the remainder of their buying in the evenings.

"Beginning yesterday, the stores of the city are open during the early evening hours and folks who are busy during the day will now have an opportunity  to make Christmas purchases."

And to think this wasn't even Black Friday.

--CootBuy

Catching Cooties-- Part 2: The Bane of the Playground and Your Vaccination

"Help, I've Been Touched By A Girrrrlll!!!"  EEEWWWWWWwwwwww!!!

Shrieking games of cooties tag spread the contagion rapidly.  It can be treated with an origami "cootie catcher," but it is better to be vaccinated.  This requires a friend and a retractable pen.  Your friend clicks the pen into your arm while chanting "circle, circle, dot,dot, now you have your cootie shot."

There were variations of what is said in different areas.

I seem to remember that you got rid of cooties by touching someone else, a buddy perhaps.

Of course, if you saw someone rapidly approaching and you thought they might have cooties, it is best to flee for your life.  Better to flee and not need that vaccination.

Everyone Knows Girls Have Da Cooties.  --Cootie

Catching Cooties-- Part 1: A World War I to the Playground Thing

From the May 2019 Smithsonian magazine by Jane C. Hu.

Of all the germs kids are exposed to one playgrounds, there's one they freak out about more than any other:  COOTIES.

The word first appeared in World War I as soldier slang for the painful body lice that infested the trenches.

It went mainstream in 1919 when a Chicago company incorporated the pest into the Cootie Game, in which a player maneuvered colored "cootie" capsules across a painted battlefield into a cage.

The cootie concept has be evolving ever since.
The most familiar incarnation on the playground has a lot to do with what the kids think about the opposite sex.  Every little six-year-old girls knows that boys have cooties and vice versa.

One catches cooties by--eww!--touching.  If a little girl gets touched by a boy who has cooties (and they all do), she now has cooties.  But wait!!!  There's a cure.

I Always Heard It Was the Little Girls Who Had Cooties.   --CootieCoot

Is That John Dillinger Buried in Dillinger's Grave?-- Part 2

The evidence that John Dillinger wasn't buried there is the non-match of eye color, the ear shape and protrusion from the head, the finger prints did not match, the existence of a heart condition and non-match of anterior teeth  according to the affidavit.

Dillinger supposedly had plastic surgery to be done to alter his appearance while he was on the run.

The plan for exhumation had originally been part of a History Channel network documentary, but they pulled out of the project in September

But lawyers for Crown Hill Cemetery say Indiana law gives the cemetery veto power on any exhumation.

Well, Was He or Wasn't He?  --Cooter

Is That John Dillinger Buried In John Dillinger's Grave?-- Part 1

From the November 30, 2019, Chicago Sun-Times "Cemetery seeks to keep body in Dillinger's grave"by John Seidel.

"When it comes to whether the body inside 1930s gangster John Dillinger's grave will actually be exhumed, Indianapolis' Crown Hill Cemetery says it has the last word.

"And the cemetery says it refuses to open the grave for 'a decades-old conspiracy theory that Dillinger was not, in fact, shot and killed by the FBI, properly identified by his family or buried at Crown Hill in 1934.' "

But, the case might ultimately be decided by a judge.

Meanwhile, the Indiana State Department of Health has given approval for the exhumation to move forward on New Year's Eve.

Two of Dillinger's descendants made national news this past summer when they said they had evidence that the person fatally shot outside Chicago's Biograph Theater on July 22, 1934, may not have been Dillinger.

--Cooter

Catalina Garcia, Julianna Gehant, Ryanne Mace, Daniel Parmenter, Gayle Dubawski

This date, twelve years ago, a murderer burst into a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb and killed these five people and wounded many others.  I will not give his name as mass murderers should never be recognized.

At least he finally did something right with his life and killed himself.

Not Forgetting.

Oldest Presidents on Inauguration Day

From the same source as them previous post.

10.  Gerald R. Ford  61 years

9.  John Adams  61 years, 4 months

8.  Andrew Jackson  61 years, 11 months

7.  Dwight Eisenhower  62 years

6.  Zachary Taylor  64 years, 3 months

5.  George H.W. Bush 64 years, 6 months

4.  James Buchanan  65 years

3.  William Harrison  68 years

2.  Ronald Reagan  68 years

1.  Donald Trump  70 years

--DaCootPress

Longest Living Presidents

From the May 2, 2019, Kenosha (Wis.) News

10.  Richard Nixon   81 years

9.  Thomas Jefferson  83 years

8.  James Madison  85 years

7.  Harry S. Truman  88 years

6.  Herbert Hoover  90 years, 71 days

5.  John Adams  90 years, 248 days

4.  Ronald Reagan  93 years, 119 days

3.  Gerald Ford  93 years, 165 days

2.  George H.W. Bush  94 years, 171 days

1.  Jimmy Carter  94 years and counting

This past summer, Jimmy and Rosalyn celebrated their 73rd year of marriage.  No trophy wife for him.  Probably the most sincere and honorable president we've had since Harry S. Truman.

And, I Met Him When he Was Governor.  --Cooter

Deaths: Charles Sanna-- Part 4: Parents Were Italian Immigrants, Served in WW II

Charles Albert Sanna was born in Philadelphia on Nov. 9,1917.  Both parents were Italian immigrants.  His father came to the U.S. at age 13 and later managed a dairy company in Philadelphia, and ice cream company in Washington and a gelatin operation in Chicago.

The family eventually settled in Madison, Wisconsin where Charles graduated high school and attended the University of Wisconsin and received a degree in mechanical engineering in 1939.  He joined the Navy two years later and rose through the ranks to become a superintendent of submarine construction at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Maine.

While there, he met Margaret "Peggy" McGee and they married in 1946.

After WW II, Sanna's father convinced him to join the family dairy business, then known as Sanna Dairy Engineers.  This proved crucial to the company as he designed a 60-foot-tall stainless steel dryer in Menominee  that powdered milk and died eggs.

Even though his postwar career was mostly involved with dairy, he never forgot the men who served on his submarines during the war.  I'll write about that in my Tattooed On Your Soul: World War II blog later today.

--Cooter

Deaths: Charles Sanna and Swiss Miss Cocoa-- Part 3: Name From Laurel and Hardy Film

The airlines eventually cancelled their contracts as the mix was expensive, so Charles returned too the kitchen and reworked the recipe, again with the help of his children. He replaced the whole milk with powdered skim milk which was cheaper and gave the cocoa mix a longer shelf life.

The new product was named Swiss Miss, the title of a film by Laurel and Hardy.  It was marketed with mail-order Swiss Miss dolls and inspired similar mixes by Carnation, Nestle and Hershey.  It was a hit.

To say the least, it was a hit even in Antarctica

Charles Sanna retired and Sanna Dairy was sold to Beatrice Foods in 1967.  Since 1990, Swiss Miss has been a part of Conagra, which says it sells more than 50 million boxes of it each year.

--Cooter

Deaths: Charles Sanna and Swiss Miss Cocoa Mix-- Part 2

"The product had a wonderful flavor," Sanna once wrote, "I believed that it would make an excellent ingredient for a hot cup of cocoa.  To confirm my belief, I consulted the family cookbook."

He tested his recipe with the help of his five children then with the children at a parochial school in his hometown of Menominie, Wisconsin.  Thus Sanna created what became known as Swiss Miss, a powder that when poured into hot water or milk, became a favorite of Americans and even Antarctic explorers.

It launched the instant hot chocolate industry of the early 1960s.

He was trained as a mechanical engineer and began his career maintaining blast furnaces and coke ovens for U.S. Steel.  But he always had an amazing sense of taste and smell.

After figuring out how to turn surplus military milk powder into a delicious beverage, next he had to market it.  His brother Tony Sanna gave it the name Brown Swiss, after a breed of dairy cow, even though Charles used milk from Holstein cows which produce a higher volume of milk with less butterfat.

The mix had some early success after it was sold to airlines.

--Cooter

Deaths: Charles Sanna and His Swiss Miss Cocoa Mix-- Part 1: Built Submarines in WW II

CHARLES SANNA  (1917-2019)

From the April 5, 2019, Chicago Tribune  "He poured genius into Swiss Miss cocoa mix" by
Harrison Smith, Washington Post.

And, he was a builder of submarines during World War II and invented towering spray dryers.  But, he was best-known for his Swiss Miss cocoa mix.  I sure had a lot of that while growing up.

"Fiddling at his kitchen stove in the late 1950s, standing over a pot of creamer, sugar, cocoa and vanilla, Charles Sanna... was on the verge of a culinary breakthrough."

At the time, he was chief engineer at Sanna Dairies, a Wisconsin business founded by his father, an Italian immigrant who sold his own mozzarella and ricotta.  During the Korean War they had supplied the U.S. military with powdered sweetened whole milk coffee creamer.

To avoid penalties written into Army contracts for failing to make enough creamer, the company had overproduced the creamer and now had warehouses full of the stuff

Something  needed to be done with it and Charles decided to do something about it.

Death of McSorley's Matty Maher-- Part 3: About Those Chicken Wings and Women

In the last post, I mentioned that there was a collection of chicken wings in New York City's McSorley's.  It would seem that this would be something a bit out of the ordinary in a bar.  And it is.

Matty Maher would explain that they dated to World War I, when departing doughboys, after finishing their last full meal stateside, would hang the bones above the bar as a good luck wish that they would return safely.

In 1970, Mayor John V. Lindsay signed legislation barring discrimination in public places because of gender.  Altercations erupted at McSorley's between longtime customers and the female newcomers.

"I'm afraid it will be this way for a few days," Maher said.    If anything, he continued, it helped business.  But it took until 1986 before McSorley's added a female bathroom

Death of Matty Maher of McSorley's, a NYC Icon-- Part 2: A Chance Meeting, a Job, and Those Chicken Wings

In 1936, the McSorley famiky sold the bar to Daniel O'Connell, a patron and police officer, who left it to his daughter Dorothy Kirwin.  In 1964, while vacationing in Kilkenny, Ireland, Kirwin's husband, Harry, was stranded with a flat tire when who should come along but 25-year-old Matty Maher.

Harry Kirwin promised Matty a job at McSorley's if he ever moved to New York.  Matty accepted, got the job and in 1977 bought the bar and the building it occupies at 15 East Seventh St.

McSorley's is noted for a sawdust -sprinkled floor and various memorabilia, including a pair of Harry Houdini's escape-proof handcuffs, a wanted poster for "the Murderer" John Wilkes Booth and an icky accumulation of wishbones that hang from a gas lamp over the bar.

There is a story behind those chicken bones.

Next.  --Cooter

Deaths: Matty Maher of McSorley's Old Ale House in NYC-- Part 1: "Good Ale, Raw Onions, No Ladies"

From the January 16, 2020, Chicago Tribune  "Patriarch was steward to New York City institution, McSorley's" by Sam Roberts of NY Times.

MATTY MAHER  (1939-2020)

He died Jan. 11, 2020.

His family is only the third ones to own the venerable McSorley's in Manhattan's East Village since it
 opened in the mid-19th century.  He started working there as a bartender in 1964 as an immigrant from Ireland.  By the time he became bar manager its area, the Bowery, had become blighted and the bar was on the verge of bankruptcy.

Then, the bar lost a gender discrimination case in 1970 that forced them to open the place to women.  They had to delete the last two words of their slogan "Good Ale, Raw Onions, No Ladies."  Then a Health Department ordinance that banned smoking, but had the unintended consequence of encouraging customers to drink more.

--CooterBar

10 Years That Made the Modern World-- Part 2: 1990, 1789, 1905, 1945, 1979

5.  1990

Reunification of Germany,  eventual dissolution of Soviet Union, collapse of Communism across much of globe.  World Wide Web.  Gulf War  Growth of private military.

*****************

4.  1789

French Revolution, political divisions such as left and right,  George Washington wins first presidential election.

*****************

3.  1905

Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity.  It makes GPS and clocks accurate.  The first Russian Revolution took place.  Russo-Japanese War.

*****************

2.  1945

End of World War II, atom bombs,   beginning U.S.-Soviet Union Cold War.

*****************

1.  1979

Soviet Union invasion of Afghanistan.  Contributed to downfall of Soviet Union and Communism.  The Iranian Revolution.

Things to Think About.  --DaCoot

10 Years That Made the Modern World-- Part 1: 2001, 1848, 1918, 1962, 1953

From the February 3, 2020, ListVerse by Himanshu Sharma.

I am doing the very short version.  Go to site for more info and pictures.

10.  2001

Understanding the human genome, 9/11 terrorist attacks on U.S.

*****************

9.  1848 

Wave of revolutions that hit Europe and elsewhere.  Idea of nation-state.

*****************

8.  1918

The end of World War I, end of Ottaman, German,  Austro-Hungarian and Russian empires.  Spanish flu pandemic.

*****************

7.  1962

Cold War, Cuban Missile Crisis,   Things heating up in Vietnam.  Vatican Council

*****************

6.  1953

Coup in Iran,  Rise of Iran as a power  DNA a double helix, designer babies and clones.

--Cooter

Great Moments in Bears History-- Part 2: The "D" Shines Against Dallas 44-0 in '85

**********************************************
18.  44-0

Hey, it was just another win for those '85 Bears.  DA BEARS!!

The Bear defense put on their usual show, this time in Week 11 at Texas Stadium against the Dallas Cowboys.  It was a throttling.  The Bears improved to 11-0 and clinched the NFC Central Division.

After this game, the Bears' Gary Fencik began to truly believe that the Super Bowl was in reach.

Supposedly, Cowboys defensive back Everson Walls had questioned whether the Bears were a s good as their undefeated record because they hadn't played anybody good yet.

After the game Otis Wilson recalled that Dan Hampton said, "Yeah, we still haven't played anybody."

The game was a six sack, five takeaway, two-defensive-touchdown masterpiece.

Sports Illustrated had a story saying the game was "an assault wave that made it look as if the Bears were playing 15 men against 11" on defense.

********************************************

--Coot"D"

For Big Game Day (So the NFL Doesn't Get Me)-- Part 1: Great Moments in Bears History, MLB and the Class of '83

Since today has something to do with pro football, and trying to avoid the NFL by not using what we call this game, here are some great days in Chicago Bears history, and not the fact that either ONE of the qbs in today's game could have been BEARS!!!  Plus, we HAD a guy who could actually kick field goals and not DOUBLE DOINK.

From the November 3, 2019, Chicago Tribune  "The 100 Greatest Moments in Bears History"  Nos. 20-11.

20  THE FIRST MLB

Before there was Brian Urlacher, Mike Singletary and Dick Butkus, there was BILL GEORGE.  An 8-time Pro Bowl selection and one of the driving forces behind the 1963 NFL Championship.  Kind of invented the position.

19.  THE CLASS OF '83

General Manager Jim Finks, the man who built the '85 Bears, drafted  seven starters for that '85 team:

Richard Dent, Jimbo Covert, Dave Duerson, Mark Bortz, Tom Thayer, Willie Gault and Mike Richardson.

Now, If Da Bears Could Just Figure Out How To Draft a Quarterback.  --CootBear