A History of Halloween-- Part 3: A Depression, A War and a Baby Boom

In the United States, by the 1920s, pranks had become the Halloween activity of choice for rowdy young people.

The Great Depression seemed to make this pranking even worse.  Some people say this pranking led to  the current community-based traditions of trick-or-treating in the United States starting in the 1930s.  However, World War II  meant sugar rationing  and there were fewer treats to hand out.

At the height of the Baby Boom after the war. Halloween activities came back stronger than ever.  It quickly became standard practice of millions of children in America's cities and booming suburbs. No longer constrained by sugar rationing, candy makers capitalized  on the lucrative ritual.

Today. Americans are estimated to spend $2.5 billion on candy during Halloween.

And, the day itself has become the nation's second-largest commercial holiday.

--CootCandy

A History of Halloween-- Part 2: From 'Souling' to Jack-O-Lanterns

The All Saints' Day celebration was also called the All-hallows or All-hallowmas and, the night before it, the traditional Samhain in the Celtic religion, became All hallows  Eve, and eventually, Halloween.  Over the centuries, the three holidays --  All Saints Day, All Souls' Day and Samhain --  essentially merged into just one day, Halloween.

In England and Ireland during the Middle Ages during All Saints; Day and All Souls' Day celebrations, poor people would visit the homes of wealthier  families and receive pastries called soul cakes in exchange for  a promise to pray for the homeowners dead relatives.

This was known as "souling" and became a practice later taken up by children, who would go door-to-door asking for gifts such as food, money and ale-- an early form of trick-or-treating.

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The practice of carving  faces into vegetables became associated with Halloween in Ireland and Scotland around the 1800s.  Jack-o-lanterns originated from an Irish myth about a man named "Stingy Jack" who tricked the devil and was forced to roam the earth with only a burning coal in a turnip to light his way.

People began making their own versions by carving scary faces into vegetables and especially pumpkins and placing them near doors and windows to scare  "Stingy Jack" away.

Like, Boo!!!  --DaCootScary

A History of Halloween: Samhain to All Souls' Day

From the October 25, 2021, History.com. "Halloween Timeline:  How the holiday has changed  over the centuries" by Erik Freeland.

Halloween's origins can be traced back to antiquity.  Most point to Samhain, a Celtic celebration commemorating the end of harvest season and the blurring of the spirit and physical worlds.

Over the ages, Halloween has taking on Christian influences, European myth and American consumerism.

Today, we celebrate it with trick-or-treating, costumes, jack-o-lanterns and scary movies and, of course, that Halloween creep in the stores where the stiff starts appearing in early September.

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In the 7th century, the Catholic Church established November 1 as All Saints' Day, a day commemorating  all the saints of the church..  By the 9th century, Christianity had  come to former Celtic lands with a gradual blending and supplanting of Celtic rites

In 1000 A.D. the church made November 2 All Souls;' Day, a day to honor he dead.

--CootBoo

The GE Monitor Top Refrigerator-- Part 3: To the Basketball and R-12 Freon

In the early 1930s, GE began making an altered version version of the typical Monitor Top known as the Globe Top.  These units featured a round basketball-like  top that hosed a completely enclosed mechanical assembly. The plan was  to offer the housekeeper an easier-to-clean refrigerator.

In late 1936, the new Monitor Top  was unveiled.  Known as the "Flat Top,"  this new model featured a smaller  compressor with a condenser fan motor all mounted in the bottom of the cabinet.

After World War II, General Electric discontinued the use of sulfur dioxide and methal formate and began using R-12 freon, a refrigerant which was widely accepted and used in most every refrigerator manufactured until 1993.

--DaCootFridge

The GE Monitor Top Refrigerator-- Part 2: The First Affordable Refrigerators

With a price tag of $300, these models were considered  the first affordable refrigeration units for the average family.  Many utility companies offered  the GE Monitor Top refrigerator to their customers for as little as $10 a month, simply added to their monthly utility bills.  (But, you have to remember, $300 or $10 was a real lot of money back then.)

Although a few minor  features were added along the way, such as enclosed condenser coils and slide out shelves, the basic design  of the Monitor Top remained the same  from 1927 to 1936.  All of these models were cooled with one of two refrigerants at the time:  sulfur dioxide or methyl formate.

The most popular model of the Monitor Top was the standard  single door unit, offering the customer  5 to 7 cubic feet of food storage.  In addition, GE produced an even larger two-door unit as well as a three-door one.

--Cooter

The GE Monitor Top Refrigerator-- Part 1: It Is Not an Ironclad

Recently I posted about this refrigerator in my Running the Blockade:  Civil War Navy blog as I had come across the name "Monitor Refrigerator" in an article and, hey, the Monitor was a Civil War shop that really turned naval architecture on its ear.

It had the name because the compressor at the top of it resembled the gun turret of the USS Monitor.  When I found a picture of it, I had to agree with the name.

So, here is some more information about this particular kind of refrigerator.

From the Antique  Appliances.com site.

The GE  Monitor top refrigerator is perhaps the most recognizable of vintage refrigerators.  Built on the principal of a French industrialist concept for a hermetically sealed refrigeration system, the first models available  to the general public, for residential use, were introduced in 1927.  

General Electric committed $18 million to the manufacturing of these units and another million to advertise them to the public.

--CootFrig

A Native American Timeline-- Part 8: Indian Citizenship Act, the Code Talkers, Indian Civil Rights Act

**  JUNE 2, 1924:  U.S. Congress passes Indian Citizenship Act, granting citizenship  to all Native Americans born in the territorial limits of the country.  Previously, citizenship had been limited depending upon what percentage of Indian ancestry the person had, whether they had served in the military, or, of they were women, were married to a U.S, citizen.

**  MARCH 4, 1929:  Charles Curtis serves as the first Native American U.S. vice president under  President Herbert Hoover.

**  MAY 1942:  Members of the Navajo Nation develop a code to transmit messages and radio messages to U.S.  armed forces during World War II.  Eventually, hundreds of  Code Talkers from multiple  Indian tribes serve with the U.S. Marines during he war.

**  APRIL 11, 1968:  The Indian Civil Rights Act is signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson, granting Indians many of the benefits guaranteed under the Bill of Rights.

**  MARCH 15, 2021:  Representative  Deb Haaland of New Mexico is confirmed as the Secretary of the Interior, making her the first Native American to lead a cabinet department.

"Growing up in my mother's Pueblo household made me fierce," she tweeted on her confirmation for the post.  "I'll be fierce for all of us, our planet, and all our protected land."

--Cooter

A Native American Timeline-- Part 7: Dawes Act, Wounded Knee and the Choctow Telephone Squad in WW I

**  FEBRUARY 8, 1887:  President Grover Cleveland  signs the Dawes Act, giving the U.S. president authority  to divide up land allotted to Indians in reservations to individuals.

**  DECEMBER 15, 1890:  Sitting Bull is killed  during a confrontation with Indian police in Grand River, South Dakota.

**  DECEMBER 29, 1890:    U.S. armed forces  surround Ghost Dancers Big Foot near Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota, demanding the surrender of their weapons.  An estimated 150 Indians are killed in what became known as the Wounded Knee Massacre. along with 25 men of the cavalry.

**  JANUARY 29, 1907:  Charles  Curtis becomes the first  Indian U.S. Senator.

**  SEPTEMBER 1918:  Choctow soldiers use their native language to transmit secret messages for U.S. troops during  World War I's Meuse-Argonne Offensive on the Western Front.  The Choctow Telephone Squad provide Allied forces with a critical edge over the Germans.

I had heard of the  Navajo Code Talkers, but not these men.  Interesting.

--Cooter

A Native American Timeline-- Part 6: George Armstrong Custer and the Little Bighorn

**  NOVEMBER 27, 1868:  Lt.Col. George Armstrong Custer leads an early morning attack on Cheyenne living with Chief Black Kettle destroying the village and killing more than 100 people, including Black Kettle.

**  1873:  Crazy Horse encounters George Custer for the first time.

**  1874:  Gold is discovered in South Dakota's Black Hills.  U.S. troops ignore a treaty and invade the territory which has been set aside for the Indians.

**  JUNE 25, 1876:  In the Battle of the Little Big Horn, also known as Custer's Last Stand, troops under Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer fight Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne warriors, led by Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, along the Little Bighorn River.

Custer and his soldiers are killed, increasing tensions between the Indians and white Americans.

**  OCTOBER 6, 1879:  The first students attend Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania.   This is the country's first off-reservation school, created by Civil War veteran Richard Henry Pratt.  It is designed to assimilate Indian students into American society.

--Cooter

A Native American Timeline-- Part 5: Indian Removal Act, Cherokees, Reservations, Cochise and the Sand Creek Massacre

**  1836:  The last of the Creek Indians leave their land for Oklahoma as part of the Indian Removal process.  Of the 15,00 who leave for Oklahoma, more than 3,500 don't survive.

**  1838:  With just 2,000 Cherokees having left their land in Georgia to cross the Mississippi River, President Martin Van Buren gets General Winfield Scott and 7,000 troops to speed up the process by holding them at gunpoint and marching them  1,200 miles.

More than 5,000 Cherokees die in this and this became known as the Trail of Tears.

**  1851:  Congress passes the Indian Appropriations Act, creating the Indian Reservation System.  Indians can not leave these reservations without permission.

**  OCTOBER 1860:  A group of Apache Indians attack and kidnap a white American, resulting in the U.S. military falsely accusing the leader  of the Chiricahua Apache tribe, Cochise.  Cochise and the Apaches increase raids on white Americans for a decade afterwards.

**  NOVERMBER 29, 1864:  A 650 Colorado volunteer force attacks Cheyenne and Arapaho encampments along Sand Creek in Colorado, killing and mutilating  more than 150 Indians in what has become known as the Sand Creek Massacre.

--Cooter

A Native American Timeline-- Part 4: Sacagawea, Lewis & Clark, War of 1812 and the Indian Removal Act

**  NOVEMBER 2, 1804:  Sacagawea, six months pregnant,  meets explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark during their exploration of the territory of the Louisiana Purchase.  The explorers realize her value as a translator.

**  APRIL 7, 1805:  Sacagawea, along with her baby and husband Toussaint Charbonneau, join Lewis and Clark on their expedition.

**  NOVEMBER 1811:    U.S. forces attack War Chief Tecumseh and his younger brother Lalawwethika.  Their community at the juncture of the Tippecanoe and Wabash rivers is destroyed.

**  JUNE 18, 1812:  President James Madison signs a declaration of war against the British, beginning the War of 1812.  The war was fought between the the United States and the British, Canadians and their Indian allies.  A huge issue for the Indians is American territorial expansion.

**  MARCH 27, 184:  Andrew Jackson and his American force and Indian allies attack Creek Indians opposing American expansion into their land at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend.  The Creeks lost and ceded more than twenty million acres of land to the United States.

**  MAY 28, 1830:  President Andrew Jackson signs the Indian Removal Act which gives them land west of the Mississippi River in exchange for land that is taken from them east of the river.

--DaCoot

A Native American Timeline-- Part 3: New Mexico, Seven Years' War, Treaties and Sacagawea

**  1680:  A revolt of Pueblo Indians in New Mexico threatens Spanish rule there.

**  1754:  The French and Indian War begins, pitting these two groups against the English settlements in North America.

**  MAY 15, 1756:  The Seven Years' War between the French and British begins, with the Indians siding with the French.

**  MAY 7, 1763:  Ottawa Chief Pontiac leads Indians into battle against the British at Detroit.  The British retaliate by attacking Pontiac's warriors in Detroit on July 31, in what is called the Battle of Bloody Run.  Pontiac and his forces  successfully fend them off, but there are several casualties on both sides.

**  1785:  The Treaty of Hopewell is signed in Georgia, protecting  Cherokee Indians in the United States and sectioning off their land.

**  1788/1789:  Sacagawea is born.

**  1791:  The Treaty of Holston is signed, in which the Cherokee give up all their land outside  of the borders previously established.

**  AUGUST 20, 1794:  The Battle of Timbers, the last major battle over Northwest Territory commences and results in an American victory.

--Cooter

A Native American Timeline-- Part 2: Ponce de Leon, De Soto and Jamestown

**  FEBRUARY 1521

Ponce de Leon departs on another voyage to Florida from San Juan to start a colony.    Months after landing, he is attacked  by local Native Americans and killed.

**  MAY 1539

Spanish explorer and conquistador Hernando de Soto lands in Florida to conquer the region.  He explores the South under the guidance of Indians who had been captured along the way.

**  OCTOBER 1540

De Soto and  the Spaniards plan to rendezvous with ships in Alabama where they are attacked.  Hundreds  of Indians are killed.

**  C. 1595

Pocahontas is born, daughter of Chief Powhatan.

**  1607

Pocahontas' brother kidnaps Captain John Smith from the Jamestown colony.    Smith later writes that after being threatened by Chief Powhatan, he was saved by Pocahontas.  This is debated by historians.

**  1613

Pocahontas is captured by Captain Samuel Argall in the first Anglo-Powhatan War.  While captive, she learns to speak English, converts to Christianity and is given the name "Rebecca."

**  1622

The Powhatan Confederacy nearly wipes out the Jamestown Colony.

--Cooter

A Native American Timeline-- Part 1: Speaking of Indigenous Peoples

From the History.com site.

Long before Christopher Columbus stepped foot on what was to become known as the Americas, the expansive territory was inhabited by  Native Americans.  Throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, as more explorers sought to colonize their land,  Native Americans responded   in various ways, from cooperation to indignation to revolt.

After siding with the French in numerous battles during the French and Indian War and eventually being forcibly removed from their homes during Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal Act, Native American populations were diminished in size and territory by the end of the 19th century.

Here are some of the events that shaped  their history after the arrival of the Europeans:

**  1492: Christopher Columbus lands on a Caribbean Island after three months of traveling.  Believing at first that he has reached the East Indies, he called the natives Indians.  On his first day, he orders six natives  seized to become servants.

**  APRIL 1513:  Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon  lands on continental North America in Florida and makes contact with Native Americans.

--Cooter

Columbus Day or Indigenous Peoples Day?

Of course, today, October 12, is officially Columbus Day, so named for Christopher Columbus coming across the Atlantic Ocean and "discovering" the New World, though he didn't know it at the time.

This is a big day for Italians, since he was sailing for Spain, but born in Italy.

However, I don't think you can "discover" a place when there are already people living in it and there is evidence that Leif Erickson was here before Columbus.

But, Columbus' arrival was noteworthy because it began the long process of the Western Hemisphere becoming Europeanized and the United States being what it is today.

It was a tragedy for the people living here, however.  They ended up essentially losing everything.  To my way of thinking, what happened to the Indians was worse than what happened to the Blacks who came as an enslaved people.

Personally, I would keep Columbus Day and then commemorate Indigenous Peoples Day on another day.

Both Are Very Worthy Observances.

Ten World Engineering Marvels-- Part 4: Netherlands and Da Subways

9.  NETHERLANDS NORTH SEA PROTECTION WORKS

With parts of their country below sea level, a system of floodgates, storm surge barriers and dams to prevent flooding and claim land from the sea, Netherlands constructed this.

The project began in 1927 with the construction of a 19-mile long dike, decades of land reclamation followed.

10.  NEW YORK AND BOSTON SUBWAYS

Horse-drawn carriages clogged the streets (and left behind certain droppings) and then there were the elevated trains with their soot, so leaders in Boston and New York took another way to solve the problem.  And that was to go underground.

Boston opened its subway in 1897 and New York City  seven years later.

--CootSubs

Ten World Engineering Marvels-- Part 3: The Chunnel, Railroad and Liberty

6.  CHANNEL TUNNEL

Opened in 1994 after six years of construction connecting Great Britain with the rest of Europe.  Known as the "Chunnel"  Thirty-one miles long.  Since they built it from both ends don't you know they were kind of hoping they'd come together at the same spot.

7.  TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD

Work on it began even as the Civil War was being fought.  Went eastward from Sacramento, California and west from Omaha, Nebraska.  Completed with the Golden Spike in 1869.

Cross-country travel in the United States  was cut from months to under a week.

8.  STATUE OF LIBERTY

A symbol of friendship between France and the United States.  It was dedicated in New York Harbor in 1886.

--CootTun

Ten World Engineering Feats-- Part 2: Interstates, Cable and a Dam

3.  THE INTERSTATE HIGHWAY SYSTEM

President Eisenhower  spearheaded the  passage of the Federal-Aid Highway  Act of 1956 which authorized the largest public works project in history.  The construction of 41,000 miles of expressways with controlled ramp access and no at grade intersections, just overpasses.

4.  TRANSATLANTIC CABLE

In 1854, American Cyrus West Field secured a charter to lay a telegraph cable across the Atlantic Ocean floor.  After four failed attempts, British and American ships succeeded in laying the nearly 2,000 mile cable linking Ireland and Newfoundland in 1858.

5.  HOOVER DAM

Built by over 21,000 workers, the 60 story dam is the world's largest concrete structure at the time it was dedicated in 1935.  It caused the great growth of cities like Las Vegas and Phoenix.

--CootDam

Ten World Engineering Marvels-- Part 1: Panama Canal and Golden Gate Bridge

From the History.com site by Christopher Klein.

These remarkable feats of design and construction transformed the ways that people travel, communicate and live.

For thousands of years, mankind has engineered some remarkable structures such as the pyramids of Egypt and the Great Wall of China.  More recently, engineers have undertaken massive  transportation and communications projects  that have pushed the boundaries of human ingenuity.

I am just listing them and giving one or two facts about each.  The site has pictures and a lot more.

Here is a list of ten of them:

1.  PANAMA CANAL

52 miles long and opened in 1914

2.  GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE

1,7 miles long (was the longest suspension bridge for  27 years)  Opened in 1937.  It's been wiped out in more than a few disaster movies so don't drive on it when they are shooting a movie about San Francisco.

--Cooter

USS Gridley (DDG-101)-- Part 3

NATO allied forces transit the Gulf of Cadiz during a photo-exercise as part of Dynamic Mariner 2019 as seen from the U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Gridley (DDG-101).

The NATO Maritime Command-led Dynamic Mariner/Flotex 19 (DYMR/FL 19) is an exercise that tests NATO's Response Force Maritime Component and enhances the flexibility and interoperability amongst allied nations.

DYMR/FL 19 involves ships, submarines, aircraft and personnel from fifteen allied nations converging off the coast of Spain.

There were 18 countries involved, 32 surface ships, 2  submarines and  18 aircraft and took place off the coast of Spain  October 8-18, 2019.

Countries participating were Albania, Bulgaria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania,  Spain, Turkey,  United Kingdom and the United States.

--Cooter

USS Gridley (DDG-101)-- Part 2: 'Fire When Ready' (Who Said That?)

 GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS

Well, anybody who has been reading my Running the Blockade: Civil War Navy blog and this blog can probably guess the motto of this ship.

MOTTO:  Go ahead and guess.   Answer below.

COMMISSIONED:  10 February 2007

SPEED:  30+ knots

CREW:  320 to 380

ARMAMENT:

One 5-inch

Two 25mm autocannons

Four .50 caliber  machine guns

One 20 mm Phalanx CIWS

Two Mk 32 triple torpedo tubes for Mk 46 torpedoes

96 cell Mk 41 VLS for:

RIM-66 Standard Missile 2

BGM-109 Tomahawk

RUM-139 VL-ASROC missiles

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AIRCRAFT:   Two SH-60  Seahawk helicopters

Don't Think I'd Mess With This Ship.  --Cooter

In case you're wondering about the ship's motto, it is "Fire When Ready."  Who'd have figured that?

USS Gridley (DDG-101)-- Part 1

From the Paralyzed veterans of America 2021 October Calendar.  Each month, the calendar features a ship in the U.S. Navy that is currently serving.

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GENERAL CHACTERISTICS

BUILDER:  Bath Iron Works, Bath Maine

LAUNCHED:  December 28, 2005

HOMEPORT:  Everett, Washington

DISPLACEMENT:   Approximately 9,200 tons full load

LENGTH:   508.5 feet

BEAM:  67 feet

DRAFT:  30.5 feet

This ship is of particular interest to me because it was named after a naval officer, Charles V. Gridley,  I've written a lot about in this blog and in my Running the Blockade: Civil War Navy blog.

--Cooter

Major Paul A. Avolese-- Part 1

From Find A  Grave.

PAUL ANDREW AVOLESE

BIRTH:  12 June 1932 in Jamaica, New York

DEATH:  7 July 1967 (aged 35) Vietnam War

BURIAL: Springfield Memorial Gardens  Springfield, Oregon

A Vietnam veteran, finally laid to rest after being MIA for over fifty years.

U.S. Air Force Major Paul A. Avolese was killed during the Vietnam War during a maneuver over the South China Sea on July 7, 1967.

The B-52 bomber that he crewed  collided with another B-52 causing both aircraft to fall into the sea.  Four of the crew members from his aircraft were rescued, but Avolese was never recovered.  He was declared dead  on July 24, 1967.