13 Facts About the 13 Colonies-- Part 1

From the September 27, 2021 History.com.

I'm just listing them.  Go to the site to find out the background.

1.  Connecticut enacted the first constitution in America.  Late 1630s.

2.  Maryland was founded as a haven for Catholics.

3.  Massachusetts  was the birthplace of American iron industry.

4.  Pennsylvania was created to pay a debt.

5.  New Jersey had the alternate name of New Caesarea.  (The Roman name for the island of Jersey in England.)

6.  Virginia's most lucrative crop was tobacco, even though it was opposed by  the king  and the Virginia Company.

--CootCol

Some More on That First Ford Mustang-- Part 2

But, there had to be a first.

Whether you subscribe to the "the early cars are distinct enough to be called "1964 1/2!" idea or stick to "All the cars before the '66 model year have 1965 VINs!", the first pony car to enter the buyer's hands sold on April 15, 1964.

Call it a "1964 1/2" if it pleases you.

What's really astounding is that the first Ford Mustang buyer in the U.S. still calls it, "mine."

BUT...  

The first Mustang sold in the world was to Eastern Provincial Airways pilot Captain Stanley Tucker, according to CBC, mere hours before Gail Wise bought her blue Mustang convertible.

But Ford managed to convince Tucker to give up his car.

  Today, it's on display at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.

But, Tucker was given a fully loaded 1966 Mustang in compensation.

But, Gail Wise (nee Brown) bought that first one with financial aid from her father.  It cost $3,447.50 then ($34,846.75 now).

--RoadTang

Some More on That First Ford Mustang-- Part 1

From April Hot Cars "The first Ford Mustang sold in the U.S. still belongs to the original owner" by Paul Stadden.

**  The first Ford Mustang sold in the United States went to owner Gail Wise on April 15, 1964, two days before its official release.

**  Despite being based on the Falcon, the 1964.5 Mustang was designed to be sporty and option-heavy, making it a hit on the market.

**  After a 27-year hibernation in the late 1970s, Gail's beloved Mustang was restored to its former glory in 2008, solidifying its historical significance.

The 1964 Ford Mustang launch was a major event in the car world, and Ford sold 121,538 Mustangs that year.  

--MusDog

Who Bought the First Ford Mustang?-- Part 8: About That Horse Under the Hood

In pop culture, the fastback became Steve McQueen's pursuing car in the great car chase sequence in the 1968 movie 'Bullitt."  Wise says that Mustang still exists and was recently sold, but that he had no idea the new owner's identity.

The Wises thought of selling their classic car not long ago.  "But it fell through due to capital gains taxes," according to Tom.  The present plan is to allow the car to eventually go to the family estate with their four children not liable for capital gains, he said.

As summer approaches with its convertible weather, neighbors who wave at the Wises as they motor past will likely get their version of horsing around.

During the long stretch when Tom Wise worked to restore the car. he had it outfitted with an auxiliary horn.  Now, when the Wises press a button, a horse-like "whinnying" sound comes forth from the car's innards, reminding people the so-called "pony car" despite is age is still ready to ride.

--RoadDog

Who Bought the First Ford Mustang?-- Part 7

When she and her husband, Tom Wise, who served in submarines in the Navy, were living in Charleston, South Carolina, in the late 1960s, the car stayed garaged with her parents in Chicago, rather than piling up miles on the road.  

And when Tom Wise decided he could no longer drive the aging car to work in Bellwood in 1979, he simply stashed it away in his garage in Park Ridge until he was ready to restore it 27 years later.

The Mustang has just 68,000 miles on the odometer.

Tom Wise said the fastback Mustang was introduced in the fall of 1964 along with a souped-up engine with a more robust than his 168-horsepower model.

--Cooter

Who Bought the First Ford Mustang?-- Part 6: Old License Plate and the Blizzard of '67

Affixed to Gail Wise's Mustang is a 1964 Illinois license plate and a 1965 Chicago city sticker.  The Mustang has also benefited from a relatively good fortune to celebrate sixty years in the family's possession.

In the early days, she managed to make it home without abandoning the rear-wheel drive car in snowdrifts-- the fate of tens of thousands of vehicles-- as Chicago's Great Blizzard of 1967 dumped 23 inches of snow on the city.

As it was, Wise was blocked  by the blizzard from sheltering the Mustang in the garage so it had to stay out on the street as the snow covered it.

--DaMustang

Who Bought the First Ford Mustang?-- Part 5: Driving a Classic

In contrast to today's cars, the Mustang had simple features.  The dashboard had only a few instruments in addition to the AM radio.  The right passenger seat does not adjust backwards, and only the front seats have lap belts, shoulder harnesses arrived later.

The historic car has called Park Ridge home since 1977.

First of a series of distinctive models brought on by automotive impresario Lee Iacocca, the Wise's "pony car" has already gone through a complete body and mechanical restoration after rust and aging engine woes threatened its existence.

Saving wear and tear on its piston strokes and tire treads, the Wises put it on a flatbed to travel to the Mustang's 50th anniversary at Ford's headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan, to its designer's Gale Halderman's personal museum and to Midwest car shows.

Gail got to rub shoulders with Ford family scion Edsel Ford on stage.

--DaCOOT

Who Bought the First Ford Mustang?-- Part 4: What Was It Like in the Spring 1964?

The world was far different, and seemingly more quaint, in the spring of 1964.

As Gail Brown drove away from Johnson Ford, she could press the button on the car's AM-only radio to WLS 890 to hear the Beatles snare the top two songs with "Can't Buy Me Love" and "Twist and Shout.  The Fab Four also had "Do You Want to Know a Secret" at No. 5  and "She Loves You" at No. 8. 

Remember, we were in the depths of Beatlemania at the time.

If she switched to 720 she could hear WGN-Radio's Cubs broadcast with Jack Quinlan and Lou Boudreau.  She could hear the play-by-play of right fielder Lou Brock who was starting his third season for the Cubs (and before that disastrous trade to the Cardinals).

Tooling around Chicago she would pass many corner newstands selling  four daily newspapers (for ten cents each).  

Do you remember the four newspapers?

Morning:  Tribune and Sun-Times.  Evening: American and Daily News.

--Cooter

Who Bought the First Ford Mustang?-- Part 3: 'Felt Like a Movie Star'

Said Gail Wise when she drove her new Mustang: "I felt like a movie star.  I didn't go looking for attention.  Everybody was happy to see this car.  Everybody was waving, asking me to slow down."

One time she was following a Chicago police car, "He waved me to drive up next to him so he could see the car up close."

She arranged for her $5,000 rookie teacher's salary to be spread out over 12 months so she could enjoy a leisurely summer.  That enabled her to take trips to the beach where the car attracted even more attention.

--DaCoot

Who Bought the First Ford Mustang Sold in the US? --Part 2: It Cost $3,447

No convertible was available on the floor, but the salesman did have something of interest in back.  There was a Ford Mustang covered with a tarp and not supposed to be for sale until two more days until Henry Ford II unveiled the car at the New York World's Fair.

But, Cleadis Brown had $3,447 sale price cash (as a loan to his daughter) plus a 1958 Chevy Impala worth $400 in a trade-in as incentives, so the salesman opted to jump the gun with Gail so long as she did not take the car for a test drive.  He could have cost the Johnson Ford dealership dearly.

"If Ford had found out he had sold the car early, they might have taken the dealership away," said Tom Wise.

No American could have missed the publicity over the Mustang in the spring of 1964. The car was fodder for news magazine cover stories.  As the then Gail Brown drove the car from her teaching job in west-suburban Berkeley to her Northwest Side home, bystanders gawked at her and the car.

--DaCoot

Who Bought the First Ford Mustang Sold in the U.S.?

From the April 22, 2024, Chicago Tribune 'I felt like a movie star' by George Castle.

Tom Wise drove a vintage convertible through suburban Park Ridge last week along with his wife.  It has been almost six decades since she bought this particular iconic vehicle.

That vehicle is iconic because it is an early Ford Mustang.  But, what really makes it iconic is that it is the very first Mustang sold in the United States.  And, it was his wife, Gail Wise, who bought it.

Gail Wise was then a 22-year-old rookie 3rd grade when she bought it on April 15, 1964.teacher.  And, she never intended to be a pace setter when she bought the sporty car which caused such a stir with young people because it was so different from their parents' huge sedans.

She simply wanted a convertible.

On April 15, 1964, she and her father, Cleadis Brown stopped at Johnson Ford at Cicero and Diversey in Chicago near their home.

And, then.....

--CootStang

A History of Poinsettia Plants-- Part 4: What's in a Name? Flor de Nochebuena

The cultivation of poinsettias dates back to the Aztec Empire in Mexico 500 years ago.

Among Nahuatl-speaking communities of Mexico, this plant is known as cuetlaxochitl, meaning "flower that withers."  It is an apt description of the thin red leaves on wild varieties of the plant that can grow to heights above 10 feet.

Year-end holiday markets in Latin America brim with the potted plant known in Spanish as the "flor de Nochebuena", or "flower of Christmas Eve," which is entwined with celebrations of the night before Christmas.

The "Nochebueno" name is traced to early Franciscan friars who arrived from Spain in the 16h century.  Spaniards once called it scarlet cloth.

Additional nicknames abound:  "Santa Catarina" in Mexico; "estrella federal," or "federal star," in Argentina; ""penacho de Incan," or "headdress," in Peru.

Reckon I'll stick with poinsettia.

--Cootettia

A Little More About Joel Poinsett-- Part 3

In a new biography on Joel Poinsett, "Flowers, Guns and Money," author Lindsay Schakenbach describes him as a cosmopolitan, political and economic pragmatist who conspired with a Chilean independence leader and colluded with British bankers in Mexico.

Though he was a slaveowner, he opposed secession and he didn't live to see the Civil War.

As far as the removal of Indigenous people is concerned,"...because Poinsett belonged to learned societies, contributed to botanists collections and purchased art from Europe, he could more readily justify the expulsion of native from their homes," she writes.

--Cooter

About Those Poinsettia Plants-- Part 2

A life-size bronze statue of Poinsett still stands in his honor in downtown Greenville, South Carolina.

However, he was cast out of Mexico within a year of his discovery, having earned a local reputation for intrusive political maneuvering that extended to a network of secretive Masonic lodges and schemes to contain British influence.

But as more people learn of its namesake's complicated history, the name "poinsettia" has become less Attractive in the United States.

Unvarnished published accounts reveal Poinsett as a disruptive advocate for business interests abroad, a slaveholder on a rice plantation in the U.S., and a secretary of war who helped oversee the forced removal of Native Americans, including the westward relocation of Cherokee populations to Oklahoma known as the "Trail of Tears."

--DaCoot