December 2022 Deaths: Hughes, McGrath, Alley, Noss, Harris and Pele

DOROTHY PITTMAN, HUGHES, 84

**  A pioneering black feminist, child welfare advocate and lifelong community activist who toured the country speaking with Gloria Steinem in the 1970s and appears with her in one of the most iconic photos of the second-wave feminist movement.

Died December 1.

BOB McGRATH, 90

**  Actor, musician and children's author known for his portrayal of one of the first regular characters on "Sesame Street."

Died December 4.

KIRSTIE ALLEY, 71

Two-time Emmy-winner whose roles on "Cheers" and the "Look Who's Talking" films made her one of the biggest stars in comedy in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Died December 5.

STEPHEN "tWITCH" NOSS, 40

**  Beloved dancing DJ on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" and former contestant on "So You Think You Can Dance."

Died December 13.

FRANCO HARRIS. 72

**  Hall of Fame running back who caught the "Immaculate Rcception," considered the most iconic play in NFL history.

Died December 20.

PELE, 82

**  Brazilian king of soccer who won a record three World Cups and became a global sports giant.

Died December 29.

Charles Willson Peale-- Part 3: Not That Painting, That Museum

And, by the way, that painting of Washington which Dolley Madison supposedly saved from the White House was not by Charles Willson Peale.  It was by Gilbert Stuart.  Just in case you're wondering.

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Peale was quite the Renaissance Man as he knew a lot about a lot of things.  He not only had expertise in painting, but also many other fields like carpentry, dentistry,  optometry, shoemaking and taxidermy.  Around 1804, he obtained  the American patent  rights to the polygraph (creates a copy of writing) from its inventor John Isaac Hawkins.

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The Peale Museum

He also had a great interest in natural history and organized the first U.S. scientific expedition in 1801.  That led to his founding of  what became the Philadelphia Museum, later known as  Peale's American Museum.  After his death, his museum failed and was sold to showmen P.T. Barnum and Moses Kimball.

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Peale had ten children, most of them named after his favorite artists.  Three of them became noted artists:  Rembrandt Peale,  Raphaelle Peale and Titian Ramsay Peale.

--CootPeale

46 Fascinating Facts About Our 46 Presidents-- Part 2: Adams to Tyler

6.  JOHN QUINCY ADAMS  (1825-1829)

Years after leaving the White House, he argued a famous Supreme Court case that freed the captive Africans who had rebelled on the  slave ship Amistad.

7.  ANDREW JACKSON (1829-1837)

Jackson once killed a man in a duel.

8.  MARTIN VAN BUREN (1837-1841)

  Van Buren was the first president to be born an American.  All previous presidents were British subjects, having been born previous to 1776.

9.  WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON  (1841)

He lasted just 32 days in office, the shortest stint for any president.

10.  JOHN TYLER (1841-1845)

Fathered fifteen children, the most of any president.

--DaCootPres

10 Lesser-Known Facts About Revolutionary-Era America-- Part 1: We're Taller, and We Can Read Better and Make Babies Better. Then There Is That Drinking Thing

From the July 4, 2018, ListVerse by Kevin Klatman.

Go to the site for pictures and a lot more information.

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10.  AMERICANS WERE TALLER THAN THE BRITISH

On average, the British stood at 5-foot, five inches, and Americans were three inches taller.

9.  AMERICANS HAD A HIGHER LITERACY RATE THAN THE BRITISH

Much of this because the Puritans in New England valued education for religious purposes.

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8  ONE IN THREE WOMEN  WHO WALKED DOWN THE AISLE WAS PREGNANT

Perhaps because of the practice of bundling.

7.  AMERICANS DRANK ... A LOT

Alcohol safer than water.  Go figure.

6.  SOUTH CAROLINA: ONE OF THE MOST TOLERANT AND CULTURED OF THE COLONIES

New England colonies were too Puritan to go much for the arts.

--CooterGiveMeABeer

About College and Valentine's Day Back in 1878

From the  June 3, 2020, MidWeek (DeKalb County, Illinois)  "Looking Back."

1877,  Lots and Lots of Years Ago.

"Fifteen or twenty young gentlemen and ladies of Sycamore went to school or college last week, and 15 to 20 parents are receiving letters this week saying, 'Send me a little more money, father, it takes more money than I thought it would."

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"Valentine's Day sent  500 Sycamore children crazy, last Wednesday.  The amount of foolishness sent through the mail was enough to sicken the stomach of a dog.

"The glory of Valentine's Day has departed."

Bah, Humbug.  --DaCootTine

Death of a 5-Year-Old in DeKalb By Disease in DeKalb in 1920

From the May 27, 2020, MidWeek (DeKalb County, Illininois)  "Looking Back."

1920, 100 Years Ago.

"Bernard Welstead, 5-year-old son of Claude Welstead of 120 Cotton Avenue, passed away last night at 9:30.  The cause of his untimely death was the children's disease now prevailing, measles.

"It will be remembered that his mother, Mrs. Hazel Hetchler Welstead passed away from pneumonia about a year and a half ago."

And, the Spanish flu was still around as well.

Diseases Killing People Is Not a New Thing.  --Cooter

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

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

Eight-Year-Old Criminals in 1944?

From the February 20, 2019, MidWeek  "Looking Back."

1944, 75 Years Ago.

"Two eight-year-old youngsters and their parents were at the city hall yesterday afternoon where a hearing was held to see what should be done with the two boys who had admitted  they broke into two places in this city, a barber shop and a bakery.

"Attending the hearing besides the boys and their parents were George Spitz, assistant state's attorney, Chief of Police Ben Peck and Frank Phillips, superintendent of schools.  It was decided that one of the youngsters would make his home in the future  with a relative on a farm and the other youngster  will report each day to Mr. Phillips."

I Wonder What Happened To Theses Lads.  Eight Is Kinda Young For This.  --Cooter

How the Jungle Gym Was Born-- Part 1: OUCH!! Stay Off Those Monkey Bars

From the November 29, 2018, Chicago Tribune by Christopher Borrelli.

You can see what is regarded as the first jungle gym in the U.S. in the backyard of the Winnetka Historical Society in Illinois, (north of Chicago).   "A monolithic, caramel-color 7-foot-tall cube of deliberately spaced sharp angles...  It looks as punishing as contemporary playground equipment is welcoming...  It's only concession to safety is the sandbox of wood chips beneath it."

Children, however, are not allowed to play on it.  But they do.

Boy, I sure remember jungle gyms, especially the one in Herman Park in Goldsboro, N.C., across from my grandparents' house.  And, yes, there were the occasional painful fall.  And, hitting the ground, as bad as that was, was further worsened by hitting bars on the way down.  A double, triple battering if you will.

Only, we called 'em monkey bars.

And, it IS the First, the VERY FIRST jungle gym.

What was that Bill Cosby used to say about playground items that he never saw adults on?

But Fun, Real Big Fun.  --Cooter

The American Legion in the 1940s and 1950s: The G.I. Bill and Human Causes

Stepping Back Through Legion History.

1940s

SEPTEMBER 19-22, 1942:  The Preamble of the Constitution of the American Legion is changed for the first and only time since it was written in 1919.  The word "War" was changed to "Wars."

DECEMBER 15, 1943:  Past National Commander  Harry W. Colmery starts to write in longhand the first draft of what will later become the G.I. Bill of Rights, considered to be the Legion's greatest legislative accomplishment.

JUNE 22, 1943:  President Franklin D, Roosevelt signs into law the original G.I. Bill, or Servicemen's Readjustment Act, helping former military to college education, better jobs in civilian life and ability to buy houses.

JULY 9, 1946:  The Legion and Auxiliary present a $50,000 grant to the struggling American Heart Association.

1950s

MAY 4, 1950:  The Legion contributes funds and plays a key role in the establishment of The National Association for Mental Health.

JULY 9, 1954:  The American Child Welfare  Foundation is formed.    So far more than $11 million has been given to it.  The piggy banks you see around the bar are for this cause.  Pop some change in them the next time you're at the Post.

The American Legion, A Power for the Good.

Infantile Paralysis Hitting DeKalb in 1918

From the October 17, 2018, MidWeek  "Looking Back."

1918, 100 Years Ago.

"One of DeKalb's little lads, who had been told  by his parents that he must remain indoors on account of the infantile paralysis, called the health commissioner, asking permission to go out in the yard and play.

"The commissioner inquired as to who the speaker was and he said, 'This is a DeKalb boy, and I ain't been out of the house for two weeks and I ain't sick a bit.'  Needless to say , that little fellow brought a smile from the health  official and also the necessary permission to go out and play."

Go Forth and Play, My Lad.  --Cooter

Sunday Schools Called Off Because of Scarlet Fever and Infantile Paralysis Epidemic

From the October 3, 2018, MidWeek  "Looking Back."

1918, 100 Years Ago.

"The epidemic of scarlet fever and infantile paralysis and the order that children under 16 be kept from coming into contact with one another or meeting on gathering places, is responsible for the calling off of Sunday schools of the Methodist Congregational and Baptist churches."

--Cooter

"Oh, Skinny, Run Like Ev'rything! Car of Watermelons!"

From the July 25, 2018, MidWeek  "Looking Back."

1918, 100 Years Ago.

"Oh, Skinny, run like ev'rything!  Car of watermelons!    Such was the cry in the neighborhood of the North Western (railroad), while Corey & Evans men were unloading a big car of the kids' delight.

:"This is among  the first cars of such to be received here, and there was the usual aggregation of little folks hanging around the car, just hoping that one would slop from the hands of the men as they were loading the big truck.

Wonder If Any Watermelons Were Dropped?  --Cooter

Marble Wars in DeKalb in 1917

From the February 15, 2017, MidWeek  "Looking Back."

1917, 100 Years Ago.

"The kids have made raids on various stores of the city of DeKalb the past few days, and the marble stock has taken a jump.

"Nearly every kid seen on the street has a pocket full of nibs, and after school hours can be seen several aggregations of youngsters on bended knee endeavoring to get the connies of the other fellows."

--Cooter

Young Hoodlums in DeKalb Back in 1917

From the August 30, 2017, MidWeek  "Looking Back."

1917, 100 Years Ago.

"Gangs of small hoodlums raising noise and mischief in two neighborhoods were brought to the attention of the police.  One complaint came from Fourth and Oak streets, the other from another section of town.

"The offending youngsters will do well to mend their ways as these locations will be watched closely by the night patrolmen and disturbers will be dealt with."

--Cooter

Bad Boys Back in 1917: Gettin' In a "Peck of Trouble"

From the May 10, 2017, MidWeek (DeKalb County, Illinois) "Looking Back."

1917, 100 Years Ago.

"Unless some of the kids of DeKalb cease the practice of breaking the insulators on the Western Union telegraph company's property along the railroad, they are going to get into a peck of trouble.

"Of late several complaints have been made by linemen on the practice and unless it is stopped, some sleuth work will be done and the parents of the boys will be called in to donate a fine."

You know, though, it could have been girls who did it.  Why do boys always get the blame for such shenanigans?

I can almost hear the "Bad Boys" song from that TV show.

Juvenile Delinquents Even Back Then.  --Cooter

Looking Back to 1966: "Stranger Danger"

From the December 7, 2016, MidWeek "Looking Back."

1966, 50 Years Ago.

"The police department, the DeKalb Jaycees and the elementary school PTAs have done what they can to alert your children of the dangers which could happen to them, by showing the film "Stranger Danger" and by setting up "Helping Hands" at strategic locations."

Even back Then.  --Cooter

Looking Back to 1916: "Dekalb's Youthful Banditry" Borrow Stuff

From the February 24, 2016, MidWeek (DeKalb County, Illinois) "Looking Back."

"DeKalb's youthful banditry pulled another one today.  The case today is not as serious as some of the others and has a funny side as well as a serious one.  Mr. Ulrich today reported to the police that a hand cart belonging to him was missing and asked the help of officers to find it.

"Inside half an hour an officer found it propelled by a couple of youngsters and filled with copper wire belonging to the telephone company.  The lads were apparently innocent of wrongdoing and said that they had just 'borrowed' the cart.  When asked by police they also said that they had 'borrowed' the wire as well."

Sure Kids. Can You Spell Juvenile Delinquent?  --Cooter