The 'Iron Curtain' Descends in 1946-- Winston Churchill

I will be finishing my list of Chicago Bears head coaches, but yesterday marked an important date in an era I lived through and never thought would end (or has it?).  The Cold War.

MARCH 5, 1946

Winston Churchill delivered his famous "Iron Curtain" Speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri.

Liz and I accidentally found Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, back on one of our trips.  I came across a very informative article on this speech and a historic London church that has been rebuilt in Fulton and will write about it after Da Bears coaches.

--Cold War Coot

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

See If You Can Guess the Date of These Headlines from the Seattle Daily Times

Help Bar Deadly Influenza from Seattle

CHURCHES, SCHOOLS CLOSED

Epidemic Puts Ban on All Public Assemblies

Seattle to Make Fight on the Disease

Police Ordered to Close Public Places

Guess the Date of These Headlines.

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Here's some more front page headlines to give you a clue:


Only One-Half of City's Quota for Loan Subscribed

Blast Shatters Dozens of Towns in New Jersey

New Wage Scale in Shipyards to Run from August 1

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These might help even some more:

Americans and French Smash Foe

U.S. Troops Smash Huns in Argonne

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The date of the newspaper is October 5, 1918.  The so-called Spanish Flu Pandemic was going on as well as World War I.  Today we have the COVID-19 Pandemic and Black Lives Matter.

--Cooter

1918 Influenza Butler Co., Pa., --Part 7: Remembering the Victims

In 2002, the Saxonburg chapter of the General Federation of Women's Clubs (GFWC) spearheaded a campaign, led by Doris Herceg and Drenda Gostcowski, to designate the mass grave of the influenza victims in Winfield Township as a historic site.

They succeeded and in a ceremony at the site, Father Velerian M. Muchlik and Janet Pazzynski of St. George's Ukranian Catholic Church in Pittsburgh performed  a Greek Catholic service, respective of the victims' Eastern European heritage.

A granite cross was erected at the site to replace the original wooden cross, and a historic roadside marker was placed adjacent to the site.

--Cooter

The Spanish Flu Hits Illinois in 1918-- Part 2: Horror Stories from Great Lakes Naval Hospital

Chicago ran out of hearses.  Signs were posted banning public funerals, and limiting funerals to no more than ten attendees, in addition to the pastor, undertaker and necessary drivers.  No bodies were allowed in churches.

A U.S. Public Health Service Officer named Jo Cobb working at the city's Marine Hospital wrote a friend,  "Our beds were filled as fast as emptied."

Navy nurse Josie Brown, who served at the Naval Hospital at Great Lakes (in nearby North Chicago) wrote:  "The morgues were packed almost to the ceiling with bodies stacked one on top of another.  The morticians worked day and night.  You could never turn around  without seeing a big red truck loaded with caskets for the train station so bodies could be sent home.

"We didn't have the time to treat them.  We didn't take temperatures;  we didn't even have time to take blood pressure.  We would give them a little hot whisky toddy; that's all we had time to do.  They would have terrific nose bleeds with it.  Sometimes the blood would just shoot across the room.  You had to get out of the way or someone's nose would bleed all over you."

When it comes to pandemics, there is no rational basis to believe that the early years of the 21st century will be different from the past.    If a pandemic strikes, it will come to Illinois.

As of April 13, 2020, the cases and deaths in Illinois due to the coronavirus are 22,025 cases and 794 deaths.

--Cooter

Death of Olivia Hooker-- Part 3: What Happened to Her Doll

One of her most searing memories was what the mob did to her doll.  "My grandmother had made some beautiful clothes for my doll.  It was the first ethnic doll we had ever seen.  ...she washed them and put them on the line.  When the marauders came, the first thing they did was set fire to my doll's clothes.  I thought that was dreadful."

Her family survived the massacre.  Her father temporarily located the family, including her mother and five children, to Topeka, Kansas, while her father remained in Oklahoma attempting to rebuild his business.

He later went on a speaking tour to black Methodist churches to bear witness to the murder and incineration in Tulsa.

When the family returned to Tulsa, she attended Booker T. Washington High School.  "The teachers were scholars, and they were determined every child would do his best,  every child would be taught the King's English."

Chicago Race Riot of 1919-- Part 6: James Crawford Shoots at Police and Is Killed

BIKE TOUR

The first stop after the beach is at the city's oldest black Baptist church, the 145-year-old Oliver Baptist at 3101 S. King Drive.  During the 1920s it had  some 10,000 members and was the largest black church in the United States and the largest Protestant church in the world.

It was an active station on the Underground Railroad during slavery and in effect was the community center in Chicago's segregated "Black Belt" at the time, home of 40 different social, economic and cultural organizations and, during the riots it was headquarters for those trying to stop the violence.

D. Bradford Hunt of Chicago's Newberry Library who helped lead the bike tour said:  "Eugene Williams drowns.  Police refuse to arrest the white guy.  African Americans on the beach are furious.  At some point an African American man shoots a gun at police.  Someone gets injured.  Police chase him over the tracks, toward Olivet, and about two blocks northeast, they shoot and kill the guy."

The man was James Crawford, 37, a Southerner who had come up from Georgia, shot at 6 p.m. on July 27 at 29th Street and Cottage Grove Avenue.

Man on the Moon-- Part 2: 11 Things You Might Not Know

4.  The lunar spacesuits had been created by way of an underwear corporation.  Playtex, better known for its bras, had a lot to do with the design of those spacesuits.

5.  NASA was fearful that a launching pad explosion could hurt spectators.  The large Saturn V rocket used for the launch.  In 1965, two engineers figured an explosion on the pad would  create a 14,000 foot fireball with temperatures of up to 2500 degrees Fahrenheit.

Bits of shrapnel could rain down on up to a 3 mile radius.    As such, NASA seated Vice President Spiro Agnew and former President Lyndon Johnson and other VIPs three miles away.

6.  Buzz Aldrin took communion on the Moon.  After the lunar module touched down on the Sea of Tranquility Aldrin radioed back to Earth:  "I'd love to take this chance to invite each and every particular person listening in, whoever and  anyplace they is also, to pause for a second and ponder the occasions of the previous few hours and to offer thank you in his or her  personal approach."

Then, Aldrin -- an elder in the Webster Presbyterian Church in Webster, Texas,  -- switched off the radio, opened small plastic boxes of bread and wine and browsed silently from the Gospel of John.

--CootMoon

It Is OK To Drive to Church in 1918

From the October 3, 2018, MidWeek  (DeKalb County, Illinois)  "Looking Back."

1918, 100 Years Ago.

"Advices from the State Fuel Administration to the local officials received today say:  "As to church, if they just intend to go to church and have no other means of getting there, that is all right, but it is not all right to go to go riding.

"Fuel Administrator Walter Proust received  the above message this afternoon from the state fuel administrator which will probably furnish the excuse for a good many people to use their rigs in going to church."

So, they even had a sort of fuel rationing back in World War I.

--Cooter

Elva Closed Down Because of Infantile Patalysis

From the October 31, 2018, MidWeek  "Looking Back."

1918, 100 Years Ago.

Elva's little world is almost at a standstill.  A case or so of infantile paralysis responsible for the closing of schools, the church has been closed because the pastor has resigned, and the clubs have been discontinued because of sickness.

"Residents there deem the extra precaution advisable.  It is probable, however, that the schoolrooms will be opened and that matters will be going along as formerly in Elva within a few days."

--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

World War I and Ethnic Chicago-- Part 2: An Ethnic City

From that point on, the war was the talk of the town.  And this especially  applied to each of the belligerents as all had considerable groups living in Chicago.  The city was a checkerboard of ethnic neighborhoods.

The German community was especially targeted with almost a paranoid suspicion.  Chicago's clergy were  calling the war the biblical Armageddon.  One preacher said, "If Germany is victorious, then every Christian ideal will be destroyed and brute force will prevail."

Leaders of the German community tried to deflect the blow with a well-publicized war bond drive.  "We have shown our loyalty by sending our sons to war, "said Henry G. Zander.  "But we must overcome the feeling on the part of many Americans that we are not loyal."

But, the Tribune in a news story said:  "Will County, populated largely by Germans, is a dangerous place for a man wearing the uniform of Uncle Sam to go."

--Cooter

Looking Back to 1966: Zip Code and a Drive-In Church

From the June 8, 2016, MidWeek "Looking Back."

1966, 50 Years Ago.

"Zip Code use is going to be stressed by the Post Office Department in a new program that has been announced by the postmaster.  A nationwide poll revealed that 96 per cent of the American public is aware of Zip Code, and steps are now being taken to make it easier and more convenient for the public to know the codes for mailing addresses."

Remember that song "Zip Code" by the Five Americans?

**  "The Drive-In Church of Paw Paw is planning a program of services similar to those that were highly successful in the past five years."

Drive-In church?

--Cooter

Looking Back: DeKalb County, Illinois, in 1889: Dealing With Deadbeats and Whisky Peoria

From the October 15, 2014, MidWeek "Looking Back."

News from October 16, 1889,:  "A subscriber who owes us a little bit said he would call last week and pay us if he was alive.  He still appears on the street, but as he did not call, it is naturally supposed that he is dead and is walking around to save funeral expense."  (Perhaps he is an early "Walking Dead?)

**  "A disorderly crowd of young hoodlums was near the Methodist Church on Monday night, but no special or regular police could be found.

**  "Peoria is a synonym for whisky.  It smells of whisky, tastes of whisky, and is built on whisky.

**  "Twelve persons have now been shot and killed in the continuance of the Hatfield-McCoy feud in West Virginia."

How Do I Get to Peoria?  --Cooter

Fox Lake Historical Society Show and Tell-- Part 4: Big Hollow School

GRADUATION PORTRAIT, CLASS OF 1952--  Another person brought in a graduation class picture of their graduating class in 1952.  It was the largest graduating class up until that time with 14 students.  The site of Big Hollow  School, which was torn down a few years ago) was at the corner of Il-134 and US-12 south of Fox Lake.

CONFIRMATION CLASS PICTURE--  Another person brought in the Confirmation Class picture of the 1956 Ingleside Methodist Church Sunday School class (which met in a structure right next to the Fox lake/Grant Township Historical Society Hall and Museum which used to be the Grant Township Transportation Center).

Sunday School was held in the fire station across Washington Street from the church.  Bingo was played there Saturday nights and the boys had to come in early to air it out from all the cigarette smoke.  Plus, there would be a problem with spilled beer.

BEATLES-- I brought in several early albums by the Beatles as it was 50 years ago that Beatlemania was in full swing and the group was releasing albums as fast as they could.  Several people remarked of their early experiences with the group.

--DaCoot

New York's General Slocum Disaster

From Wikipedia.

Yesterday, I wrote about New York City's North Brother Island and mentioned the General Slocum disaster taking place by it.

The General Slocum was a passenger steamboat built in Brooklyn 1891 and used for excusrsions. During its career, it experienced numerous mishaps including groundings and collisions.

On June 15, 1905 it caught fire and sank in New York's East River by Norther Brother Island. At the time it was chartered by the St. Mark (or Matthew) Evangelical Lutheran Church (German-Americans). It is estimated that 1,021 of the 1,342 aboard died from the fire or drowning with all sorts of glaring problems with the ship.

It was the city's worst disaster until 9-11 and still ranks as worst maritime disaster.

An Unlucky Ship.  Kind Of Like Chicago's SS Eastland.  --Cooter