Healing Field at Tempe Town Lake

Every year at Tempe Beach Park, they set up flags in the park in memory of the people killed in the 9/11 attacks. It's touching and sad.

Some of the cards have very, very basic information. Some have more detail. If you click the images, they should enlarge so you can read them.

Daily Bathing in the 1920s

So I was thinking that daily bathing was a hot-topic or interesting issue in the 1920s, since a high school student won an essay contest writing about it.  Then I see it was a contest "instituted by M. S. Lott, Plumbing and Heating establishment for the purpose of bettering health conditions in Lehi by interesting pupils in seeking and writing on the subject."  An interesting read by Margaret F. Thurman, though I am not keen on the thought of a cold bath, even for a minute.  (Then again, in 1920s terms, I'm middle-aged.  How sad.)

--American Fork Citizen, American Fork, Utah, May 20, 1922

I always thought it was "Cleanliness is next to godliness" but either "goodliness" is a standard variant (the phrase came up nearly 10,000 times on Google) or maybe it was a Utah thing.

1920s Baking Mixes - Aunt Jemima Company Cake

A Cake Mixture With Many Possibilities--"Add Water and Bake"

---

LAYER cakes, cup cakes, drop cookies and cottage puddings come out of Aunt Jemima's latest creation. This product contains flour, sugar, shortening, powdered skim milk, baking powder and salt. all the cook needs is water to make a batter. In the Institute we used one and one-eighth cupfuls to a package, which is more than the directions call for. This made a simple, plain cake, which is best eaten as a cottage pudding or covered with a good frosting. One package (three and two-third cupfuls sifted) is sufficient for the usual cake, at about 16 cents.

Possible Improvements

One or two eggs added to the batter, decreasing the amount of water by a couple tablespoonfuls, makes a richer cake, which browns beautifully, and such ingredients as coconut, nuts, chocolate and spices give delightful variations. Any frosting improves the cake, whether baked in layers or in muffin pans as cup cakes. Do not stint the flavoring in either cake or frosting. Almond in the cake and chocolate frosting are an excellent combination. Delicious apple cake and fruit puddings are produced from this mixture when combined with the fruit and baked in a deep cake pan--easy desserts which are quick to make and good to eat.

How It Analyzed

The flour shows an analysis of 5.7 per cent protein, 11.6 fat, 26.9 sugar and 2.5 per cent total minerals. The 2.2 per cent milk sugar represents a little over a half pint of skimmed milk to the package. The baking powder content is slightly higher than in the cakes made at home, but not excessive for a packaged product, which must stand shipping and storage and cannot carry egg easily.

--New York Tribune, April 23, 1922

The product in question is "Aunt Jemima Company Cake." I couldn't find any links to the company cake online…just lots of pancake ads that are cute until you get to the creepy racist stereotypes.


--El Paso Herald, December 6, 1918

The same page also has references to "Muffin Makins" (an instant muffin mix) and "Flako" (an instant pie crust) as additional convenience flours.

The busy housewife and business woman alike (shall we include the bachelor who sometimes likes to play at cooking in his apartment) find in these flours a key to variety that requires but little skill or time in the turning." For the "unskilled laborer" gets expert assistance through these mixtures….The Institute does not for a moment advocate emergency cooking as a regular procedure, but it finds a useful and legitimate place for such well prepared products in short-cut cookery.
--New York Tribune, April 23, 1922

Anyway, this was all news to me, since Bisquick's official site certainly implies it's a revolutionary baking mix. Even more astoundingly, Aunt Jemima's official site claims its Buttermilk Pancake & Waffle Mix came out in 1957 and its "Just Add Water" version came out in 1970. Yet the "just add water" pancake mix was EVERYWHERE by 1918 and probably earlier. The fine print in the ad above even notes you can use it for waffles! The Food Company Cookbooks has a good writeup on Aunt Jemima and an even better writeup on Jenny Wren Flour, another precursor to Bisquick.

The Real Meaning of Easter 1922

Probably one of the most interesting facts in connection with Easter, which, to those of Christian belief, marks the Resurrection of the Saviour, is that its origin dates back to the old Jewish Feast of the Passover.

"The first Christians being derived from or intimately connected with the Jewish Church," says a Church historian, "naturally continued to observe the Jewish festival, though in a new spirit, as commemorative of events of which those had been shadows. The Passover, ennobled by the thought of Christ as the true Pascal Lamb, the first fruits of the dead, continued to be celebrated and became the Christian Easter."…

Increasing importance has been attached by Christian communities in later years to Long or Good or Great or God's Friday. It is probably, as the day on which Christ offered up his life for the redemption of the world, the most sacred and solemn of the Christian year. In the churches on that day the altars are stripped of all decorations; except the Cross, which is veiled in black; the hangings are all black and the day is given over to prayer and meditation. The note of sacredness and solemnity has found its way even into secular affairs, many of the states of the union having made it a legal holiday. The custom of celebrating the day is involved in obscurity; though from the earliest times, every Friday among the Christians has been observed as a Fast Day, as every Sunday has been a Feast Day, and the connection between the one as marking the day of the Crucifixion and the other as marking the day of the Resurrection easily traced.

--The Coconino Sun, Flagstaff, Arizona, April 14, 1922 (Page 3)

Have a blessed Easter, everyone! He is Risen!

Easter Bonnets

Yes, even in the 1920s, Easter wasn't a completely religious holiday.

--The Ogden Standard-Examiner, Ogden Utah, April 16, 1922 (page 3)

Don't they look like silent movie starlets? Not indecent, per se, but kind of a weird way to celebrate the resurrection if you ask me.

Interestingly, the designer, Lady Duff-Gordon, was a survivor of the Titanic.

Writing in the 1920s

Here's a little ad from the Evening Public Ledger in Philadelphia (June 15, 1921).

I find it kind of odd to imagine the problems writers used to face. If you read the ad you can tell exactly what problems many fountain pens had (they could leak, needed to be refilled often, required repairs (!)). This remarkable pen--which had no such problems and could write for two miles without a refill (per bicworld.com, about as long as a modern-day ballpoint)--sold for a mere $4.00. (Per Historical Currency Conversions, that's about $50 in modern dollars.)

Most people don't even pay that for their touchscreen phone nowadays!

Yes, people could write in pencil, granted, but now many people write directly on their laptop. It's easy to edit without having to retype pages upon pages. Publishers don't have to manually typeset each page. Computers have become our typists and our typesetters. Well, I guess more accurately, most of us have become our own typists and some of us have become our own typesetters, using computers as a tool.

I wonder if authors' thought processes were different in the 1920s, knowing that what they wrote couldn't be rearranged so easily. How much harder must it have been to write back then!

Though they didn't have the Internet to distract them back then, so maybe it is kind of a wash.

Relaxing, 1922 style

I still think old ads are one of the best ways to see what life used to be like back in the day.

--The Colville Examiner (Colville, WA) March 25, 1922

Imagine going out and buying a record for the night's entertainment. Just a few years later, people would imagine relaxing by the radio, not the Victrola. And a few decades after that, people would watch a black-and-white TV with the family. Now I relax with the TV on and hanging out online.

I also have trouble imagining a day when women had to do the backbreaking work of laundry once a week!

Happy Belated Birthday, Pirates of the Caribbean!

Pirates of the Caribbean is 45...yesterday!

It's nearly impossible to get a good photograph inside the ride without a high-end camera.

Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me.

(As long as I don't have to hurt anyone or steal anything.)

1920s Washing Machine

I've said it before and I'll say it again--my great-grandmother would be so ashamed to see me think complaints about doing laundry. This seems to be the most modern machine of 1922, which does sound pretty much like ours nowadays.

Suppose you could wish a washing machine!

"Wouldn't you wish for a machine that would never require you to put your hands in hot, sudsy water to rinse, blue, or dry ?"

--The Columbia Evening Missourian, March 11, 1922

The ad on this page explains pretty much how it works.

You'd still have to hang the laundry on the line, of course. I saw an ad for a 1920s dryer once, but out in Arizona I'm sure they did not sell well.

As a woman who hates cleaning, I've got to say I'm glad it's not 1922.

1922 Calendar and Furniture

So 1921's calendar matched up perfectly with 2011's, and 1922's matched...until February 29. LEAP DAY! ARGH!

Interesting, though--Disneyland and Walt Disney World had a promotion, "One More Disney Day" (where Disneyland and The Magic Kingdom were open from 6 AM on February 29 through 6 AM March 1).

So when I did a search of the papers from February 28-March 1, 1922, what did I find?

ONE MORE DAY!

--The Democratic banner, Mt. Vernon, Ohio, February 28, 1922

"THE BOTTOM HAS BEEN REACHED! THE PENDULUM IS SWINGING UPWARD!"

Note they appear to call daybeds (?) "bed davenports." And a $100 bed davenport costs $75.

Here's a cool picture of Hoover-Rowlands.

Tropics Made Safer; Baking Soda

I rarely think about how antibiotics have changed the world--back before World War II in particular, illnesses which are easily treated today would lay people out for weeks or even kill them.

TROPICS ARE MADE SAFER
---
American Scientists Find Remedies For Dysentery and Leprosy.

Manila, (By Mail) to United Press.--Dr. Lim Boon Keng, president of the new university at Amoy, told the American chamber of commerce here today that the work of the American scientists in Manila has opened the tropics to the white man. These men evolved treatments for amoebic and bacillary dysentery which have removed the dread of those diseases in the tropics. He said this work alone justified all the expense on account of the bureau of science, but many other notable things have been achieved by it, for example, spread of general scientific knowledge of the efficacy of Choulmoogra oil in treating leprosy, a task in which Filipinos have assisted.

--Columbia Evening Missourian, Friday, February 24, 1922

Apparently, injections of Chaulmoogra oil (spelled differently in article) were the preferred treatments for leprosy in the 1920s and 1930s. This paper outlines its use...it sounds like the clinical trials were extremely limited. Then again, there weren't so many treatment options back then.


I'm loving the "PHONE: Two Seven Oh!"

--Columbia Evening Missourian, Friday, February 24, 1922

JCPenney - Eighteen years without a "sale"

Quick entry...everyone likes old ads, right?

--The Colville Examiner, February 19, 1921, page 9

Cheap Chocolate, 1920s Henna Shampoo, Women Circus

WOMEN WILL STAGE CIRCUS
---
Business Girls Plan Novel Attraction for Two Nights in April.

A circus is a thing for their annual public performance, the Business Women's club council of the Y. W. C. A. has decided, so circus it is to be, sometime early in April. The council members, following their meeting this week, took back word to the 20 clubs of which they are members and asked that they begin preparation at once for their individual parts.

The circus will be given in the Y. W. C. A. building two nights in succession and admission charges will send a delegation of business women to the annual city conference at Estes park, Colorado. Last year the proceeds from the hippodrome performance sent to Estes park a delegation which proved to be one of the largest at the conference. Traditional circus stunts will be performed by the clubs and booths conducted. The clubs range in character from the women employes of oil companies and bankers to a department store and switchboard operators.

--Morning Tulsa Daily World, Saturday, February 4, 1922 (page 2)
And these prices are making me pretty seriously jealous.

--Morning Tulsa Daily World, Saturday, February 4, 1922 (page 2)

29 cents for a half pound of Hershey's chocolate? Fairy food sounds pretty good…midwesterners, is it?

Of course, the same page noted that union mine motormen made $8.49 per an eight-hour day, while nonunion ones made $4.80. Per DAY! So I guess it's not that cheap after all. (Though fairy food has gotten much more expensive anyway!)

Also note the henna shampoo; that surprised me, as I thought it was pretty modern.

Food in 1922

After overindulging on cheap meat from Target, I've had hamburger on the brain. (I found a great way to cook them…though it set off the smoke detector…twice…before I even finished cooking the whole pound…)

--The Morning Tulsa Daily World (Tulsa, Oklahoma), January 21, 1922, page 11

Per http://www.dollartimes.com/calculators/inflation.htm, 10 cents in 1922 was worth $1.27 today.

Now I'm sad!

For some reason I didn't know Crisco was around in the 1920s. Crisco's website says it came about in 1911. It "was the result of hydrogenation"! Mr. Proctor and Mr. Gamble, it notes, started Proctor & Gamble in 1837, after selling soap and candles. Mmmmm.

--The Morning Tulsa Daily World (Tulsa, Oklahoma), January 21, 1922, page 11

It looks like Kellogg's Corn Flakes were the Cheerios of 1922 (food for kids). Or else they were TRYING to make them the Cheerios of 1922.

The page also has cocoa recipes, including one for what sounds like instant cocoa:

Cocoa
(per cup.)
In each cup put--
1 teaspoon cocoa.
1 teaspoon sugar.
1 tablespoon marshmallow cream.

Stir them with a spoon until creamy then thin with boiling water. The same proportions could be used for larger amounts. I think, though the person who gave me this, said she never made it only in cup amount….

Do you know that a few drops of vanilla in cocoa gives it a wonderful flavor. Not more than one or two drops to the cup.

Do you know that a very slight trace of maple flavor, ever so little, is good with cocoa too.

Do you know that many (illegible) insist that cocoa to be the best, must have a few grains of salt in it--"just enough to do away with that raw taste."

--The Morning Tulsa Daily World (Tulsa, Oklahoma), January 21, 1922, page 11

Flour Sack Dress Contest, Refrigerator, Sherlock Holmes, ANTI-Pain pills

All from one page of one paper...I find sometimes the interior pages of smaller newspapers can have a lot of fascinating stuff.

The precursor to the duct-tape dress...

--The Hayti Herald (Hayti, MO), January 6, 1922 (page 3)

Actually, in the 1930s flour sack dresses and the like were common…at doll shows sometimes they sell flour sacks for making historic outfits for your dolls.

Electric Refrigeration.

A brine tank in place of ice, which by means of an electrical instrument keeps a mean temperature in the refrigerator, is growing in popularity in suburban and country places where ice is difficult to obtain. Its advantages are that it does away with the iceman, it gives a dry temperature advantageous for the preservation of food, and there is no slime, dirt or drip as with the use of ice. It is arranged to freeze a little ice for table use when that is desired. It is not an inexpensive luxury, costing about $400 to install in any refrigerator.

--The Hayti Herald (Hayti, MO), January 6, 1922 (page 3)

Historical Currency Conversions values $400 in 1922 dollars at $5,386.43 for today's dollars...and it sounds like that was for the kit to retrofit an old icebox.

Sherlock Holmes in Love.

"And when I kissed her I smelled tobacco."

"You object to a woman who smokes?"

"No, but she doesn't smoke."

--The Hayti Herald (Hayti, MO), January 6, 1922 (page 3)

Oh, and ANTI-pain pills. Much better than pain pills, don't you think?

--The Hayti Herald (Hayti, MO), January 6, 1922 (page 3)

Happy New Year 1922

I think this applies 90 years later. Do you?

Competition is going to be keen this year. The dollar is going to be hard to get. Men who have been getting twice what they were before and have had lots of money to spend are going to feel the pinch. It looks as if everybody who works for a living will have to work a little harder. It may be that life will seem hard. But what of it? Life has always been hard--perhaps it was meant to be. Anyway, it is something that has got to be lived and mastered. It's the business of men "to greet the unseen with a cheer" and "to advance on chaos and the dark."

Of course all of us cannot have a hand in the big things that must be done in meeting the challenge of 1922. But if all of us do the little things we may, 1922 will indeed be the "Happy New Year" of our greetings.

To save a little money,
  To praise a little more;
To smile when days are sunny
  And when the tempests pour;
To pay less heed to sinning
  And more to kindly thought;
To see beyond the winning
  Just how the fight was fought;
To be a little kinder,
  A little braver, too,
To be a little blinder
  To trivial things men do,
To give my hand to labor,
  Nor whimper that I must;
To be a better neighbor
  And worthier of a trust.
To play the man, whatever
  The prize at stake;
God grant that I shall never
  These New Year pledges break.

--Fair Play, St. Genevieve, MO, December 31, 1921

The First Christmas Tree

This isn't a Biblical story; sounds like it was probably a medieval legend. Touching, though.

THE FIRST CHRISTMAS TREE
---
Many years ago--very many years ago--a small party of men landed from a boat on a rocky coast. The men came from Palestine and the inhospitable coast was the shore of barbarian England.

The party was headed by one Joseph of Arimathea and he came to tell the people of England, for the first of Jesus, who died for men and women.

The natives would have nothing to do with them--would not listen, or go near them or give them food. For days they traveled, chilled and hungry, until, despairing, Joseph sank down. As he did so, he thrust his staff into the ground. To the amazement of the Pilgrims, the staff began to bund; the buds turned to leaves and the fragrant blooms unfolded before their astonished eyes.

"It is a sign from God!" said Joseph. "He bids us have courage. Let us settle here and preach about Jesus."

They built a rough house and chapel alongside the little tree and many years later that house was rebuilt with beautiful Gladstonbury abbey.

But the tree lived all through Joseph's life and long after, and it is said that it blossomed every Christmas eve.

Such, friends, is the beautiful legend of the world's first Christmas tree. And that is why our little children's Christmas tree cannot be bare of branches, but must be green--blooming.

Blooming, as blooms the eternal love of the Man of Galilee for all humanity.

--The Colville Examiner, Washington, December 24, 1921, Page 5

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Disarmament; Dr. Adolph Lorenz; 336 Hours to Christmas

DISARMAMENT AGREEMENT IS MADE
---
FOUR NATIONS FORM TEN YEAR NAVAL TREATY
---
Draft of Proposed Pact Is Formally Laid Before Arms Parley
---
WASHINGTON, D. C., Dec. 10--A draft of the proposed treaty between the United States, Great Britain, France and Japan, which is to supplant the Anglo-Japanese alliance and pave the way for an acceptance of the American proposals for a naval reduction, was formally laid before the arms conference today by Senator Lodge.

--The Evening Herald (Klamath Falls, Or), December 10, 1921

FAMOUS SURGEON AGREES TO STAY DESPITE DOCTORS
---
Clinics for Poor Cripples Will Be Continued; Receives an Offer From College
---

NEW YORK, Dec. 10--Although keenly hurt by the cold shoulder which he said the medical profession of America had turned toward him, Dr. Adolph Lorenz, famous Australian (sic), indicated tonight he would carry on his free clinics for cripples here.

"I'll stay, if they don't throw me out," he said.

Dr. Lorenz attributed the feeling against him to animosities bred by the war. The people as a whole, though, had been wonderful beyond description in their reception of his work," he added.

"Whether I go home to Vienna or stay is entirely up to the health commissioner of New York," he declared.

Health Commissioner Copeland said he would see to it that Dr. Lorenz remained….

"My great mission was to thank the American people for all they have done for the starving little children of Vienna. I did not fail in this."

Dr. Lorenz did not disappoint 75 crippled children who had gathered at Health Commissioner Copeland's office today, seeking his aid….

When Dr. Lorenz stopped to rest and sip some tea, Dr. Copeland said to him:

"We have in America a type of citizens we call 'd--- fools.' Don't be disturbed by them…I have received word that my university, the University of Michigan, is open for you. The health officer of Newark, Dr. Charles V. Craster, is here, and he wants you to go there and assist in caring for the crippled in that city."

Dr. Lorenz replied:

"I have done what I could with a clear conscience and a good heart. I will continue if God assists me."

--The Evening Herald (Klamath Falls, OR), December 10, 1921

Apparently, Dr. Lorenz nearly won the Nobel Peace Prize, though I'd never heard of him. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1200636/ has an interesting write-up of him...apparently he couldn't operate due to an allergy to carbolic acid. It looks like he performed manipulations and such without cutting into people.


And this caught my eye because frankly, about half the 1920s comic strips, I don't follow at all. I think this one works today.

--The Bemidji Daily Pioneer (Bemidji, MN), December 10, 1921

Baby with Five Hundred Mothers - 1921

Front page news.

"Baby With Five Hundred Mothers" Undergoes Successful Operation

Orville McBaine, the 10-month-old crippled baby for whom the girls of Stephens College recently subscribed more than $400, has successfully undergone the first operation necessary to straigthen his legs, and will be brought back here probably next week for treatment until it is time for another operation in St. Louis. Miss Willie T. Bryant, visiting nurse for the Charity Organization Society, who took care of the baby's mother before she died about two months ago from tuberculosis, will go to St. Louis the first of next week to get the baby.

The child is now at the St. Louis Children's Hospital under the care of a specialist, Dr. Nathaniel Allison. Three operations will be necessary to make the child's legs usable, but after that Doctor Allison promises a cure. Between the operations the baby will be brought here, where it will be given the best of care and special treatments which Dr. Allison will prescribe.

The 500 Stephens College girls, who constituted themselves the baby's mothers when they gave the money for the operation, are still thinking up things to do for their "baby." They are buying blankets, clothes of all kinds which they think he will need and toys to amuse him. Each one of them takes a personal interest in the baby, and takes it upon herself to see that the "baby with five hundred mothers" is well taken care of.

--The Columbia Evening Missourian, December 2, 1921

Good news! July 1922:

CRIPPLED BABY CAN WALK
---
Orville McBaine, Adopted by Stephens' Girls, Is Cured.

Little Orville McBaine, the crippled baby who was last winter adopted by the girls in Stephens College, who gave him the benefit of medical treatment, is again in Columbia after several weeks in a St. Louis hospital. Orville is so much improved now that physicians say he is practically cured.

He was brought back from St. Louis by his father, Richard McBaine. He was first taken to St. Louis by Miss Willie Bryant, visiting nurse of Boone County, last fall. The girls of Stephens College made it possible for the little fellow to remain in the hospital until the present time.

--The Columbia Evening Missourian, July 29, 1921

From the Social Security Death Index it looks like he lived to be 77 and died in 1998.

Black Friday - post-Thanksgiving - 1921

Yes, the after-Thanksgiving sale dates to at least 1921!

"A Purchase in This Sale Will Make an Ideal and Acceptable Christmas Gift!…Connected With No Other Establishment in the World"

That looks like a really neat store, but I think the ad copy leaves a little to be desired… Looks like Seidenbach's closed in 1963. Good story at Tulsa World.





--The Morning Tulsa Daily World, November 26, 1921 (page 7)


Toys! Note the "Miniature Theatre with Doll Actors Performing "Red Riding Hood" and "the Pie and the Tart" at Gimbels--Sixth Floor



--The New-York Tribune, November 24, 1921 (page 7)