4th of July Trivia Test

 

Were you awake in your high school history class? How much do you know about the celebratory founding day of our country?? Test your memory:

1. Where was the first celebration of Independence Day held?

2. Every Independence Day, how many times does the Liberty Bell ring?

3. What was the U.S. population on July 4th, 1776?

4. The 4th of July commemorates which document?

5. What is the proper way to fold the American flag?

6. Which American president was born on July 4th?

7. Which U.S. president was the first to host a 4th of July celebration at the White House?

8. How many stars and stripes does the U.S. flag have?

9. How many men signed the Declaration of Independence?

10. What food is most commonly consumed on the 4th of July?

11. What is the name of our national anthem?

12. Who gave the Statue of Liberty to the U.S.?

1. Philadephia, 1777

2. 13 times

3. 2.5 million people

4. The Declaration of Independence

5. In a triangular shape with specific ritual and etiquette.

6. Calvin Coolidge, born on July 4, 1872

7. Thomas Jefferson in 1801.

8. 50 stars and 13 stripes (and what do they represent??) 

9. 56

10. Hot dogs!

11. The Star-Spangled Banner

12. The people of France. 

Ice Cream Is America!

 

What's more American than ice cream?? "I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!" right?

According to an article in The Saturday Evening Post, July-August 2024, "... at any given moment, 87% of Americans have a tub of ice cream in the freezers, pushing the value of the U.S. ice cream market alone to more than $19 billion in 2024. 

Ice cream was what most people ate on Independence Day almost since the very first one; it forms the sweet, sticky bedrock of our childhood nostalgia. (What is YOUR favorite flavor???) 

According to Google ice cream ingredients typical include mild, cream, sugar and flavorings. Some recipes include eggs. Thomas Jefferson was the first U.S. president to serve ice cream to his guests. Here is his original, handwritten, recipe and transcription:

Will you be making homemade ice cream for 4th of July? What recipe do you use?????

Military Facts That May Surprise You

(SSBN-617 Alexander Hamilton; on which my husband served during Cold War)

Surely somebody in your family, or yourself, served America in a branch of the U.S. Armed Forces. The scope and power of this group is truly fascinating. Consider:

1. The scope of our military is spread between six branches (Navy, Army, Air Force, Marine Corps, Space Force, Coast Guard) and employs nearly 3,000,000 people with an annual budget of $700 billion. (All of this to keep you and me safe in our beds; do not forget.)

2. The Army is older than the country itself. George Washington led the first Continental Army in June of 1775.

3. The Department of Defense is the world's biggest employer with about 2.91 million employees; the Army with its branches is the biggest employer.

4. The Department of Defense owns over 30,000,000 acres of land (bases, testing, training).

5. The Army is responsible for mapping the entire United States. The Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery were an army unit and traveled 4900 miles over two years, mapping the way.

6. There have been only five 5-Star generals; the rank didn't exist until 1944. It was retired in 1981 when Omar Bradley, the final recipient, died.

7. The Air Force used to be part of the Army. The U.S. Army Air Corps, formed in 1907, remained such for forty years until WWII and the need for an independent force was needed.

8. The Army is responsible for creating Ray-Ban sunglasses. In order to help Air Force pilots block the sun's rays to reduce nausea and headaches while flying, Lt. General John MacCready asked Bausch & Lomb to create special glasses for them to wear.

9. The military used submarines as early as the Revolutionary War. Most people think of submarines as fairly modern inventions; however, the world's first use of a submarine in warfare took place in 1776 when the American vessel The Turtle attempted to attach a time bomb to the bottom of the British ship Eagle in New York harbor. It was hand powered with only one person aboard; unfortunately the mission failed and the bomb blew up far away from its intended target. 

Cigar Store Indians

 

(Skaneateles, New York)

Have you ever seen a "real" cigar store Indian? Weren't they often seen in days of yore? 

The cigar store Indian was an advertisement figure, in the likeness of a Native American, used to represent tobacconists. The figures were often three-dimensional wooden sculptures measuring several feet tall. They are still used for their original advertising purpose but today are more often seen as decorations or advertising collectibles. 

Why wooden Indians to sell tobacco??? Because of general illiteracy of the populace, early store owners used descriptive emblems of figures to advertise their shops' wares; for example, barber poles advertise barber shops and the three gold balls represent pawn shops. American Indians and tobacco had always been associated because American Indians introduced tobacco to Europeans. As early as the 17th century, European tobacconists used figures of American Indians to advertise their shops.

Don't we still today look for advertising images??? The Golden Arches? The Starbucks mermaid? The Nike swoosh? 

Balloons Bombed Oregon?

 

In the last desperate year of WWII, the Japanese attacked the American continent with thousands of large balloons carrying bombs. 

Using the newly discovered Jet Stream, the first such weapon was  launched from Honshu, directly beneath the Jet Stream, on 3 Nov 1944. U.S. officials at first thought the balloons were errant weather balloons. Between that November and the following July, some 9000 bombs were launched and 268 of them making it to North America. 

Imagine! These balloons were constructed by Japanese school children to paste together paper balloons in seven factories near Tokyo. By 1944, Japan was suffering acute wartime material shortages. 

The only American fatalities were the Mitchell family. On Sunday, May 5, 1945, the Rev. Archie Mitchell and his pregnant wife, Elsie, were taking five of their Sunday School students on a picnic near their home in Bly, Oregon. As Mitchell was parking his car, he heard his wife call out: "Look what we found! It looks like some kind of balloon!" Before Mitchell could warn his wife to keep away, the bomb went off. Elsie and four boys were instantly killed and one girl died later from her injuries. The above image is of a memorial to those dear Americans.

The really sad part of this tale is that the War Department had known about these balloons since December, 1944, but had its Office of Censorship keep information out of the news in order not to cause panic. That press blackout was lifted o May 22 in an effort to prevent further injuries or deaths. 

Sources: Charles Apple's Further Review in The Spokesman Review newspaper, 4 May 2025;  The Pacific Northwesterner, Summer 1976, article by Randall A. Johnson: image from Wikipedia. 

U.S.-Canada Border Crossings

 

Ever find a brand new pencil in your desk or cupboard? Looking at it, you wonder where on earth did I pick up this pencil???? So it was with this pencil. Brand new, never sharpened. But it did sprout the idea of a blog to share with you!

According to the Ancestry Family History Learning Hub: The U.S. and Canada share the longest international border in the world with its 5525 miles stretching from Maine to Alaska. The Alaska portion of the border is 1538 miles long! Today, the 120 land ports of entry are busy as folks regularly cross the border for work, to visit family and to vacation. 

The U.S.-Canada border as we know it today only dates back to 1903. It formed as a result of centuries of colonization, war, revolution and land acquisition through treaties with Indigenous peoples as well as through diplomacy. (Dave Obee, www.CanGenealogy.com, gave a great presentation to EWGS couple of years ago on how often ancestors went back-and-forth across the Washington-Alberta-British Columbia border.) If your ancestor lived in either country near the border you might realize this and research accordingly.

Despite all of the conflict surrounding the border, the U.S. and Canada have often worked together to build roads, bridges and canals along it to streamline trade and the movement of people. The earliest cross-border infrastructure projects were in the east.... Niagara Falls, NY, and Albans, Vermont, to name two. The iconic Peace Arch crossing sits between Seattle and Vancouver. Our Washington shares 427 miles of border with British Columbia and has 13 border crossing stations.

My son and dau-in-love (yes!) regularly transverse the Oroville-Osoyoos crossing. Perhaps they picked up that mystery pencil??????

Mourning Rings: Have One From Your Ancestor?

 

Have you a mourning ring in an ancestor's memorial box? Have you ever heard of mourning rings? Mourning Rings were (and sometimes still are) jewelry worn to remember someone who has died. Such rings ran the gamut from plain bands to diamond studded. 

Mourning rings of yore were engraved with the person's name and death date and might have contained a hand-painted image or lock of hair. Today, they might have a tiny box for ashes. The tradition of mourning rings dates to ancient times although they gained popularity during the Victorian era. 

The article I was reading gave several examples of metal-detector folks have found such treasures buried in the sand or under a house. 

"If you think one of your ancestors may have had a mourning ring, we recommend searching their last name and the keyword "mourning ring" on the Newspapers.com homepage."

(Found this in the official blog of Newspapers.com; bit penned by Jenny Ashcraft, 8 Oct 2024.)