Women's Safety Bicycles

 

In the carriage house adjacent to the Campbell House in Spokane was a most interesting display of  a Woman's Safety Bicycle in the 1890s. "Medium-sized wheels and a chain drive eased the physical strain of bike riding. A string skirt guard, hygienic breathable leather seat, and pierced metal chain guard made riding safer for women." The image is of Helen Campbell riding on the handlebars of just such a bicycle. Below is that bicycle. 

Bicycles revolutionized women's lives. It necessitated changes in clothing (shorter skirts and (horrors) trousers); it offered independence from home or husband; it became a symbol of women's liberation and a tool for the feminist movement. 

These early bicycles were heavy (up to 50 pounds) compared to today's bikes at 20-30 pounds. In 1890, a new safety bicycle cost between $100 and $150, roughly $3000 to $4500 in today's money, making it a luxury item for the wealthy. Prices did drop to an average of $75 by the mid-1890s due to increased competition. They represented a significant investment, often costing one to two month's wages for an average worker. So Google says. 

What garb do you wear when riding your bike? And what is your bike like? Aren't you once again you live today and not in the 1890s?

WWII Potato Piglets

 

World War II was especially hard on England, specifically English citizens. And most specifically English housewives striving to feed their families on limited and rationed food. Quoting from a 2024 article on the BBC History website by Eleanor Barnett:

"Sharing information on the benefits of potato eating and recipes for potato-based breakfasts, dinners, teas, snack and desserts, Potato Pete's Recipe Book aimed to educate those on the home front on the benefits of potato-eating. Potatoes could be easily grown at home or bought cheaply, providing a rich source of nutrients." 

"When rationing was introduced in January 1940, the amount of butter, bacon and sugar you could buy was limited and by August 1942 almost all foods other than home-grown vegetables, fruits and game were in some way restricted."

Here's the recipe for Potato Pete's Potato Piglets:  "Take 6 potatoes, 6 sausages and 1/2 head of cabbage. Remove the centre (sic) of the potatoes using an apple corer or knife. Remove the skins from the sausages and fill the potato holes with sausage meat. Bake for 45" at 200oC (400oF). Meanwhile, chop the cabbage and boil on the hob (stove) for five minutes. Once baked, serve your potato piglets on top of the cooked cabbage."

If you try this recipe, please let us know how it turned out and how your family liked it.

Spokane's Trent Alley

 

Then (above) and Now (below)

Richard Sola probably knows more about Spokane's history than anybody else I know. He shares his expertise with folks via presentations to EWGS and with local tours via the Southside Community Center. Along with an eager group, I recently took his tour where I learned a bit about Spokane's historic Trent Alley. Read about Trent Alley below, quoted from the Spokane Historical website: 

"In 1913, the east side of Spokane's downtown teemed with small businesses run by Japanese, Chinese, Italian, Greek and German immigrants. Their restaurants, laundries and baths, barber shops, hotels, groceries and pool halls mainly served the city's working-class residents. Japanese photographer Ryosuke Akashi captured the lives of Spokane's Japanese entrepreneurs in an album entitled Spokane Japanese Business Men and their Enterprises. Akashi carefully photographed each Japanese business and proprietor, as well as Japanese farmers, Japanese baseball players, and a Japanese cemetery. "We are always discriminated based on our race in this foreign place," he wrote. "I would like to share our story."

In the 1880s, downtown Spokane had a bustling international district. Known as Trent Alley, the four block stretch between Spokane Falls Boulevard and Main Avenue, contained a network of alleys filled with Chinese and Japanese businesses such as Kotaro Konishi Barber Shop, located where you are standing. The neighborhood attracted workers passing through to work for the various railroads and mines in the region.

Scattered with bars, gambling houses, opium dens and bordellos, Trent Alley started out with a bad reputation. Edith Huey describes Trent Alley as "a small but busy community living to a considerable extent apart from the rest of the city." As more families moved in and businesses grew, the area became a thriving international neighborhood. A 1912 newspaper article observed residents of Trent Alley celebrating Christmas "in true American fashion . . . all along the alley the rattle of ivory chips and dominoes could be heard . . . and the click of the cue ball was also in evidence."

During the 1930s, Trent Alley was hit hard by the Great Depression. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, the neighborhood experienced a brief renewal, as many Japanese-Americans attempting to escape internment settled in Spokane. Through the 1950s and 1960s, most of Trent Alley’s Asian residents relocated into other parts of the city or passed away from old age. In 1972, the Spokesman-Review described the area as derelict: "Spokane's 'Chinatown,' centered along Trent Alley just south of Trent and east of Washington, is now a series of empty, boarded-up buildings. Gradually the old hotels and stores once occupied by Chinese [people] are being torn down." The one surviving building was the Hip Sing Association's headquarters, which hosted tea and conversation for a handful of elderly men who remembered Trent Alley in its heyday. In late 1974, the Hip Sing left Trent Alley for a new headquarters on the north side of town. Its headquarters and the other buildings of Trent Alley succumbed to urban renewal efforts over the subsequent decades. The last building associated with the Trent Alley area was torn down in 2009."

So now you know about Spokane's Historic Trent Alley. Ever wandered there? 

Digitally Accessing Newspapers

 

The full title of this post should have read "Digitally Accessing Newspapers State by State," and it's from an article by Kyle Hurst appearing in the American Ancestors magazine for Winter 2026. I quote:

"Appreciating the importance of preserving US newspapers, all fifty states have participated in at least one project to digitize their newspaper collections."   WOW, indeed.

Your first click-to-website for finding digitized newspapers should be the Library of Congress's Chronicling America (ChroniclingAmerica.loc.gov). This site "contains millions of newspaper pages from nearly every state and territory in the U.S. published through 1963." Hurst states in her article that "about one third of the states have elected to keep their (digitized newspapers) solely accessible via Chronicling America." 

Other states offer their digitized newspapers via different institutions such as state archives, state universities or libraries. Our own Washington Digital Newspaper website brings together over 600,000 pages from Washington's earliest Territorial newspapers to the present day. Freely accessible to the public, this growing collection complements the Washington State Library's physical collection of more than 6500 newspaper titles. 

I suggest you ask Google for "free digitized newspapers in XXXX" state and prepare to be amazed and rewarded. 

Scottish Flag

 

Did you realize that Scotland has its own flag? The image of the white Saltire cross against a blue background is the oldest flag in Europe and the Commonwealth, the Saltire, or St. Andrew's Cross, is a symbol of Scotland and its history of freedom, bravery, courage, valor, hope and pride. 

I read various figures but it seems to that millions of Americans claim some Scottish ancestry. The 2000 census reported nearly five million. I have some Scottish ancestry, do you?

The Saltire flag is believed to have its origins in a battle fought in the year 832 AD during a raid into what is now Scottish territory. The English and Scottish armies came together at the Firth of Forth, a wide vale of a protruding ocean. In fear for his men and the outcome of the battle, King Angus of the Picts (old term for Scots) led prayers for a safe deliverance and, so legend has it, was overwhelmed by a blinding light the night before the battle. That night while he slept he had a dream that the next morning he would see a cross in the sky and conquer his enemies. The following morning, King Angus looked into the rising sun and was rewarded by seeing a cloud formation of the white Saltire (the white diagonal cross on which St. Andrew had been martyred) against a clear blue sky. Angus vowed then and there that is the Scots won this battle ahead of them that St. Andrew would become the patron saint of Scotland and his symbol, the Saltire, would be on their flag. And so it was. 

When you might be lucky enough to visit Scotland, you can visit the birthplace of the Scottish flag. Saltire, the East Lothian village of Athelstanford, where that historic battle and King Angus's vision took place, is not home to the Scottish Flag Heritage Centre. Houosed in a 16th century doo'cot (a dovecot) admission is free and it's open April to October. 

Mt.St. Helens & Ritzville

 

The Spokesman Review,  Wednesday, May 21, 1980

"Once a quiet little agricultural town, Ritzville has been turned overnight into a Sahara of volcanic ash, and the last refuge for thousands of travelers trapped on the roads Sunday when Mount St. Helens violently erupted.

"While the rest of Eastern Washington received only 1/4 of an inch to one inch of ash, Ritzville, sixty miles southwest of Spokane, was buried under 4 to 6 inches of the fine debris. In spots, the ash has drifted as high as two feet. The city is in a state of disaster."

Lynn Krogh and I had a delightful field trip to Ritzville recently and I took this picture in the railroad museum. This is a scene of downtown Ritzville! I did first think it was snow. Then I read the blurb. 

Remembering this day, as many of us do, I learned that the total ash spread over an area of 22,000 square miles with far-away Oklahoma and Minnesota receiving some. Before compaction by rainfall, the total ash deposited was equivalent to a football field piled with ash 150 miles deep. 

Ritzville, with 2-4 inches, and Yakima, with 4-6 inches, and little Lind, with 6 inches, were the hardest hit Eastern Washington towns. Ephrata and Othello each received 3 inches. Google states that Spokane received one-half inch but my memory surely remembers more than that. 

What are your memories of May 18, 1980? Even if you were not living in Washington then, did the news impact you or your family? 

I Love Lucy

 

Did you grow up with I Love Lucy on TV? Perhaps watching it with your mother? Perhaps you still watch it today? And what does this TV show have to do with genealogy? Lots!

When you're scribbling your memories, have you thought to include how these early TV shows impacted your life? The first TV show I remember watching (on our little B&W screen) was 1954-1955 series Flash Gordon........... remember Ming, the evil emperor? That show planted the Sci-Fi seed in me and Star Trek still is my favorite. Shouldn't I have written in my memories how these shows impacted me? 

I Love Lucy ran for six seasons, 1951-1957, 180 episodes, and has never been off the air since. The show's syndication was the brainchild of Desi Arnaz. Getting money from re-runs of a TV show was a new concept pioneered by Desi Arnaz. 

A new book, Desi Arnaz, the Man Who Invented TV by Todd Purdun, was the topic of a video that I watched recently. The book tells the story of Desi, born in Cuba in 1917, and grew up in Florida when his parents emigrated. He struggled with his music career and his big break came only after his marriage to Lucy in 1940 (they eloped). Lucy was already a rising star, with a radio show "My Father's House," which was morphing into a TV show. They wanted Lucy to continue with the show but she would agree only if Desi were her husband. 

That presented a problem in those days. A white woman married to a Cuban? But this problem was overcome; the people loved the show. When their son, Desi, Jr, was coming, they wrote the pregnancy into the show. This was the first time "sex" had been hinted at and a pregnant woman featured. The show of "Little Ricky's" birth in January 1953, was seen by 44 million Americans. 

Well, the couple had a volatile relationship even as their businesses and fortunes grew. They founded Desilu studios which still produces movies and TV shows. But apparently the strain was too much for Desi; they divorced in 1960 and Desi died in 1986 of lung cancer. Lucy died in 1989. 

What was the most memorable I Love Lucy show to you? To me, it was the "vitameggavegimine" show where Lucy became drunk during the many takes of the ad she was filming in her quest for her own stardom. Yes, I Love Lucy was part of my younger life. What about YOU?