Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Young Historians: Easter and 1939

During the 1930’s, children dyed eggs. Many kids in Cavendish would have used homemade dyes. Eggs would be placed in a pot with red onionskins and boiled. They would also use red cabbage leaves, spinach leaves, as well as strong brewed coffee. There were egg dye kits, similar to the PAAS dyes of today, some featured Mickey Mouse.

Because jellybeans looked like bird eggs, they were added to Easter baskets in the 1930s. We will be making paper baskets for your jellybeans. If you want the directions for the basket, go to http://www.giddygreetings.com/2010/02/easy-paper-basket.html

Our History Timeline is now up to 1939. On Easter Sunday of that year, the African American singer Marian Anderson wasn’t allowed to sing at Constitution Hall. The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) owned the Hall. Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, the First Lady, quit the DAR in protest. She supported the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in an Easter Sunday concert at the Lincoln Memorial. You can see a video of her singing “My Country Tis of Thee” that day. The concert was attended by 75,000 people and was listened to by millions via the radio.

Other events in 1939 included:

• The movie of the year was “The Wizard of Oz.” Also very popular that year were “Gone with the Wind” and “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.”

• Popular songs included: “Somewhere Over the Rainbow;” “Tuxedo Junction,” Three Little Fishes and “I Got Rhythm.”

• “The Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck is published. This book tells the story of an “Oakie” family who leaves the “dust bowl” and heads to California.

• German troops are marching in to European countries, including Poland. London, England prepares for war. London children are sent to the country.

• The New York World’s Fair begins and includes the first exhibition of television

• The first regular transatlantic passenger air service begins when PanAm flies 22 passengers from New York to Portugal.

• “Yearling” by Marjorie Rawlins wins the Pulitzer Prize.

• Nylon stockings are sold for the first time in the United States.

• The World Series is won by the New York Yankees. Lou Gehrig makes his famous speech, letting his fans know that he is sick. As a result, the disease ALS is more commonly known as “Lou Gehrig’s disease.”

• In October, President Roosevelt closes all US ports to submarines.

• The NFL championship is won by the Green Bay Packers.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Young Historians: Street/Outside Games 1930s

Spring is here! We want to celebrate with games that children of the 1930s played outside. They had names like “Mother May I;” SPUD or HALT; “Red Light, Green Light;” “Swinging Statues and “Run Sheepie Run.” Gloria Leven will talk about the
games from her childhood.

Not long ago, Gloria told us she was seven years old when the 1930’s started. Our history time line is now up to 1938. Gloria would have been 15. These are some of the things that happened that year:

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was the most popular film that year.

• Edward R. Murrow gave his first CBS radio “News Roundup.”

• Blood tests were required before you could get married.

• Benny Goodman and The Andrew Sisters were very popular on the radio. Songs included: Stompin’ at the Savoy; I Got Rhythm and Flat Foot Floggie with the FloyFloy.

• The House Committee on Un-American Activities established. Its task was to investigate Socialists, Communists, and other individuals deemed un-American.

• The Pulitzer Prize went to Thornton Wilder for “Our Town.”

• The President raises minimum wage from .25¢ to .40¢

• The first Action Comic book appears with Superman on the cover.

• Howard Hughes flies around world in 3 days, 19 hours, 8 minutes and 10 seconds.

• Popular books that year included: The Yearling; Rebecca and Dale Carnegie’s How to
Win Friends and Influence Enemies.


Hellzapoppin opens on Broadway and is the biggest hit of the 1930’s.

• The New York Yankees win the World Series.

• The radio program “War of the Worlds” is aired causing people to panic, as they believe aliens from another planet have landed in New Jersey.

• Irving Berlin releases “God Bless America,” which is sung by Kate Smith

• Kristallancht (Night of the Broken Glass) takes place in Germany and Austria. America comes out against these activities.

• American Pearl S. Buck wins the Nobel Peace Prize in Literature for her books on China.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Young Historians: The Irish in Cavendish

Happy St. Patrick's Day

The Young Historians will be learning about the Irish in Cavendish, who started coming in the 1840s as a result of the "potato famine." A second wave in the 1860s was due to the work available in the mills. The Irish were considered the lowest of the low, and were given only menial jobs. It was the Irish men who built the Vermont railroads and it was the Irish women who worked in the mills and on the farms.

The Irish in Cavendish established the Catholic Church in Proctorsville. Prior to the church, a traveling priest would say mass in their homes.

To celebrate the Irish in Cavendish, the Young Historians will taste Irish Soda Bread. The recipe was given as follows:

BRENDA' S MOTHER'S COUNTY CORK AND HENCE TRULY IRISH SODA BREAD

Must do 2 pans worth--in other words, half the recipe in each pan

4 Cups any decent white flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 Cup sugar

Blend the above. Then cut in till small lumps are created the following:
1 and 1/2 sticks butter

Then add 1 cup currants plus 1 and1/2 Cups buttermilk (or milk soured with 2 Tbsp vinegar)

Plus 1/4 cup caraway seeds

MIX THE ABOVE AND DIVIDE IN HALF. HENCE 2 PANS
Brush tops with mix of 1 egg yolk plus 2 Tblsp water

SPRINKLE WHITE SUGAR ON TOP BAKE @ 350 FOR 55-60 MINUTES

The Young Historians will participate in an "America Wake." When people were leaving Ireland for America, people realized they might never see them again and so they "waked" them much as they would as if they had died. Games, food, drink and stories were shared right up until it was time for the person(s) to depart. The students will be playing Jack's Alive and other "Wake" games.

Monday, March 8, 2010

Young Historians: Town Meeting

In the 1930’s Vermont held Town Meeting Day the first Tuesday in March. Everyone had off from work and the schools were closed. Voters met all day to talk about town and school issues and to vote. Today, Cavendish Town Meeting is the first Monday evening of March. A “Warning” is sent to all voters at least two weeks before the meeting. This way they know what issues they will be voting on.

In keeping with this tradition, the Young Historians will meet on March 10 to have their own town meeting. Below is the Warning for this meeting.

Warning: Young Historian’s Town Meeting
March 10, 2010


The legal voters of the Cavendish Young Historians, of the Town of Cavendish, in the County of Windsor, are hereby notified and warned to meet at the Cavendish Town Elementary School in Proctorsville, Vermont at 11:35 am on Wednesday morning, the 10th of March 2010 to transact the following business.

Article 1. To see if the voters will approve the addition of orange juice and strawberry flavored milk at lunch time.

Article 2. To see if the voters will approve the carrying and using of cell phones during school hours.

Article 3. To see if the voters will adopt a policy of a 15 minute recess period once a day before lunch.

Article 4. To see if the voters will adopt a policy allowing hats to be warn in the 5 (fifth) and 6 (sixth) grade classrooms.

Article 5. To transact any other business legal and proper when met.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Correction on 1936 Timeline

Dan sent the following correction about the 1936 Timeline:

The arrival at Lakehurst of the airship Hindenburg, on the first scheduled transatlantic dirigible flight, was on May 9, 1936 (rather than in June).

(If you think your readers might like a link for more information, you could link the word Hindenburg to http://www.airships.net/hindenburg if you like.)

Young HIstorians Stew/1936

In February 1936, Vermont had a “dirty” snow fall. Because of the lack of rain, the mid western part of the country had major dust storms. Dirt from the “dust bowl” mixed with the snow and resulted in brown snow.

On March 3, we made stew for the school to taste on Thursday March 4.

Gloria Leven told us how her mother would provide food to the men who would come to the kitchen door begging for food. Her husband said his mother always kept a pot of stew on the stove to give to the men.

Our stew used beef from the Ting’s farm in Cavendish. We figured out the recipe as we make it, using potatoes, onions, carrots, celery, canned tomatoes and spices. Most stews would have started with these basics. Some people would add left over table scraps.

In the 1930’s the stoves had places where you could put a pot on to “stew” all day. Now we use crock pots in the same way.

Our timeline is up to 1936. This is the year General Mills introduced "Betty Crocker, who we can see today on cake mixes. Electric guitars also became very popular in 1936

1936 History Timeline

Songs: Face the Music and Dance: Bing Crosby; Goodnight Irene by Leadbelly; Just the Way You Look Tonight, Fred Astaire

Books: Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell; Double Indemnity by James M. Cain; Drums Along the Mowhawk by Walter D. Edmonds; How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie; The Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer

Films: Mr. Deeds Goes to Town; My Man Godfrey; The Oregon Trail

January
• The first building to be completely covered in glass is completed in Toledo, Ohio for the Owens Illinois Glass Company
• The Baseball Hall of Fame is established at Cooperstown New York
• Billboard Magazine publishes its first music hit parade
• Edward VIII is crowned King of England

February
• The 1936 Winter Olympic Games opens in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany

March
• The first stock care race takes place in Daytona Florida

April
• Orson Welles directs all black cast in Macbeth for Negro People's Theatre, part of the Federal Theatre Project

May
• Eleanor Roosevelt hosts White House garden party for black female students of Washington's National Industrial School. School principal praises Roosevelt while Southern newspapers denounce her
• Margaret Mitchell publishes “Gone with the Wind.”

June
• The airship Hindenburg arrives at Lakehurst, N.J., the first scheduled transatlantic dirigible flight

July
• Mary McLeod Bethune named director of Negro affairs in the National Youth Administration. She is the first black woman to receive a major federal appointment
• Walsh-Healet Public Contracts Act sets minimum wages, 8 hr days, 40 hr weeks, no child labor for companies with Government contracts

August
• Spanish Civil War begins when insurgents led by General Francisco Franco revolt against Spain's weak government in Madrid.

September
• US announces it will not interfere in Spanish Civil War
• Summer Olympics, Berlin, American Jesse Owens wins fours gold medals in track and field
• Benny Goodman becomes first bandleader to integrate his band racially
• Boulder (Hoover) Dam on Colorado River completed creating Lake Mead, largest reservoir in US

October
• Hitler and Mussolini sign the Rome-Berlin axis accord

November
• President Roosevelt re elected president by a landslide vote
• Life Magazine publishes their first issue

December
• King Edward VIII of England gives up his throne to marry American divorcee, Wallis Warfield Simpson
• United Auto Workers begin sit-down strike at GM plant in Flint, Michigan; ends Feb 1937

To learn more about 1936, go to http://xroads.virginia.edu/~1930s2/Time/1936/mot_12_31_36r.mov