Duchess Spring Domain

Spring, afternoon rains began late Friday afternoon and through the evening here in southwest Colorado and is continuing today as we labor to get this week's OkieLegacy ezine published. forgot to put out my rain gauge, though. My humans have been busy packing for a move at the end of April 2010.

Goldbug & Alva Murals

Steve N. sent us this link for the Alva Mural Society's webpage. It is really getting quite a collection of outstanding murals in Alva, Oklahoma today. Want to see something nice? Go to alvamurals.org to see Class of '60 gift to the high school in 2000.

This Duchess Pug was not around 15 years ago today, 19 April 1995, 9:02a.m., when the Alfred P Murrah building and 168 lives were lost to a truck bomb blast in downtown Oklahoma City (OKC).

BUT -- NW Okie was living in Alva, Oklahoma during that time and was out at the office when she received a call from her sister, Dorthy, in Oklahoma City, felt the rumble of the American terrorist attack on the Murrah building as far away as 39th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue or in that vicinity.

Oklahoma City Bombing (April 19, 1995)

Memorial officials and state leaders addressed the importance of teaching the history and lessons of the bombing to a generation of children who were not even born when the attack happened. Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry recently signed a law requiring the history of the attack be a part of the state's permanent school curriculum.

McVeigh was executed in 2001 after being convicted on federal murder charges. His Army friend, Terry Nichols, is serving a life sentence in a Colorado federal prison after being convicted on state and federal bombing charges.

Do you remember where you were 19 April 1995? What were you doing? Did you know someone who lost their life in the Murrah bombing in Oklahoma City?

Good Night and Good Luck!
View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Apollo 13 To Moon

What were you doing 40 years ago, April 11, 1970, 13:13 CST? Where did you watch the Apollo 13 To the Moon when a near disaster struck and had a miraculous landing four days later?

James Bradley asks, "An item of note. It was 40 years ago that Apollo 13 was on its way to the moon when near disaster struck. The following is a quote from Wikipedia: Apollo_13

"How many subscribers remember this. Time really flies when you are having fun, doesn't it? I was in graduate school with my nose to the grindstone and hardly remember the reactions.

"The mission launched on April 11, 1970 at 13:13 CST. Two days later, en route to the Moon, a fault in the electrical system of one of the Service Module's oxygen tanks produced an overpressure rupture which caused a loss of electrical power and failure of both oxygen tanks."
View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Refactoring OkieLegacy Journal

Your eZine and tabloid journal by Okie gets a facelift.

The upgrades are a bit subtle and some may never notice. Let me direct your attention to the following tools:

1. Shout Out to a Friend
2. Logon Feature
3. Registration/Update Area
4. Local 3-day forecast with registation with city and state info

Thirteen Colonies

The British empire settled its first permanent colony in the Americas at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607. This was the but the first of 13 colonies in North America. The 13 colonies can be divided into three regions: New England (New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island), Middle (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware), and Southern (Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia) Colonies.

It included the following: Virginia (1607), Massachusetts (1620), New Hampshire (1623), Maryland (1634), Conneticut (c. 1635), Rhode island (1636), Delaware (1638), North Carolina (1653), South Carolina (1663), New Jersey (1664), New york (1664), Pennsylvania (1682), Georgia (1732).

View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Victorian Era (1837-1901)

Wikipedia says, "Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria German: Alexandrina Viktoria; 24 May 1819 ... 22 January 1901) was the Queen regnant of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837, and the first Empress of India of the British Raj from 1 May 1876, until her death.

"Her reign as the Queen lasted 63 years and 7 months, longer than that of any other British monarch before or since, and her reign is the longest of any female monarch in history. The time of her reign is known as the Victorian era, a period of industrial, cultural, political, scientific, and military progress within the United Kingdom.

"Victoria ascended the throne at a time when the United Kingdom was already an established constitutional monarchy, in which the king or queen held relatively few direct political powers and exercised influence by the prime minister's advice; but she still served as a very important symbolic figure of her time. Victoria's reign was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire. During this period, it reached its zenith and became the foremost global power of the time.
View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Plymouth Rock (1620)

Wikipedia states, "Plymouth Rock is the traditional site of disembarkation of William Bradford and the Mayflower Pilgrims who founded Plymouth Colony in 1620. It is an important symbol in American history."

They say there is no contemporaneous reference to the rock, and it is not referred to in Bradford's journal Of Plymouth Plantation or in Mourt's Relation. The first written reference to the Pilgrims landing on a rock is found 121 years after they landed. The rock is currently located on the shore of Plymouth Harbor in Plymouth, Massachusetts."
View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Double O Grocery

The following comment was response to the following "DoubleO Sims Grocery, Vol. 7, Iss. 45, OkieLegacy ezine and "Remember When."

"Linda, this a picture taken inside the DoubleO Sims Grocery on the northeast corner of the square taken in the late 30's. My Dad, Harold Walker worked in there and my Grandfather H.G. Walker was the county treasurer at that time. I can remember my Grandma taking me in that store when I was real young and they would let me have a lump of brown sugar which was kept in the bulk in a big bin along the side of the store toward the front. Pictured are: A.P. Sims, Dan Bergen, Bill Fletcher, Glen Fox, Harold Walker, Parker Fox with the straw hat, and Ed Hazzard, the butcher. My Dad also was the cook in the Bell Hotel at one time."

Ronald Robinson (Email: RB82292@aol.com) says, "My Father was a butcher/ meat cutter at the Double O Grocery in the 1930 period. His name was Donald M. Robinson. Does anyone remember him? His Son?"
View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Townsend Act (1765)

The Townsend Acts passed by Parliament in 1767 and imposing duties on various products imported into the British colonies had raised such a storm of colonial protest and noncompliance that they were repealed in 1770, saving the duty on tea, which was retained by Parliament to demonstrate (June 15-July 2, 1767), in U.S. colonial history, series of four acts passed by the British Parliament in an attempt to assert what it considered to be its historic right to exert authority over the colonies through suspension of a recalcitrant representative assembly and through strict provisions for the collection of revenue duties. The British American colonists named the acts after Charles Townsend, who sponsored them.
View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

The Real sons of Liberty & Boston Tea Party 1773

In 1771, a group of colonists dressed, disguised as Mohican Indians, protested thirteen years of increasing British oppression, by attacking merchant ships in Boston Harbor. In retaliation, the British close the port, and inflict even harsher penalties. The History Channel - Sons of Liberty & Boston Tea Party



The Boston Tea Party of December 16, 1773, took place when a group of Massachusetts Patriots, protesting the monopoly on American tea importation recently granted by Parliament to the East India Company, seized 342 chests of tea in a midnight raid on three tea ships and threw them into the sea.
View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Boston Tea Party Ship & Museum

It was on May 10, 1773, the British parliament authorized the East India Company, which faced bankruptcy due to corruption and mismanagement, to export a half a million pounds of tea to the American colonies for the purpose of selling it without imposing upon the company the usual duties and tariffs.

This site goes on to say, "With these privileges, the company could undersell American merchants and monopolize the colonial tea trade. Not only did this action create an unfair commerce to the merchants of the colonies but it proved to be the spark that revived American passions about the issue of taxation without representation.

"To fully understand the resentment of the colonies to Great Britain and King George III, one must understand that this was not the first time that the colonists were treated unfairly.

"In previous years, the 13 colonies saw a number of commercial tariffs including the Sugar Act of 1764, which taxed sugar, coffee, and wine, the Stamp Act of 1765, which put a tax on all printed matter, such as newspapers and playing cards, and the Townshend Acts of 1767 which placed taxes on items like glass, paints, paper, and tea. The Tea Act of 1773 was the last straw."

Tea Act (May 10, 1773)

u-s-history.com states, "In 1773 Parliament passed the Tea Act, which gave the English East India Company a chance to avert bankruptcy by granting a monopoly on the importation of tea into the colonies. The new regulations allowed the company to sell tea to the colonists at a low price, lower than the price of smuggled tea, even including the required duty. The British reasoned that the Americans would willingly pay the tax if they were able to pay a low price for the tea.
View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Eye Witness To History (1773)

According to www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/ -- The colonies refused to pay the levies required by the Townsend Acts claiming they had no obligation to pay taxes imposed by a Parliament in which they had no representation.

In response, Parliament retracted the taxes with the exception of a duty on tea - a demonstration of Parliament's ability and right to tax the colonies.

In May of 1773 Parliament concocted a clever plan. They gave the struggling East India Company a monopoly on the importation of tea to America. Additionally, Parliament reduced the duty the colonies would have to pay for the imported tea. The Americans would now get their tea at a cheaper price than ever before.

However, if the colonies paid the duty tax on the imported tea they would be acknowledging Parliament's right to tax them. Tea was a staple of colonial life - it was assumed that the colonists would rather pay the tax than deny themselves the pleasure of a cup of tea.
It was in Boston, with the arrival of three tea ships that ignited a furious reaction amongst the colonists. The crisis came to a head on December 16, 1773 when as many as 7,000 agitated locals milled about the wharf where the ships were docked.
AND -- Then we know what happened next in the Boston harbor with the dumping of only the tea overboard.
View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

1875 - Baseball Glove Come To Baseball

Did you know that baseball developed before the Civil War, but did not achieve professional status until the 1870s?

As for the very first professional team in 1869, that would be the Cincinnati Red Stockings, but their life as some say, "Their life was brief and the team went bankrupt within a year of its founding."

It was 1871 that the National Association of Professional Basebal Players was formed, at its peak and consisted of 13 teams. Those too were plagued by financial difficulties and were abandoned in 1875.

It was 1876 that the formation of the National League of Professional Baseball Players (shortened to National League) saw its formation. The rival American League was founded in 1884 and an era of modern professional baseball had begun.

It was during these early days of baseball that players were expected to take the field without benefit of protective equipment such as a baseball glove or catcher's mask. They go on to state, "The pain of sport was to be endured without complaint. Any effort to mollify the rigors of the game was looked upon as a sissified attempt to demean the sport."

Do you know who was on a contemporary baseball care in 1887, as a 1st Base, Pittsburgh? If you guessed Sam Barkley, you guessed correctly.

In 1911, Spalding wrote of his experiences in early baseball and his first baseball glove, ""The first glove I ever saw on the hand of a ball player in a game was worn by Charles C. Waite, in Boston, in 1875. He had come from New Haven and was playing at first base. The glove worn by him was of flesh color, with a large, round opening in the back. Now, I had for a good while felt the need of some sort of hand protection for myself. In those days clubs did not carry an extra carload of pitchers, as now. For several years I had pitched in every game played by the Boston team, and had developed severe bruises on the inside of my left hand. When it is recalled that every ball pitched had to be returned, and that every swift one coming my way, from infielders, outfielders or hot from the bat, must be caught or stopped, some idea may be gained of the punishment received.

"Therefore, I asked Waite about his glove. He confessed that he was a bit ashamed to wear it, but had it on to save his hand. He also admitted that he had chosen a color as inconspicuous as possible, because he didn't care to attract attention. He added that the opening on the back was for purpose of ventilation.

"Meanwhile my own hand continued to take its medicine with utmost regularity, occasionally being bored with a warm twister that hurt excruciatingly. Still, it was not until 1877 that I overcame my scruples against joining the 'kid-glove aristocracy' by donning a glove. When I did at last decide to do so, I did not select a flesh-colored glove, but got a black one, and cut out as much of the back as possible to let the air in.

"Happily, in my case, the presence of a glove did not call out the ridicule that had greeted Waite. I had been playing so long and had become so well known that the innovation seemed rather to evoke sympathy than hilarity. I found that the glove, thin as it was, helped considerably, and inserted one pad after another until a good deal of relief was afforded. If anyone wore a padded glove before this date I do not know it. The 'pillow mitt' was a later innovation."

My Grandpa William J. "Bill" McGill began his baseball days in the earlier 1900s in Oklahoma and Kansas -- which took him down to Austin, Texas as a fast, south-paw pitcher for the Southwest Texas league with the Austin Senators and later a season with the St. Louis Browns and the Major leagues before coming back to the brand new state of Oklahoma and pitching for the Guthrie baseball team in 1909.
View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

College Football - 1884

Unlike baseball, football started after the Civil War when students at a few eastern colleges combined elements form rugby and soccer to make a new game they called football.

It was Princeton that led the way in 1867 when they established the first rules for the game. It was in 1869 that the first intercollegiate game was played between Princeton and Rutgers. The Ivy league schools took up and agreed upon a set of rules by 1873.

Eye Witness To History states, "Amos Alonzo Stagg contributed much to the development of the sport and remains a football legend. He entered Yale in 1884 as a divinity student which qualified him for a reduction in tuition from $50.00 to $39.80 per semester. He was a natural athlete whose skill on the baseball diamond was a major factor in his admission."

Stagg, After graduation in 1888 became football coach at Springfield College, Massachusetts. He later became athletic director and football coach at the University of Chicago in 1892 and remained there for 41 years.

In 1933 he became a coach at the College of the Pacific and left that post in 1947 at the age of 85. For that same year he became an assistant coach at Susquehanna University (Pennsylvania) and does not go into final retirement until 1952 at the age of 90.

Coach Stagg helped codify the rules of football and introduced several innovative plays such as the lateral pass and the man in motion. He was elected to the Football Hall of Fame as a player and a coach in its inaugural year.
View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

United States Declares War On Spain (1898)

It was 1898 that America had a short war with Spain and was the nation's first step on the parkway to becoming a world power.

With the U.S. victory brought possession of the Philippines and a vested interest in the politics of the Pacific region that would ultimately lead to conflict with Japan.

The outcome found America embroiled in an insurgency in the Philippines that closely mimicked the conflict in Vietnam over 60 years later.

If you remember, Cuba (another Spanish colony) had been in rebellion since 1895. Do you recall in your high school history class of the US Battleship Maine that arrived in Havanna Harbor in January 1898, which had a dual mission: To protect American interests and present and present the Spanish with a show of force.

It was at 9:40p.m., the evening of February 15, 1898 when an explosion ripped the forward hull quickly sending the ship to the bottom of the harbor, killing 260 of the 345 crew members.

The US Naval Board of Inquiry stated that an external explosion (a mine placed beneath the ship) was attributed to the sinking. They say that the finger of blame pointed to Spanish treachery.

US Congress clamored for action. President McKinley reluctantly succumbed to pressure and asked Congress to declare war on April 21. Congress obliged on April 25, 1898. The war lasted 3 months and cost the U.S. about 400 killed or wounded. The United States gained the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Guam. The US emerged as a power to be reckoned within the world stage and Cuba gained independence fromSpain.
View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Theodore Rooseelt (1912)

Did you ever hear the saying where Theodore Roosevelt was concerned, "He was fit as a bull moose?"

It was the Republican party that denied Theodore Roosevelt its nomination for President and instead backed incumbent William Taft. Taft had been Teddy's handpicked successor for presidency four years earlier, but Teddy and Taft had a falling out.

Taft referred to Roosevelt has a "dangerous egotist" and a "demagogue." BUT -- Roosevelt countered by referring to Taft as a "fathead" and a puzzlewit." So -- Name calling is nothing new in the Republican! Teddy Roosevelt left the Republican party after his defeat with Taft. Teddy Roosevelt ran under the banner of the Progressive party, which was named the Bull Moose Party in his honor.

It was President William Taft who broke with precedent and became the first President to actively campaigned on his own behalf while in office. this race became a two-way race between Roosevelt and Wilson with Taft running a distant third.

Roosevelt called for a "Square Deal" and would control monopoly by regulating it. Wilson spoke of the "New Freedom" and called for the break up of big business as a means of restoring economic competition.

Republicans split their vote between Roosevelt and Taft, which allowed Wilson to gain the presidency with a 42% plurality. wilson's win made him on the second Democrat to win the presidency since the Civil War. Taft was humiliated and gained only 8 electoral votes to Roosevelt's 88.
View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

My Thoughts

If you could use a time machine to go back in time and witness ANY historical event (without being able to change the future), what would it be and why?

I have been racking my brain for the date of historical event to visit in my time machine journey that I could take without being able to change the future. I would like to venture back to witness the landing of the foreigners at Plymouth rock in the 17th century.

Another historical event would be the signing of the declaration of independence and the constitution with the thirteen colonies. I would love to visit the Victorian era to understand better the difficulties that excavated for women as the vision of the so-called "ideal women" was shared by most in the society.

Legal rights of married women were similar to those of children. They could not vote, sue, or own property. Women were seen as pure and clean. Their bodies were supposedly seen as temple that should NOT be adorned with makeup nor used for such pleasurable things as sex. Women were to have children and tend the house. women could not hold a job unless it was that of a teacher. They could not even have their own checking or saving accounts. Women were treated as saints with NO legal rights.

If I could take a trip back to the Victorian era (20 June 1837 thru 22 January 1901) to visit with my grandmother Constance Estella Warwick, I do not believe I could have kept from protesting for women's legal rights. I am glad we have grown beyond that Victorian age of women! We have come along way, women!
View/Write Comments (count 1)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe