The Yarn Spinner

  The Streets of Laredo Or maybe Laramie, Tombstone or ……                                 Gunsmoke’s Miss Kitty was a madame on the radio prequel, but not on TV.  Close your eyes and imagine you hear the muffled   snorts, sighs, whinnys, nickers, grunts, of horses, and squeaks from buggy seats, wagons, and carts. But the sound that dins in your ears is that of simultaneous conversations, many of them, – not all in English - coupled with the unmistakable loud clang of a blacksmith’s   hammer forming new shoes for Old Dollar. Weather beaten wooden buildings are in your vista, a feed store, telegraph office, a barber, the smithy and other businesses.   Then there is the must have saloon – maybe two. You can faintly hear the out-of-tune honky-tonk piano. It’s “Oh, Suzanna.” This is the center of “main street” in fact the only street and you can ...

  The Potawatomi and the Pickle Pioneer                                                                        Lyman Budlong was a prosperous pickle producer. After buying 700 hundred acres of land in Bowmanville, Illinois, he started farming. Budlong grew carrots, tomatoes, onions, lettuce…but his cash crop was cucumbers, Budlong was the Davy Crocket of Cucumbers. By 1900, he   seasonally employed 1500 women and children and 800 men to harvest and process twelve thousand bushels of vegetables per day during the summer months   and 150,000 bushels of cucumbers per pickle season. All the pickles were processed on-site and Budlong became the largest supplier of premium pickles in the entire World. One day while pitching a pitchfork into a pickle patch (figuratively speaki...

  Blue Plate Special     During the Great Depression, budgets were stretched to their limits and  folks were looking for  cheap, hearty and inexpensive stick-to-the-ribs grub. It was during these hard times that you could buy such a meal, if you had more than lint in your pocket, for a quarter or less. Twenty-five cents  got you a generous serving of meat and potatoes, vegetables, bread, and a drink. This hearty meal that harkens back to the twenties and thirties was known as a Blue Plate Special. The Blue Plate Special   name itself is said   to have originated in 1892, when diner proprietor Fred Harvey was serving up quick and cheap meals to railroad travelers at his trackside restaurant.   Harvey’s “blue plate” was   blue and divided into three   sections: pretty much anything piled on it was a “blue plate special.” Harvey’s locations were renowned for their quality, cleanliness, and convenience at a time when   many ...

  Don’t’ Run with Scissors   Growing up in the 1950s I recall there were a number of “Don’ts” parents used to admonish their children – to keep them safe. These were relatively simple and straightforward. Here’s a few. ·        Don’t play with matches. ·        Don’t play with knives. ·        Don’t run out between parked cars. ·        Don’t talk to strangers. ·        Don’t cross at a red light. ·        Don’t eat yellow snow (Okay – just kidding) ·        Don’t Run with Scissors   We’ve all heard these age-old warnings at some time in our lives, “Don’t run with scissors, you might get hurt”   however, is a phrase   used by concerned parents or teachers that carries a simple yet profound message about safety. At its core, the warni...