Indholdsfortegnelse for February/March 2019 i Reminisce

Home economics was somehow not a course on my mother’s high school schedule. But after she got married and had six children who were younger than 12, she quickly concluded that sewing was a handy skill to have. So she bought a sewing machine and learned to use it. Intrigued by the possibilities, I begged her to teach me, too. I loved picking out patterns and fabric, and finally I could make clothes that fit—I’m 5 feet tall, so clothes are always oddly proportioned and way too long for me. Another benefit: I could stretch my 50-cents-an-hour baby-sitting wage. If sewing is one of your talents, you’ll want to read our tribute to the craft, “In Stitches,” on page 50. Learning to make my own clothes was a clear-cut turning…

~ ACADEMY AWARDS ~ BEST MOTION PICTURE Mrs. Miniver BEST ACTOR James Cagney Yankee Doodle Dandy BEST ACTRESS Greer Garson, Mrs. Miniver ~ SPORTS STATS ~ TRIPLE CROWN WINNER Count Fleet HEISMAN TROPHY WINNER Angelo Bertelli Quarterback, Notre Dame NFL MOST VALUABLE PLAYER Sid Luckman Quarterback, Chicago Bears NFL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME Chicago Bears over Washington Redskins 41-21 WORLD SERIES New York Yankees over St. Louis Cardinals (4-1) MVP, AMERICAN LEAGUE Spud Chandler New York Yankees MVP, NATIONAL LEAGUE Stan Musial St. Louis Cardinals…

My father, John A. Hrouda, a mechanic from Peekskill, New York, served with the 69th Regiment, known as the Fighting 69th, in World War I. The 69th was renamed the 165th Infantry Regiment when it joined the American Expeditionary Force in Europe as part of the 42nd Division. The 42nd, whose chief of staff was a young colonel named Douglas MacArthur, was called the Rainbow Division because it was made up of National Guard units from 26 states. The 69th was out of New York, and was perhaps the country’s most famous guard unit of the time, with a history dating to before the Civil War. Some of the regiment’s men, including my father, were featured on the front of a New York Times pictorial before they shipped out to…

Only about 7 to 10 percent of the records needed for researching family history can be found online. Writing or visiting repositories that house various collections can be vital to complete your findings. I prefer visiting state and county libraries, archives and cemeteries in person. There, I’ve found things tucked away in notebooks and vertical files. Many online resources list what is available on the internet. They also provide addresses and hours of operation for in-person-only research. Several to try: ▪ Ancestry’s Red Book (in print and online) ▪ Family Bibles – Genealogy (Facebook page) ▪ FamilySearch.org/wiki ▪ FindAGrave.com for cemetery records ▪ USGenWeb.com for county pages ▪ Local genealogy societies where your family lived PEGGY CLEMENS LAURITZEN, an accredited genealogist, writes and lectures about family history. Visit: misspeggy55.weebly.com Share your…

“TODAY IS YOUR BIG DAY,” DAD SAID TO ME WITH A SMILE. Brooklyn’s Avenue M bustled with its usual New York energy on that first Tuesday in November 1972. People stopped at Waldbaum’s to pick up what they needed for dinner while others pulled two-wheeled shopping carts filled with groceries—fruits, vegetables, Hostess cupcakes, Wonder bread. Some gathered by the coffee bar at Cookie’s restaurant. The train station was the focal point of Avenue M for everyone—and it was our family meeting place at 5 p.m. “Today is your big day,” Dad said to me with a smile. He was as proud as I was that I would be voting in the presidential election for the first time. My parents and I walked around the corner to East 19th Street and…

FROM THE TASTE OF HOME COLLECTION Homemade Polish Pierogi My mother made dozens of these and measured ingredients using the palm of her hand. We’ve passed the recipe down over the years as the family has grown. VERONICA WEINKAUF • SOUTH BEND, IN PREP: 30 min. + standing • BAKE: 10 min./batch MAKES: 8 servings 2 large eggs¼ cup water½ tsp. salt2 cups all-purpose flour FILLING: 1 large egg1 tsp. salt½ tsp. sugar Dash pepper1 carton (15 to 16 oz.) soft farmer cheese or whole-milk ricotta cheese1 to 4 Tbsp. butter, divided Sour cream, optional 1. In a large bowl, whisk two eggs, water and salt until blended; gradually stir in flour. Transfer to a lightly floured surface; knead 10-12 times, forming a firm dough. Cover and let rest 10…

TELL US HOW TO FIND YOU Whether you send your submission via mail or email or post it online, include your full name, daytime phone number, email address and mailing address. If you have a post office box, tell us your street address too. HELP US SORT THINGS OUT Include the name of the department your submission is for (Motoring Memories, Growing Up, etc.) on the first page of your submission or in the email subject line. For any photos you submit, please identify the people, city, state and year the photo was taken. We reserve the right to use submissions in any section of our magazine, or elsewhere. We do not return unsolicited materials. Send quality photo reprints or email high-resolution JPEG files (300 dpi at 8x10) so you…

« SUMMER ROAD TRIPS Remember packing up and stuffing the car for adventures on the open road? Did you plan out every stop to the last second or let your whims carry you where they may? We want to know. Label your story “Summer Road Trips.” TECH TALK First we had rotary-dial phones. Next came princess and touch-tone phones. Then, in what seemed like a New York minute, we’ve had bag, Palm, cordless, mobile, flip and smart phones. Tell us about your phone evolution. Label your story “Tech Talk.” WOODSTOCK Promoted as Three Days of Peace and Music, Woodstock rocked almost half a million in 1969. They went to Yasgur’s farm and found their place in history. How about you? Did you make it? Label your story “Woodstock.” FAVORITE DINNERWARE…

Using the 1931 play Green Grow the Lilacs as a template, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, in their first collaboration, developed Away We Go! as a musical play, a new format that wove both song and dance into the storyline. The musical followed farm girl Laurey and her courtship by two rival suitors: cowboy good-guy Curly and sinister Jud, the farmhand. Many on the Great White Way in 1943 predicted that Away We Go! would be dead on arrival, especially after it first opened out of town in New Haven, Connecticut. As the story goes, one Broadway producer left after the first act, quipping a stinging review: “No legs, no jokes, no chance.” Ouch! Oklahoma! is considered the single most influential work in the American musical theater. On the…

WHILE GOING through keepsakes, I came across my mother’s old South Carolina driver’s license. She passed away in 1956, and I’ve had it ever since. The license is made of metal—copper or brass, I suppose. It measures roughly ⅞x2 © inches. The taglike card was designed with a hole on one end to slide onto a keychain or holder. We’d often use the tag as a quick screwd river. My first driver’s license was also one of the metal variety, but I failed to keep mine. I wonder if many people will remember these, and if other states had anything like them. Share your memories: REMINISCE.COM/SUBMIT-A-STORY…

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1954 HOME DESIGN German maker Pfaff entered the consumer sewing market later than rival Singer, but it quickly gained a reputation for advanced design. This zigzag model boasted automated features for adding expert-level trim such as embroidery and tuck pleats. 1948 PLAY SET INCLUDED Favorite ’40s “it girl” Marilyn Maxwell stars in this clever spot for Quadriga Cloth from maker Ely & Walker. The ad doubles as a cut-out paper doll set. Each outfit is illustrated in Quadriga fabric, with pattern numbers for making it at home. 1944 NEEDFUL NOTIONS Singer had retooled for the war effort, but its network of Sewing Centers sustained its domestic market mainly through rentals and sales of used machines. This ad encourages sewers to update old styles with notions such as fancy buttons and…

COMING UP: World Fairs Post your photos: REMINISCE.COM/SUBMIT-A-STORY UNDER THE GYM LIGHTS Sock hops at high school sealed our love, but it took another four years and a world war before Theresa and I married. Those years made our love closer, more precious. BILL LIVINGSTONE • GOLETA, CA More Pictures from The Past, page 62 » CRASHING GOOD FUN I was a soda jerk at the Meadow Gold Ice Cream Store in Keokuk when Jack Fader, one of the tallest boys in our class of 1947, came in for a pineapple milkshake. At barely 5 feet I had to look way up at him, but a smile passed between us. On our second date, I hopped onto a step to meet Jack’s eyes as he leaned in for our first…

World War II dominated world events. With so many men fighting overseas, American women moved into jobs previously unavailable to them. U.S. companies transitioned from building cars to building aircraft engines, trucks and tanks. Stars such as Bette Davis and Rita Hay worth sold government-issued war bonds to finance the war effort. The U.S. rationed food, gas, even clothing. Sports teams suffered as athletes traded in colorful uniforms for khakis. And popular band leaders, including Glenn Miller and Artie Shaw, entertained war-weary troops. JAN. 15 Construction of the Pentagon—the new headquarters for the U.S. Department of Defense in Arlington, VA—is complete. JAN. 23 Jazz legend Duke Ellington and His Orchestra debut at New York City’s Carnegie Hall. FEB. 9 Shoe rationing begins in the U.S.—three pairs per person every year,…

Creative minds churned out remarkable discoveries in 1943—some of them by pure accident. From toys to tailgating cuisine, how many of the year’s innovations can you name? 1 Conceived as a way to keep sensitive ship equipment steady at sea, this now classic toy is beloved by baby boomers for its ability to walk down stairs. 2 This accidental toy used to lift images off the funny pages started out as a synthetic rubber. 3 Undersea explorer Jacques Cousteau became famous for this invention, the first modern scuba system, with engineer Emile Gagnan. Extra credit: Scuba is an acronym for what? 4 Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann discovered this synthetic drug’s hallucinogenic properties when he consumed it by accident. 5 Mexican chef Ignacio “Nacho” Anaya created this spicy, cheesy snack from…

Annual tuition in 1942 at Princeton University in New Jersey was $450, a financial stretch for my dad, so I worked as a waiter in the dining halls for my board. At the end of my first year, I took a leave of absence and enlisted in the service along with about two-thirds of my classmates. I was ordered to the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, about 50 miles away, for further studies under the Navy’s V-12 officer training program. One Sunday in June 1944, during a liberty break from studies and drills, I borrowed my father’s car and drove back to Princeton to visit friends still on campus. One regret I had from my time as a student there was that I’d never seen Albert Einstein. He lived…

MY UNDERGRADUATE DAYS BEHIND me in 1965, I pointed my ’56 Chevy in the direction of the University of Iowa, where I’d enrolled in a graduate program to study English and theater. Born and raised in New York City, I wasn’t sure what to expect from the Midwest. But I soon settled in. Iowa was beautiful and I was maintaining a solid B average. One day about a year later, while passing through the student union, I noticed the Peace Corps setting up a display. There were pictures of Pacific Islanders going about their lives and the sign “Peace Corps Goes to Paradise!” I soon learned that the Corps’ Micronesia campaign was to be the first wave of American civilian volunteers ever to visit the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands,…

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On the day my father left for a five-day conference, I rushed home from school to tell Mom that I was finally understanding long division. But she had something else on her mind. “A cricket must’ve hopped inside the piano,” she said. “It’s been driving me crazy.” I helped her lift the top of our antique Steinway grand, but we couldn’t see the insect. Mom called the pet store to see if there was such a thing as a cricket trap. There wasn’t, but the manager suggested luring ours with a bit of carrot or potato. We went to bed that night hoping to find the intruder eating its breakfast the next day. In the morning, I did encounter the cricket—chirping inside the piano. That afternoon, several neighbors stopped by…