Innehållsförteckning för May 2020 från Reminisce Extra

BEAN THERE Campbell’s Green Bean Casserole recipe turns 65 this year. Is this famous side a staple of your Thanksgiving table? Do you make it in a special casserole dish? Is the recipe entrusted to the same person each year or do you share the responsibility? Tell us about the first time you made it, why you love it (or not) and what it means to you. Label your story and pictures “Green Bean Casserole.” SHRINE ON Did you belong to the Shriners, Masons, Elks or a similar society that had secret vows and strict rules for joining? What was it like to join and was it all you were expecting? We’re gathering stories for a longer feature, so be sure to expand on your experiences. Pictures are welcome. Label…

ROLL WITH IT Herbs on the go: This Demeter mobile planter cart fits on a balcony, porch or patio for a lovely scent and within easy reach for cooking. $119, gardeners.com STAKE YOUR CLAIM Keep your garden from growing wild. These cute garden markers are made from vintage spoons, and customized and hand-stamped to order. $9 each, sycamorehill.etsy.com DIG IN The only tools you need are a trowel and a garden fork for digging and weeding. Why not choose a set like this floral print pair that are as pretty as the plants? $30, williams-sonoma.com SHEAR DELIGHT Harvest herbs and mince them or create a chiffonade with these five-blades-in-one scissors. Easy, fast and fancy. $12, crateandbarrel.com…

The Party Can’t Start Without Mom SHE GRACIOUSLY FOOTS THE BILL. LORI K. JOHNSON COEUR d’ALENE, ID JANICE MATHE, MY MOM, worked nights at the telephone company when I was growing up. We lived on Dakota Street in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, in the early ’70s, and one summer evening after Dad was asleep, my brother Tim, my cousin Joe and I wanted a pizza. Our neighbor Rob sneaked out of his house to get in on the fun, too. Our favorite pizza place was West End Pizza. Since we were 12 or 13—way too young to drive—we arranged to have it delivered at the time Mom would be coming home from work, around 11:30. While we waited, we set up lawn chairs and TV trays in the driveway. When she pulled…

DARING BARON Baron Marcel Bich (pronounced “Beek”), above, was born in Italy, studied law in Paris and served with the French air force. In later years he used part of his Bic riches to compete in America’s Cup yachting races. CLEAR DESIGN A brass tip holds a 1 mm tungsten carbide ball that is as hard as a diamond. The ball and socket form a partial vacuum—and a hole at midbarrel ensures that ink flows freely. The shape is easy to grip, and the Cristal’s clear barrel makes the ink level visible. ART IN MOTION Bic Corp.’s contemporary art collection includes works made with or inspired by its products. More than 80 artists from around the world are represented. INK SPOTTED Some famous people pictured using a Bic Cristal include…

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…

My mother was unconventional in ways that could make her stand out in our very conventional suburban neighborhood. She was the only mother on our street who worked full time; she was one of just two who drove her own car; and she was the only mother—the only parent, surely—who could sing any show tune you could throw at her. She was unbeatable at bridge and a crossword whiz. And she had such acute memory and recall that she could name the actors in even the smallest bit parts of a movie and recite the other movies they’d been in—all decades before the magic of Google, of course. There are so many things I miss about Mum, but certainly her voice. It was full of color and heart (not to…

Slinky sprang onto the scene in 1945, when Gimbels in Philadelphia, PA, let inventor Richard James and his wife, Betty, demonstrate how Slinky could “walk” down a ramp. The pair sold out of their supply in 90 minutes and toy marketing would never be the same. Can you name the toys from these marketing taglines? 1 It was billed as “a royal game of India.” 2 In the early 1900s, it was called “an artist’s crayon at a scholar’s price.” 3 This collection of raw building materials was the “world’s greatest construction set!” 4 A 1940s version called it a “real estate trading game.” 5 Introduced in 1935, she hit the height of her popularity in the 1950s. Her box declared she “drinks, wets, cries real tears.” 6 This Milton…

GROWING UP ON our Saskatchewan farm in the ’60s and ’70s, we worked and played in our mother’s garden. A woman’s garden was a source of pride and friendly competition among neighbors. The arrival of the seed catalog every spring was cause for celebration, as it signaled that another long prairie winter was coming to an end. Beginning in 1947 and continuing for 50 years, Mom planted her garden in early May, covering the seedlings with plastic foam cups to protect them from frost. Someone joked once that it looked like a Smurf village. Among her favorites were gladioluses—her precious glads. She carefully set each bulb in the ground inside an empty milk carton to protect and support the burgeoning plant. Years later, I still marvel at the amount of…

My first three years of elementary school were not much fun, and I didn’t like school. I cried on the bus every day. Fourth grade was a different story. My father always gave me a ride to school on the first day, and when we entered Davis-Townsend Elementary School in 1967, we looked for my classroom. The names of the students in each class were posted outside the rooms, but mine wasn’t on any of the three fourth-grade lists. So my father picked a classroom and told me to take a seat there, then he went to the office. I don’t know what he said, but I remained in that classroom the rest of the year. I’m sure Daddy never understood the importance of what he did for me. The…

Local newspapers were the social media platform for our ancestors. Filled with details that bring their stories to life, the articles give context to the time period when our family members were alive. They record who our ancestors interacted with and contain news that people anxiously awaited from across the nation and the world. We may discover: Who came to weddings and funerals. Who visited, as well as who was traveling out of town. Who bought or sold property or owed taxes. Who joined the military, and who didn’t make it home. The Library of Congress archives free newspapers at chroniclingamerica.loc.gov, and Google has an archive of papers at news.google.com. Paid sites in public and genealogy libraries, and family history centers, include these: newspapers.com genealogybank.com Stores, mills, funeral parlors and more…

OUR OUTFIT CONSISTED of five-member teams scattered across Europe to establish a coordinated communications network. In a war that was highly mobile and covered a lot of ground, reliable radio communications were vital to synchronize attacks among military branches and the scattered Allied troops. Most platoons had portable radios, while command centers had high-powered sets with a range of up to 100 miles. Radio relay, transmitting signals through relay stations, allowed for communication in very challenging conditions. Relay communication played an important role in the Normandy invasion. This picture of me was taken after our service in Europe, as we were anticipating deployment to the Pacific theater.…

WHEN SHE WAS ONLY 16, MY MAMA, Clarice, got married. Like the young girl she was, she always wanted things, and my daddy tried to get Mama what she wanted. She especially loved animals. Our family lived on a farm and Mama wanted all kinds of fowl, so she ordered chickens from Sears, Roebuck & Co. We had white, red and speckled chickens, along with ducks, geese and turkeys. When I went out in the yard, the birds pecked me on my legs. Mama would have liked a peacock for the farmyard, too, but Daddy said we couldn’t afford one. When Mama wanted a cocker spaniel, Daddy got her a pretty little black puppy that she named Priscilla. Priscilla was a good little dog until she learned how much fun…

1949 BRUSH HER CARES AWAY Toothbrushes were bestsellers for Pro-Phy-Lac-Tic (aka Pro-Brush Co.), but the company based in Florence, Massachusetts, had been making all kinds of brushes since the 1880s—after perfecting a plastic compound used for the handles. 1962 SPARK HER INTEREST Founded as Art Metal Works in New Jersey in the 1890s, Ronson was known for lighters made with innovation and flair, with touches such as enamels and inlays that appealed to women. These sleek butane Varaflames are no exception. 1949 SWEETS FOR THE SWEET Already more than 100 years old in 1949, Whitman’s was a trendsetter. Its artistic Le Brun box, designed for Mother’s Day in 1924, is a collectible today. The Sampler, an instant hit in 1915, remains the brand’s most popular product. 1949 MANAGE THE PURSE…

The kindergarten class that entered Stanley Hall School in Evansville, Indiana, in 1957 grew up fully integrated. The old building had its first blending of races a few years prior to our arrival, but for us segregation was unnatural. We played and worked together as friends, went to one another’s houses and spent the night. But as we grew up, we began to notice segregation outside of school. In seventh grade my best friend was Eric Johnson. He was handsome, intelligent, athletic and a born leader. Siggy (his middle name was Sigmund) and I, both preacher’s kids, decided to do something about the disparity we saw. Siggy’s father allowed him to help me organize an integrated Boy Scout troop. We were determined to make this a genuinely integrated enterprise, with…

“I believe that even the worst things that have happened to you happen for a reason.” After overcoming polio, Shore was a lifelong athlete. She contracted the disease as a toddler, but worked hard to recuperate and in 1934 won the Best All-Around Girl award for athletics at Hume Fogg High School. An avid golfer, she highlighted women’s golf by founding an LPGA tournament. She earned nine gold records. The stage name Dinah came from a popular song Shore sang at an audition. By 1942, her rich contralto in the sultry “Blues in the Night” needed no introduction, and her version of “I’ll Walk Alone” made it to No. 1 in 1944. Shore had 75 hits during her recording career. The overseas troops loved her. Her early success as a…

AS A MILITARY POLICEMAN IN A TRAFFIC squad of the 89th Infantry Division, I was often the only MP assigned to an intersection or area. Traffic section MPs usually work alone or in pairs, so it can take time to get to know your fellow soldiers. And I was assigned to the 89th only the day before it was committed to combat. Shortly after we crossed the Rhine in March 1945, we had the Germans on the run. We were moving fast, covering as many as 40 miles a day. We often passed pockets of the enemy, making the “front” a loosely defined area instead of a line. At this time, many German troops realized the war was lost. Their morale was low, so most of the isolated units gave…

THEY WERE BEST FRIENDS—my brother Art, Curt Wagner, Bud Braunlich and Bill Weston. All were at school together in Davenport, Iowa, but when the war came, they went in different directions. Three joined the Navy. Art was a Seabee in Guam, Curt served in the South Pacific and Bud was in the invasion of Iwo Jima. Bill joined the Army and went to France. Art did his best to keep up with his buddies. In November 1944, he wrote to Bill: “It sure will be swell when we can get together again and talk things over. Remember how the four of us used to go to the show on Saturday night?” My brother’s letter was returned unopened. Bill was killed in action on Dec. 3, 1944. All four went to…

Different and cute, they burst onto the scene in the early 1980s, and every little girl, it seemed, wanted a Cabbage Patch doll. Even some adults wanted one. At first, there weren’t enough on the market to meet demand, which just made people want them all the more. My mother, Alda Stewart, was a doll collector all her life. When she moved to a large house in Kansas City in 1965, she worked as an antiques dealer and, for a time, she also worked at a Goodwill store. She continued to collect dolls. At one point she had several original Shirley Temple dolls and a Lucille Ball doll, which was one of her favorites. She later sold some of her collection for about $4,000. The Cabbage Patch dolls were another…