Harry Hits the Road

When an ex-president gets behind the wheel, the destination is Adventure!

Harry and Bess behind the wheel

You’ve just wrapped up the most demanding job on earth. For nearly eight years you were President of the United States. You used the atomic bomb for the first time, transitioned the economy from war footing back to a peacetime free market basis (including managing the tsunami of millions of men and women rushing home from World War II, each impatiently demanding a job and a place to live), helped create the United Nations, and stood up to Communist aggression in Korea.

So, what do you do next?

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When Hitler Invaded England … in 1974

flag

History is littered with possibilities, and the only thing historians love more than bickering among themselves is speculating about what might have happened if the past had played out differently.

What if JFK hadn’t been assassinated?
What if FDR had only served the traditional two terms as president?
And perhaps the most intriguing of all … what if the South had won the Civil War?
Tantalizing possibilities of what may have been gained, or lost, in a history that wasn’t.

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Meet the Old West’s Last Gunfighter

From Oregon State Archives.

You know Jesse James and Billy the Kid. You’ve watched “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” and heard tales of John Wesley Hardin and the Dalton Brothers. All legends in their time, all still outlaw icons today.

Every era eventually ends, and the Old West was no exception. The lawlessness that began with the Civil War’s conclusion stretched into the earliest days of the 20th Century. And when that era finally wrapped up, who was its final desperado?

Meet Harry Tracy, who went down with guns blazing in 1902. He was wildly famous in his day, much like John Dillinger and Bonnie and Clyde were later on. If the FBI had existed then, he would have been Public Enemy #1. Continue reading →

Happy 5th of July!

calendar_july_5Here we are, the day after Independence Day. So what to write? Our interest in the Fourth of July ended with last night’s fireworks display. Nobody enjoys reading about the Big Day on the Day After the Big Day. Ever read an article about the true meaning of Christmas on December 26th? No, and you never will.

But I have to write about something. July 5th happens to be my father’s birthday (happy birthday, dad!) which got me wondering: what else happened on this date?

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How A Murdered Hound Became “Man’s Best Friend” (Sort of)

Sally

Our Sally. February 12, 2002 – June 26, 2015

You run a terrible risk when you welcome a dog into your life. We know they will only be with us a short while, and yet we fling our heart wide open to them anyway. Even if we tried to resist, we couldn’t: they would wiggle their way inside anyhow. And when the time comes that we must say goodbye, it hurts like a thousand darts hitting your soul.

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Meet the Five Worst Moms in History

bad-mommy

Mother’s Day is here again. The air is filled with purple prose from Hallmark, florists are exhausted from non-stop deliveries, and if you’re planning on eating out, better bring a lawn chair so you can relax during the long wait for a table.

Most people think they have the best mother of all time. (They’re mistaken; my mom was the world’s best.) But this post takes the opposite view. Let me introduce you to the Five Worst Moms in History. Continue reading →

111 Prostitutes: The Original Love Boat

 “There is not much desire on the part of our authorities to welcome such a large addition to the already overflowing numbers engaged in their peculiar profession.” 

– Cincinnati Gazette, 1863

Stemboat

You wouldn’t wanted to have been William Rosecrans in the spring of 1863, because he was having a really tough time at work.

Rosecrans was major general in command of the Army of the Cumberland, and he had two equally pressing problems. First, Abraham Lincoln was riding him hard because he hadn’t been able to drive the Confederate army out of Tennessee. That’s enough to keep a general awake at night. But it was child’s play compared to his other dilemma: how to get rid of all those prostitutes behind his lines? Continue reading →

How a Blizzard Put “Blizzard” In Our Vocabulary

 

TrainBoy, the groundhog sure got it right. He forecast six more weeks of winter. Given the relentless cold and snow we’ve had since then, six more months of winter is more like it.

In some parts of the country (especially New England and Long Island), all that snow was blown in by a blizzard. With folks still shoveling out of drifts taller than the Budweiser Clydesdales, you may be interested to learn how the word blizzard entered America’s vocabulary.

Blame it on, of all things, a blizzard. But it didn’t start that way. Continue reading →

How Great-Grandpa Powell (and some sheep) Helped a City Survive the Great Depression

Powell grave

This is a banner day for my family. My Great-Grandfather Elisha Powell was born exactly 150 years ago today, February 15, 1865.

I never met the gentleman; he left this life 22 years before I entered it. He was born, raised, lived and died in and around St. Joseph, Missouri. He was a farmer who did carpentry work on the side (including repairing boxcars for the Union Pacific Railroad).

But it’s what he did in retirement in the early 1930s that has always intrigued me – and which can teach an important lesson to today’s cash-strapped municipal governments. Continue reading →