Sell Those Textbooks!

I gave Dear Daughter some money last week to clean out a few closets upstairs......so I wouldn't have to.


She deposited three large containers with odds and ends at the bottom of the steps and announced she was done. 


 I said....."Oh, are those things to throw away?" 


She responded yes, but I was already ticking off things I could readily see as items I had paid for and might want to use again, so......instead of hauling the containers off to the street to the trash I sat down and went through the containers. 


 I made three piles.....keep, Goodwill, and trash. 


 Wouldn't you know it? The trash pile was the smallest, but Goodwill was fairly substantial. Most of the items in the keep pile were notebook binders and textbooks. Yes, she was going to throw away good....heavy....expensive textbooks.


 I decided I could sell them online, and this is what I found:



Via: Sell Back Your Book

The Atlas of True Names

One of the maps available from The Atlas of True Names

Take a look at the map I posted above.   Notice something strange?   This map is from The Atlas of True Names.

This site…..The Atlas of True Names…..is a truly unique resource.   The website states its purpose is to reveal the etymological roots, or original meanings, of the familiar terms on today’s maps of the World, Europe, the British Isles and the United States……The ‘True Names’ of 3000 cities, countries, rivers, oceans and mountain ranges are displayed on these four fascinating maps, each of which includes a comprehensive index of derivations.

You can read more about the site from The New York Times or from Spiegel Online.   Apparently these maps have been around since 2008, but I’m just now seeing them.   Yes, I know that’s hard to believe, but somehow I overlooked them.

You can order the maps here.

So, instead of me telling you how I would use them in the classroom……..what would you do?

A Quiet, Simple Life

There are many places I like.    There are a few I love.   Then there are those unique places that I fall in love with and could stay there forever.

Seaside, Florida is one of those places for me.

Seaside, Florida

The minute I enter the picturesque town I feel the creative energy.   I feel the friendliness of the town, and the Victorian charm draws me in.

A fantastic livable space....

It’s just an added bonus that sandy white beaches and the emerald water of the Gulf of Mexico are just mere steps away.

The town was developed in the late 1980s as a modern day Victorian town complete with narrow streets, white picket fences, and lots of pastel colors.   

Many of the dwellings are hidden in gnarled mangroves and magnolias.

Can I stay here forever?

Robert Davis – the man who developed Seaside – revolutionized the concept of town planning forevermore.    The development began as a parcel of 80 acres that Davis inherited from his grandfather.  Instead of wanting to build a vacation getaway and keep others away – as many would have done – Davis decided he wanted to build a town……an entire town.

One of the park area surrounded by shops and homes.

Davis based Seaside on the principles of New Urbanism which includes towns that are friendly to walkers, contain a variety of housing, and encourages many different types of jobs.

To tell you the truth the whole thing reminds me of sitting around with a bunch of friends when you were nine or ten and brainstorming some wild and crazy idea and setting off in a frenzy to make it a real thing, but in the case of Davis…..he really did make his dream a reality including touring small town after small town in Florida to grasp the concepts he wanted to reproduce at Seaside.  

This isn’t a place to have a vacation away from your life…..this is a place to make your life the vacation.

Seaside is filled with several interesting shops.

There are work places and creative places and one of the state’s first charter schools is located in Seaside.  There are places for sports, a spa, and a performance theater.

The building in the middle is in the center of Seaside....it's the post office.

Would I introduce a concept like Seaside to my students?  

Why of course I would.  I’d begin by showing them pictures from my Spring Break and move into the concept of New Urbanism and how Seaside fits the mold.   Then I would allow student brainstorm and let them draw up plans to recreate their town into a place where they could have a simple, beautiful life complete with drawings.  

I think it would a fun and thought provoking activity.

  

What about you?

Just take a gander at the website for the town.

  

Notice the motto……”A simple, beautiful life”.  

Isn’t that what everyone wants?   

A Topic for Discussion...Handicaps and Politics

When you stop for a moment and consider Franklin Delano Roosevelt you have to be amazed and filled with awe that a man who had suffered through such a tremendous physical tragedy as he did during the summer of 1921 was able to rise to the highest office in the land given prevailing opinions concerning the disabled at that time.

FDR contracted polio…or what was thought to be polio while on vacation and even though various cures never worked to restore his legs he also never accepted the fact his paralysis was permanent and constantly felt he was getting better.   Many state today his paralysis might have been from the effects of Guillain-Barre Syndrome and not Polio, but no matter the cause FDR was what our society deems as handicapped.

Yet, at the time of his death in 1945 and for years afterward very few Americans knew the full extent of FDR’s physical limitations.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt....one of three public photos showing him in his wheel chair

Once he entered the political fray again he was very careful not to allow the general public to see him in his wheel chair.    The picture I’ve shared here is only one of three that exist showing his chair.  He worked very hard at manufacturing a type of walk to appear as normal as possible.  Using iron braces on his legs he twisted his torso back and forth while using a cane for support.   FDR’s sons generally accompanied their farther on public appearances and walked by his side to support him.  His arrivals and departures from public events were orchestrated so that FDR was never seen getting in or out of his vehicle. 

By 1929, FDR was governor of New York….by 1932 he was running for President of the United States.

So, how was this done?   In a September, 1978 article in Reviews in American History dealing with  general opinions regarding the handicapped in years gone by P.K. Longmore advises handicapped people were kept at home, out of sight, and in back bedrooms by families who felt a mixture of embarrassment and shame in their presence.   It’s hard to fathom today, but it was true, and FDR knew this.  He didn’t want to appear weak or as H.G. Gallagher states in FDR’s Splendid Deception, “Those with disabilities were viewed as flawed in moral character as well as body.”

Knowing this FDR and his family as well as close supporters opted to hide his disability as much as possible, and the media allowed this.   It was a different time.   There was line drawn between someone’s personal life and their political one.   In fact, political cartoons actually showed FDR running, jumping, and even leaping, and many thought he actually could.

So, would it have been possible during the early half of the Twentieth Century for someone in a wheel chair to be elected to public office?    Obviously FDR thought it would be an issue for him.   It was a personal decision to obscure the fact as much as possible.  

But….paralyzed men were elected to public office during the 1920s including seats in our Congress.

Meet William D. Upshaw or “Earnest Willie” as folks in the Fifth Congressional District in Georgia knew him.    

William D. "Earnest Willie" Upshaw...

Yes, Congressman Upshaw is in a wheelchair.   At the age of 18 he fell on the crosspiece of a farm wagon and was paralyzed from the waist down until very late in his life.   I discovered Upshaw’s story while researching and writing about local history where I live.   You can read more about Upshaw’s entry into political life at my local history blog titled Every Now and Then here.

As I learned more about the Upshaw story I had to think about how interesting it would be to discuss with students how President Roosevelt  endured his handicap….how he decided to obscure his condition from the public while contrasting Congressman Upshaw who didn’t hide inability to walk at all….from anyone.   One of the most interesting facets to the story concerns both men as they both……yes, BOTH of them……ran for president in 1932.   Upshaw was a staunch Prohibitionist and was the candidate for the Prohibition Party.

The dynamic begs for examination, doesn’t it?    Two handicapped men running for president during an era when the disabled were shunned and kept out sight and many felt their morality was in question.  Upshaw chose to be out in the open…..while FDR didn’t. 

  

It should make for some interesting discussion in the classroom, don’t you think?

Bullets and Ballots

The song I’ve posted below isn’t as popular as Marvin Gaye’s hit “What’s Going On?”, but it is from the same album….the first of its kind for Motown…a concept album.





Gaye wrote the songs during a time of great depression when he isolated himself from the outside world.  This site explains....Through television news broadcasts, Gaye saw the racial, political, and social problems that were plaguing the world, manifestations from the explosion of political and social activism that took place during the late ‘60s. As he wallowed in his seclusion, Gaye read letters from his brother Frankie serving in the Vietnam War. They described the confusion and frustration he and other soldiers felt fighting in a war that had no just cause. Many black soldiers at the time felt doubly conflicted, drafted to fight and die for a country that refused to accept them because of the color of their skin. These observations, along with the loss of Tammi Terrell, motivated Gaye to question his role in the world and at Motown.

…The songs [from  the album] are told from the point of view of a black soldier returning home from fighting in a white man’s war. It is an unrecognizable America, filled with racial violence and uprisings, political strife and protests. The album is a question-inducing commentary about change, love, and hate.

The Vietnam War wasn’t the first war when soldiers came home to a changing landscape.  Many men and women returning from serving their country during World War II was met with changes as well….especially the solders from McMinn County, Tennessee
.

This site tells us….  In McMinn County, Tennessee, in the early 1940s, the question was not if you farmed, but where you farmed. Athens, the county seat, lay between Knoxville and Chattanooga along U.S. Highway 11, which wound its way through eastern Tennessee. This was the meeting place for farmers from all the surrounding communities. Traveling along narrow roads planted with signs urging them to “See Rock City” and “Get Right with God,” they would gather on Saturdays beneath the courthouse elms to discuss politics and crops. There were barely seven thousand people in Athens, and many of its streets were still unpaved. The two “big” cities some fifty miles away had not yet begun their inevitable expansion, and the farmers’ lives were simple and essentially unaffected by what they would have called the “modern world.” Many of them were without electricity. The land, their families, religion, politics, and the war dominated their talk and thoughts. They learned about God from the family Bible and in tiny chapels along yellow-dust roads. Their newspaper, the Daily Post-Athenian, told them something of politics and war, but since it chose to avoid intrigue or scandal, a story that smacked of both could be found only in the conversations of the folks who milled about the courthouse lawn on Saturdays.

During the Civil War, McMinn County favored the Union and it was strong Republican held community, but in the 1930s Tennessee began to fall under the control of Democratic bosses. To the west, in Shelby County, E.H. Crump, the Memphis mayor who had been ousted during his term for failing to enforce Prohibition, fathered what would become the state’s most powerful political machine. Crump eventually controlled most of Tennessee along with the governor’s office and a United States senator. In eastern Tennessee local and regional machines developed, which, lacking the sophistication and power of a Crump, relied on intimidation and violence to control their constituents.

In 1936 the system descended upon McMinn County in the person of one Paul Cantrell, the Democratic candidate for sheriff. Cantrell, who came from a family of money and influence in nearby Etowah, tied his campaign closely to the popularity of the Roosevelt administration and rode FDR’s coattails to victory over his Republican opponent.

As more and more of McMinn’s able-bodied men began to head off to war Cantrell was able to gain more power.  Cantrell was elected Sheriff in 1936, 1938, and 1940.  Then he decided to run for State Senate and was elected in 1942 and 1944.  His chief deputy, Pat Mansfield took Cantrell’s position as Sheriff.

Cantrell was able to get a bill passed through the state legislature redistricting the county from 23 voting precincts down to 12….basically eliminating any Republication opposition.  Voting machines were sold supposedly to save money, but basically it was done so that votes could be tampered with a little easier. 

There were continued charges of election fraud in the form of swapped ballot boxes and voter intimidation.  The Department of Justice investigated each election from 1940-44, but no action was taken. 
 

The sheriff’s department operated a fee system where they received a cut of the money for every person they booked, incarcerated and released.  Buses headed through the county would be pulled over….people were ticketed for drunkenness as a matter of habit….it didn’t matter if they were guilty or not.

The people felt they were powerless to fight Cantrell and his men. Cantrell had taken advantage of the fact that most of his opposition was away fighting the war.  McMinn citizens hoped once their soldiers returned home things would change.

Bill White, [a soldier] recalled coming home from overseas with mustering-out pay in his pocket: “There were several beer joints and honky-tonks around Athens; we were pretty wild; we started having trouble with the law enforcement at that time because they started making a habit of picking up GIs and fining them heavily for most anything—they were kind of making a racket out of it.

...At last the veterans chose to use the most basic right of the democracy for which they had gone to war: the right to vote. In the early months of 1946 they decided in secret meetings to field a slate of their own candidates for the August elections. In May they formed a nonpartisan political party.

Leading up to the election both sides made charges against the other and ultimately the powder keg erupted on Election Day.   Cantrell’s machine hired men from neighboring towns to “keep the peace”, but basically they were there to intimidate people as they walked around polling places with pistols and blackjacks.  As in past elections anyone who objected to anything were labeled as troublemakers.

Poll workers were attacked and one was thrown through a glass door. Before all was said and done 20 people would be hurt that day, 14 cars were overturned and burned, and the jail ended up being under siege for several hours by several townspeople/ex-soldiers. 

Just another Election Day, huh?

During the melee Cantrell and some of his men fled the town.   The next morning the twenty-five deputies attempting to hold the jail gave up and surrendered.   The story goes they were taken to the edge of town, stripped naked and told to keep walking.

Miraculously there had been no deaths. But on August 2 a page-one headline in The New York Times wrongly trumpeted the news: TENNESSEE SHERIFF is SLAIN IN PRIMARY DAY VIOLENCE. All day long reporters with cameras and notebooks poured into town to photograph, question, analyze, and write. And every newcomer passed the sign on Highway 11:  WELCOME TO ATHENS “The Friendly City”.

The “victory” of the veterans that night in August, 1946 appeared, at first, to have settled nothing. The national press was almost unanimous in condemning the action of the GIs. In an editorial perhaps best reflecting the ambivalence of a startled nation, The New York Times concluded: “Corruption, when and where it exists, demands reform, and even in the most corrupt and boss-ridden communities, there are peaceful means by which reform can be achieved. But there is no substitute, in a democracy, for orderly process.” The syndicated columnist Robert C. Ruark commented: “There is very little difference, essentially, between a vigilante and a member of a lynch mob, and if we are seeking an answer to crooked politics, the one that the Athens boys just propounded sure ain’t it.” Commonwealth cautiously compared the battle to the American Revolution, then went on to say that “nothing could be more dangerous both for our liberties and our welfare than the making of the McMinn County Revolution into a habit.”

On August 4 Pat Mansfield telegraphed his resignation as sheriff of McMinn County to Governor McCord and requested that Knox Henry fill his unexpired term, which would end on September 1. Henry was appointed immediately, and the next day State Rep. George Woods returned to the county under GI protection to convene the election commission and certify the election. A cheer rang out in the courthouse when Woods rose as the canvass ended and announced that Knox Henry was elected sheriff by a vote of 2,175 to 1,270. After their victory, GIs with machine guns waited for a Cantrell counterattack.

It never happened…….The Cantrell Machine in McMinn County had been quashed.

Henry Knox, the sheriff elected after the election 'war'

I guess my main point in bringing all this up is to say that it’s easy to think whatever issues our country is going through is something new….. wars, violence, racism, media spin, politics so polarized that nothing is done, conspiracy theories, conspiracy truths, talking heads spinning half-truths, being so busy thinking ahead to YOUR next point that you don’t HEAR the person across from you, and politicians so willing to hang on to the power of their office they are willing to make the so called solutions so convoluted that more chaos is created than solved.

Unfortunately, we haven’t learned from history, and our problems aren’t anything new…..we just have more outlets to throw the muck around instantly.

America is unrecognizable to me……

Just how polarized do things have to be before they get better?

What’s happening?

John Miller: Anonymous Activist

It seems these days everyone has a forum or two to make their opinions known on every subject possible.  We can post to Facebook or Twitter.  

We can have our own blog or self-publish our own books.   We can text, we can make regular comments online at various sites, and we can call in to various television and radio shows.

Over the last few years we’ve seen how social media can help to accelerate revolutions and impact protests in foreign countries, we can see how fast ideas travel and take on momentum via videos and Internet links that go viral.

I often wonder if we aren’t literally drowning in TOO much information….

I often wonder if the present quagmire of partisan politics isn’t caused by TOO much information….

Just imagine for a few minutes how events could have been shaped during the 1700s leading up to the American Revolution if people in England and the Colonies had access to some of the technology we do today along with the resulting partisanship, finger pointing and spin….not to mention the “gotchas”.

Thankfully….I think….the best bet someone had back then to get their point of view out for others to see involved paper and ink in the form of letters and newspapers.

As early as 1722 Ben Franklin was penning his Silence Dogood letters in the colonies, but from 1769 to 1772 folks in London England were reading the Letters of Junius…..letters that some historians claim sparked the concept of freedom of the press and influenced our own American Revolution.

If you haven’t heard of the Letters of Junius I’m not surprised.  I was never taught about them either….even though I’ve sat in numerous World history and British history courses where it would be appropriate to mention their impact.

The Letters of Junius were anonymous letters written in England attacking members of government including the King of England regarding all sorts of matters including immorality.  All total there were 69 letters….29 were sent directly to the publisher of the Public Advertiser, a London newspaper, while 40 letters were sent to individuals…mainly government officials, but they were later made public.

The government brought charges against several people for publishing the letters including Henry Sampson Woodall, owner and editor of the Public Advertiser.  Many historians credit Sir Philip Francis, an English politician with writing the letters.  However, there are others who name at least 40 other people who might be Junius including Benjamin Franklin since he was in London at the time the letters were published.  Franklin was known to send open letters to the paper using his own name including his letter addressed to Lord North in 1774.

Today, McGill University in Canada maintains a large collection of the Junius Letters.  Their website state, “The letters themselves after more than two hundred years are a most startling example of political polemic (when someone provides their views) and invective (expressing blame or censure).”

The objective of the letters was simple.   They were written to inform the public of their historical and constitutional rights and liberties as Englishmen, and to highlight where and how the government infringed upon these rights.

All total Junius used three other pseudonyms including the name Philo-Junius…a character who appeared to rescue Junius when it appeared he was being misunderstood by the public at some point.

Junius had a real impact on the British government.   Many people were influenced by the letters and real concepts of liberty were sparked.  The letters even provoked some rioting.

The letters are important because of their political significance, their style and the fact a mystery surrounds who wrote them.   Many critics state the author of the letters no matter who he was ahead of his time.

Some views of Janius include:

*We owe it our ancestors to preserve entire those rights, which they have delivered to our care; we owe it to our posterity, not to suffer their dearest inheritance to be destroyed…1769

*When the constitution is openly invaded, when the first original right of the people, from which all laws derive their authority, is directly attacked, inferior grievances naturally lose their force, and are suffered to pass by without punishment or observation….October 17, 1769

*They [the Americans] equally detest the pageantry of a king, and the supercilious hypocrisy of a bishop….December 19, 1769

*The injustice done to an individual is sometimes of service to the public.  Facts are apt to alarm us more than the most dangerous principles…..November 14, 1770

*The government of England is a government of law.   We betray ourselves, we contradict the spirit of our laws, and we shake the whole system of English jurisprudence, whenever we entrust a discretionary power of the life, liberty, or fortune of the subject to any man or set of men, whatsoever, upon a presumption that it will not be abused……May 25, 1771

You can view the entire contents of one of the letters here.

Of all of the possible authors regarding the Junius Letters the most interesting man to me is John Miller….mainly because he is the great-grandfather of a man who is prominent in the history of my hometown.

John Miller was an English printer who immigrated to South Carolina in 1783.  Prior to arriving in the colonies John Miller had created quite a reputation London as being a bit outspoken regarding many topics including the government, and of course, he supported a free press. He was brought to trial several times regarding items he printed and served time in prison. 

John Miller eventually settled in Pendleton County, South Carolina where he has his own historical marker.

Hurley E. Badders who wrote Remembering South Carolina’s Old Pendleton District said, “The stories he, as well as other newspapermen told, likely led to freedom of the press being written into our Bill of Rights.”

Badders also stated, “Miller had been classed as a radical in England, but in America he showed conservative tendencies often refusing to print political contributions.   For this and his foreign birth he was frequently denounced.”    Even so, Miller was a member of the Pendleton Franklin Society – an anti-federalist group concerned with the new nation’s policies.      Miller was very fond of saying, “Laziness in politics is like laziness in agriculture; it exposes the soil to noxious weeds.”

Following 1783 Miller devoted time to agriculture and politics helping to choose a site for the Pendleton County Courthouse, and he served as the first clerk of court.  I find it an interesting coincidence that his grandson, Richard M. Wilson would also serve as the first clerk of court in Douglas County, Georgia. 

Prior to his death Miller did return to journalism.

John Miller’s Weekly Messenger was established on January 16, 1807.   The name was later changed to the Pendleton Messenger following Miller’s death at the end of the year.   It was sold to an Anderson paper in 1858.

Other than the few historical markers in Pendleton John Miller slipped into obscurity upon his death…..just one more person who fought for what he believed in and made his mark by avoiding the sidelines.

There’s a lesson in there somewhere, and I’m not just referring to historical content either.

I’ve written about John Miller’s grandson and his role in our American story here.

Myths, Memories and Music

On October 2, 1925, the Church Hill section of Richmond, Virginia suffered a great tragedy when a train tunnel caved in at the exact moment a train happened to be in the tunnel.  Several people lost their lives.  

It wasn’t long after the cave-in that a story began circulating describing a blood covered creature with jagged teeth.  Huge patches of decomposing skin were hanging off the creature’s legs and arms.  The tale went on to explain how at the time of the tragic cave-in the creature made his way towards the James River and then to Hollywood Cemetery where he was last seen entering the crypt that belonged to William Worthan Pool.

It only added to the story that Mr. Pool’s burial site did not share a birth date…only the year he died….1913. 

He never died?  Seriously?

Somehow the story morphed into a vampire story and the tale of the Richmond Vampire was widely told through the years.   Mr. Pool had lived a very ordinary life before passing away at the age of 80. He moved to Virginia in the 1860s and had clerked for many years in one of the tobacco factories in the area and had last been employed as bookkeeper.

So…..fact, or myth?

Researchers have determined that there was a creature of sorts that day at the cave-in, but he didn’t run off and hide in Mr. Pool’s crypt.   The creature’s name was Benjamin F. Mosby.  He worked for the railroad.   The day of the crash he was working as the fireman which meant he was shoveling coal into the steam tank of the train.   At the time of the accident Mosby was scalded and burned terribly….some sources state “beyond recognition”.   Mosby was taken to Grace Hospital in Richmond.  His burns were too severe though and he passed away the following day. 

So much for the Richmond Vampire, but the tale isn’t the only reason why Hollywood Cemetery is one of Richmond’s most popular tourist attractions.   There are many other reasons, too.

I attended a house concert last Saturday night.   A house concert is a musical performance presented in someone’s home or other private space.  The benefits of a house concert are many….including the fact that a certain intimacy exists between the performers and the audience during the performance.   Think about one of your favorite performers coming to your home and providing a concert for you and a few of your friends, and you get the idea.

I was fortunate enough to bask in the music of Jeff Pike, a personal friend of mine, and Hugo Duarte  as they brought their Frozen Gringo tour through Atlanta along with approximately 30 other people. 

There was lots of great music mixed in with great stories.  

The Frozen Gringos....Jeff Pike and Hugo Duarte....Marietta, Georgia

In fact, one of Hugo Duarte’s stories reminded me about the fascinating cemetery in Richmond, Virginia that overlooks the James River.  The place is so much more than the myth of the Richmond Vampire. It seems that Hugo was in the cemetery late one afternoon after closing time......and he ended up on the wrong side of the locked front gate.

Hollywood Cemetery was established in 1849 from land that had long been known as “Harvie’s Woods.”   The cemetery website states, “The land that is now Hollywood was inherited by  William Byrd, III and was part of his graceful estate, Belvidere, on what is  now Oregon Hill.  After Byrd wasted his fortune on foolish schemes [sounds like a good story there] his land passed through Bushrod Washington and Lighthorse Harry Lee to Colonel John Harvie.”

Hollywood Cemetery with the James River in the background

The name….”Hollywood”…came from the number of holly trees scattered about the property. 

There are so many people buried at Hollywood…important people…historical figures. such as President James Monroe and President John Tyler as well as the only President of the Confederate States of America….Jefferson Davis.

….and then there ARE the 25 Confederate generals resting at Hollywood along with 18,000 Confederate soldiers (see this link).

There are many stories regarding all sorts of sightings of spirts at the cemetery along with the eerie feeling many advise they get while on the property.    

Hollywood Cemetery....it does seem a little spooky.

Hugo Duarte is no different.  His song….Hollywood…recounts his own visit to the property....after regular hours.    In 2007, he sang the song for General Pickett’s birthday along with Eddie Pickett.

I love the words…..

Hey, boys this is Hollywood.  It ain’t home, but It’s home for good.  We’d walk away from here if we could…never come back again.

And later in the song…..

Then General Pickett strode right up to me and in a troubled voice he said, “Ya’ll ain’t learned a damn thing from history….”

Take a listen for yourself…..

I’d have to agree with General Pickett.   We haven't learned anything...yet.

You can see future Frozen Gringo tour dates here.  If you are close by one of their shows I strong urge you to attend. :)

Vin Fiz: Adventures With Grape Soda

There’s a little restaurant not too far from my home that we frequent for the great steaks and great service.   I usually order an adult beverage before dinner….a little something served up in a martini glass called a Cosmic Grape.   The drink reminds me of a frozen Fanta Grape soda…..not as sweet as a Fanta, but similar.   The last time we were there I ordered my Cosmic Grape and then wondered aloud what might be in the drink so we could recreate it at home.   I assumed it contained one of the new flavored vodkas….seems like every flavor under the sun is offered up these days.

I picked up my hand-dandy smart phone and went online to look up the recipe.   I entered the words “cosmic grape” in the search box.

Guess what I found?

Yes, I found recipes that seemed like they could be my beloved Cosmic Grape, but I found something much more interesting.

My recipe quest was soon forgotten because I found a bit of history involving grade soda and the first transcontinental flight across our country. 

The year was 1911 and newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst offered $50,000 to the first person who flew a plane from coast to coast within a 30 days or less.  This was most certainly a challenge in those days because on average planes flew at 50 miles per hour and only rose to about 1,000 feet in the air.

Calbraith Perry Rodgers was a risk taker.  Perhaps his bravery came from overcoming the fact he was deaf in one year and nearly deaf in the other….due to scarlet fever.   Perhaps his bravery stemmed from the fact he was related to Oliver Hazard Perry – hero of the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812 and Matthew Calbraith Perry – U.S. Navy Commodore during the Mexican-American War, served during the War of 1812, and was instrumental in opening up China to the West in the 1850s.   The family could also trace their family line to the Scottish hero William Wallace.

Calbraith Perry Rodgers

Knowing his family connections it’s not surprising to find out Calbraith Perry Rodgers became interested in aviation.   He took 90 minutes of flying lessons with Orville Wright and became only one of 49 men who were licensed to fly in 1911.

He took Hearst up on his challenge and set about finding a sponsor to help with the expense of flying a plane across the United States.

Enter another famous name during the early 20^th century – J. Ogden Amour – owner and president of Amour & Company.  During his tenure as president the company expanded nationwide and overseas, growing from a small regional meatpacker to the largest food product company in the United States.

Mr. Armour agreed to sponsor Rodgers.   Part of the deal required Rodgers to name his plane after a new soft drink Armour was promoting – a grape soda called Vin Fiz.   The drink was one of several that hit the market at the turn of the century as an answer to temperance movement.  The soda’s name would be painted on the plane’s rudders and underneath the wings.   Vin Fiz was known as “the ideal grape soda”.   Somehow I don’t think it could hold a candle to my beloved Fanta Grape.   I guess I’ll never know….   

Armour also paid for a chase train to follow Rodgers.  The 3-car support train would be known as the Vin Fiz Special.

Grape sodas wasn’t the only thing promoted on the flight.  Airmail service was also promoted with special 25-cent postage stamps.   They weren’t issued by the Post Office, but they were allowed at the time.   Mail carried on the Vin Fiz also had to have regular stamps, too.   The Vin Fiz stamps were large and inscribed “Rodgers Aerial Post” and “Vin Fiz Flyer”.   There was a picture of the plane on them as well.  Today the stamps are very rare…..there are 12 known to exist today…….seven on postcards, one on a cover, and four individuals.  One sold in 1999 for $88,000.

  

The flight began on September 17, 1911 taking off from Sheepshed Bay, New York.   Along the way there were 75 stops and 16 crashes….and yes……several injuries.

Sadly Rodgers missed the 30 day deadline imposed by William Randolph Hearst.  His next to the last stop was Pasadena, California where he landed the Vin Fiz in front of a crowd of 20,000 people.  The landing hadn’t been his best leaving Rodgers with a concussion and a spinal twist.   He wasn’t finished though.  He took off again and finally reached the Pacific Ocean landing on the beach and then promptly taxied into the surf on December 10^th.   It had taken nearly three months, but the actually flying time amounted to 84 hours or three and half days.

Today the Vin Fiz plane is on display at the National Air and Space Museum.

You can find out more details regarding the Vin Fizz here.

Clive Cussler…one of my favorite authors….penned what has been described as a charmingly nostalgic tale about a pair of ten-year-old twins who get their wish to explore the wide world beyond their parent’s  California farm titled The Adventures of Vin Fiz.   Check it out!