SILHOUETTES by Dorothy Graham Gast Silhouettes have been used as a means of representing images of leaders for thousands of years as evidenced by coins bearing the likenesses of their rulers. In the Bible Jesus responded to those Jewish leaders trying to trap him by asking if the Jews should pay taxes. His response was […]
Erosion of land was a major problem in Georgia during the 1930’s along with the depression. Marion Post Walcott visited Georgia and documented the economic difficulties residents had with photographs Her photographs provide a glimpse of life in rural Georgia in 1939. The descriptions included with the photographs are hers. Farmer in overalls pointing toward eroded […]
A Night I Can’t Remember by Joyce Ray Wheeler A cyclone is a low pressure area in the atmosphere in which winds spiral inward. All cyclones have two characteristics. The atmosphere pressure is lowest at the center. The winds spiral inward at the center. (Why in the world am I defining cyclones?) There are very few of my Ray family left. My dad was born into a family […]
The phrase, ‘Plain sailing’ is used to describe a process or activity that goes well and is easy and uncomplicated. Actually it is another nautical phrase and derives from 17-18th century, originally ‘plane sailing’, the term for a quick method of navigating short distances, when positions and distances could be plotted as if on a flat plane […]
The Great Depression and Dust Bowl were difficult years in United States History. Many people left their farms and became migrant workers due to the Dust Bowl and traveled to California to pick vegetables and fruit. This song Why don’t you write a letter home? was performed by Sam Bell in Tuolumne County, California on […]
You’ve probably heard the story of the robbers, Bonnie and Clyde, but have you ever heard of the Blonde Bandit? This story reminds me of the play and movie Chicago. In February 1930, twenty-year-old Sally Joyce Richards, branded the “Blonde Bandit,” was found guilty of first-degree robbery and sentenced to twenty years to life in […]
THE ALABAMA LANDING by Jon R McKinnie Hernando DeSoto’s expedition In 1541-1542, Spanish explorer Hernando DeSoto’s expedition included the first white men to explore this particular area of north Louisiana. They had traveled throughout mid-America from the Mobile, AL starting point and, in time, to south Arkansas and north Louisiana. Expedition journals record they spent […]
CHRISTMAS SURPRISE by Clifford Dobyns Written: November 2009 I was five years old in 1937 and unknown to me was that my parents had decided to get me a tricycle for Christmas and had ordered one from Sears, Roebuck and Co. Several years would pass before my mother told me what really happened on that […]
Christmas on Iwo Jima by Ben White It was early on Saturday AM and a group of people, a Coast Guard Captain and his wife and two children, an Air Force Chaplain and his wife and I and my wife were “Standing by” for a space available flight on an Air Force flight to Iwo […]
Many old sayings are also horse racing term. The phrase ‘START FROM SCRATCH” comes from the days when a line was scratched in the ground for a race. The racers would start from the scratch. WHERE DO I START? Hints and Tips for Beginning Genealogists with On-line resources
