Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Look Back At the Years 1911-1912

What a hundred years hath wrought

One hundred years ago America was a vastly different world than the one we have today. Let’s take a glancing look over our shoulder and wonder at the extreme changes wrought (borrowing a well-used Bible word) since 1910-1911.

One thing is for sure: the good old days were different. It was a world unknown to most of us living in the 21st century.

In 1910 Texas had a population of 3.8 million. Today we are well over the 25 million mark. Old Glory had only 44 stars and Las Vegas Nevada’s population was all of 30.

When checking out the differences it will boggle your mind. It was the childhood days of my mother, then six years old, and my dad, going into his teens.

For starters we are reminded that in 1911, the average life expectancy for men was 47 years. The average U.S. blue collar worker averaged 22 cents an hour. The average worker made between $200 and $400 per year.

One hundred years ago a dentist could expect to earn $2,500 a year. Now a dentist can make five times that amount in a week or two. (That figure is from personal experience.)

Jimmy Carter was the first president to be born in a hospital. He was born a dozen years after 1911 but in 1911 more than 95 percent of all births took place at home.

Ninety percent of all medical doctors had not been to college. Sub-standard medical schools were the norm.

In 1911 automobiles were still an oddity but not exactly a new invention. Numerous railroad car manufacturing companies began making autos in the 1880s, such as Ensign of Huntington, West Virginia and Gilbert Car Company of Troy, New York.

By 1910-11 only 8,000 automobiles were on American roads (only 144 miles of them paved). In cities that had automobiles the maximum speed limit was 10 mph.

Though bathtubs were known in antiquity, only 14 percent of American homes had a bathtub. I tried, but failed, to find what the percentage of West Texans with bathtubs was back then. Lots of men could bath in the back of the barbershop or saloon. I guess most folks washed off in a number ten washtub in the kitchen on Saturday night. My wife’s family used one, but she lived in northeast Texas, a more advanced people than here on the desert-plains.

Eating out places, other than the boarding house near the train station, were few and far between. Home cooking was what most people enjoyed. Sugar cost four cents a pound; eggs were fourteen cents a dozen. coffee was fifteen cents a pound. Iced tea had yet to be invented as well as canned beer.

Not counting courthouses, drug stores were favorite meeting places and not just because you could purchase marijuana, heroin and morphine over the counter without a prescription.

Pharmacists were known to say things like “heroin clears the complexion, give buoyancy to the mind, regulates the bowels and is a perfect guardian of health.”

Two out of every 10 adults couldn't read or write and only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school. But what would be impossible for today’s youth to believe: ONLY 8 PERCENT OF HOMES HAD A TELEPHONE.

Amid all this, little Miss Christine French, six years old, was entering R. J. Looney Elementary School (joke of the times: looney kids) and teenager Britt Edward Towery was a marble carver apprentice. It was truly “a ‘nuther world.”

Trivia: M*AS*H Film - TV Series

M*A*S*H trivia questions

For a break from the world’s wars; the political primaries and confusion of a dysfunctional Washington, let’s put all that out of our minds and escape to the lighter side of life.

Once upon a time a 1970s television series, set in the 1950s Korean War, spoofed the futility of war as American got more and more bogged down in Vietnam. Few programs since have begun to touch the humor, pathos, satire and near-reality as did this TV series based on the novel by Richard Hooker and Ring Lardner, Jr.’s 1970 dark comedy screenplay, “M*A*S*H.”

The television series (“M*A*S*H” is short for Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) ran from 1972 to 1983. Alan Alda, son of actor Robert Alda (who appeared in two episodes), For thsplayed Captain Benjamin Franklin Pierce, better known as ‘Hawkeye,’ an anti-war surgeon there against his will but making the most of it. He was famous for refusing to carry a sidearm of any king. He also wrote and directed a number of episodes.

For those who enjoy trivia, and have been addicted to M*A*S*H as I have, here are ten questions dredged from the archives of the TV series.

Answers will be following this piece.

1. For a time, Hawkeye and Captain ‘Trapper’ John McIntyre (Wayne Rogers) had a houseboy. What was his name?

2. What outfit did Corporal Maxwell Q. Klinger (Jamie Farr) wear when General Douglass MacArthur drove through camp?

3. At a goodbye dinner, what did Hawkeye, Trapper and Radar give Lt. Colonel Henry Blake (McLean Stevenson) for a farewell gift?

4. Where was Major Frank Burns (Larry Linville) transferred after leaving the 4077th?

5. What was name of Hawkeye’s hometown?

6. Who replaced Trapper John when he left the series?

7. When a new shipment of Bibles arrived, Father Francis Mulcahy (William Christopher) discovers a glaring typographical error. What is it?

8. What was unique about Gary Burghoff, who played Corporal Walter Eugene ‘Radar’ O’Reilly?

9. Major Charles Winchester (David Ogden) falls for a Frenchwoman who is on tour with the Red Cross. What changes his mind about their future together?

10. What inspired Hawkeye to give up booze?

Enjoy. See you back here, same time, same station next week with the answers to the M*A*S*H TV trivia quiz.


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M*A*S*H Trivia Answers

Answers to M*A*S*H trivia Piece Just before this one

Last week we took a break from the world’s wars; the political primaries and confusion of a dysfunctional Washington, in an effort to settle our nerves and visit the lighter side of life.

Once upon a time a 1970s television series, set in the 1950s Korean War, spoofed the futility of war as American got more and more bogged down in Vietnam. Few programs since have begun to touch the humor, pathos, satire and near-reality as did this TV series based on the novel by Richard Hooker and Ring Lardner, Jr.’s 1970 dark comedy screenplay, “M*A*S*H.”

The television series (“M*A*S*H” is short for Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) ran from 1972 to 1983. Alan Alda, son of actor Robert Alda (who appeared in two episodes), For thsplayed Captain Benjamin Franklin Pierce, better known as ‘Hawkeye,’ an anti-war surgeon there against his will but making the most of it. He was famous for refusing to carry a sidearm of any king. He also wrote and directed a number of episodes.

For those who enjoy trivia, and have been addicted to M*A*S*H as I have, I offered ten trivia questions last week about that television series.

F0r the long-suffering faithful the time has come to reveal the answers. Here are the questions followed by the answers in bold type:

1. For a time, Hawkeye and Captain ‘Trapper’ John McIntyre (Wayne Rogers) had a houseboy. What was his name?
Ho Jan.

2. What outfit did Corporal Maxwell Q. Klinger (Jamie Farr) wear when General Douglass MacArthur drove through camp?
Statue of Liberty costume.

3. At a goodbye dinner, what did Hawkeye, Trapper and Radar give Lt. Colonel Henry Blake (McLean Stevenson) for a farewell gift?
A new suit.

4. Where was Major Frank Burns (Larry Linville) transferred after leaving the 4077th?
Veterans Hospital in Indiana.

5. What was name of Hawkeye’s hometown?
Crabapple Cove.

6. Who replaced Trapper John when he left the series?
Captain B. J. Hunnicut (Mike Farrell).

7. When a new shipment of Bibles arrived, Father Francis Mulcahy (William Christopher) discovers a glaring typographical error. What is it?
“Thou shalt commit adultery.”

8. What was unique about Gary Burghoff, who played Corporal Walter Eugene ‘Radar’ O’Reilly?
He was the only actor to play same character in both the film and the television series.

9. Major Charles Winchester (David Ogden) falls for a Frenchwoman who is on tour with the Red Cross. What changes his mind about their future together?
He discovers she used to have a live-in lover.

10. What inspired Hawkeye to give up booze?
High bar tab.

Sorry, there are no prizes.

Let's Stand and Cheer Ye Olde Postal Service

U.S. Postal Service Review

Today, Feb. 24, 2012, is the anniversary of the first perforated U.S. postage stamp. The year was 1857. No celebrations have been planned.


The U.S. Postal Service is expecting to lose $18.2 billion a year by 2015 unless it can cut Saturday delivery and raise stamp prices. At the post office not so long ago I asked for a three-cent stamp. I was not being funny nor being a smart aleck. I think the clerk could see that for a moment I was still in the mid-20th century. At least I did not ask for a penny postcard.

Those of us who pay bills using envelopes affixed with U.S. postage stamps and still write friends using ink and paper are facing the very real possibility of a first-class stamp costing fifty cents.

In early colonial times, messages depended on any “going my way” friends or merchants. In 1639, the first official notice of a postal service in the colonies appeared. A good place to pick up your mail was at a local pub, tavern or coffee shop.

(For history buffs: William Penn established Pennsylvania's first post office in 1683. In the Southern colonies slaves or private messengers carried the mail from plantations to towns and settlements.)


In 1760, Benjamin Franklin reported a surplus to the British Postmaster General. Note that this historic first of making a profit, was twenty years before the U.S. Federal government began carrying the mail.

In the nineteenth century, Congress authorized the Postmaster General to release a 5 cent stamp which would carry a half-ounce letter 300 miles. At that rate said letter would not make it from San Angelo to El Paso.

For those with far-away friends a 10 cent stamp would take a half-ounce letter for distances greater than 300 miles, making it possible to get the letter out of the state sometimes.

William Penn established Pennsylvania's first post office in 1683. In the Southern colonies slaves or private messengers carried the mail from plantations to towns and settlements.

Suppose (or what-if?) back in the 1970s, a man named Frederick W. Smith had gone to work for the U.S. Postal Service? While an undergraduate at Yale University he wrote a research paper on how companies could make more money by being more efficient.

Mr. Smith went into business, making a profit where others were just getting by. He learned that most airfreight shippers were sadly inadequate, inefficient and economically not making the profit they could. What a difference it would have made had Frederick W. Smith, like Jimmy Stewart in the movie, “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” took such findings to the national Postal Services in Washington, D.C. instead of going into business.

All Mr. Smith did was develop the efficient distribution system known today as FedEx.

Federal Express not only completely revolutionized global business practices, but defined speed and reliability while making a good profit.

Another money-maker is United Parcel Service (UPS) is older than FedEx. So old in fact their first delivery car was a Model T Ford.


Our Founding Father Benjamin Franklin probably had such ideas and dreams of an efficient and profit-making mail service. Who knows? Many have tried and many still hold out hope for a profit-making postal service.

Fredrick Rolando, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, wrote in last week’s USA Today: “Almost 90 percent of the red ink stems from a 2006 congregational mandate that the Postal Service pre-fund future retiree health benefits for the next 75 years and do so within a decade. This burden, borne by no other public agency or private firm, cost the Postal Service $5.5 billion annually.”

Before beating up on the Postal Service remember they are just doing what Congress has demanded. Happy First Perforated U.S. Postage Stamp Day.

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The Mess Called Political Conventions

This year of 1012 is a Sticky Wicket of a political year

Who has not noted the idiocy of the television “news” channels as they traipse around the country reporting and speculating on the Republican Party primaries.

There was a time when these events were noted locally but not as if viewers were sitting on the edge of their seats waiting for the latest count; the latest flub; latest gossip and latest guess by the talking heads.

That was back in the days when the two major political parties held meaningful summer conventions to select a nominee for president. It was a suspenseful occasion as nomination speeches were both oratorical and sometimes even interesting. There would often be a ‘favorite son” emerged from the floor.

People like Chicago Mayor Daily and his fellow Democrat cohorts would scrounge through the delegates for votes for their favorite. Or make deals that would enhance their agenda. Ballots were taken until it was narrowed down to one person.

Today’s ever-present primaries and caucuses, including the big political conventions, were not always the way these things were done.

Going back even before my time, in the early days presidential candidates were chosen or nominated by members of Congress. But this early system of picking nominees became less popular when a fellow named Andrew Jackson launched his ‘appeal to the common man.’

After Jackson's election in 1828, party structures strengthened, and the idea of national political conventions began to make sense. At that time there had been party conventions held at the state level, but no national conventions.

The first nation-wide political convention gathering was by a now defunct party – the Anti-Masonic Party in 1831. As the name suggests, the Masonic Order was thought to have too much influence in the capital.

They were successful only in starting the ball rolling for national party conventions. Jackson’s administration (1829-1837) was considered one of the most corrupt in history. It was not really all that different from many White House administrations before or since. In one form or another power of position has always brought out the worst in leaders.

Wanting to rid the country of Jackson, the Republican Party called for a national convention in the city of Baltimore in 1831. They became an anti-Jackson party much like today’s anti-Obama party. Henry Clay was the Republican nominee.
The Democratic Convention held their first-ever such meeting, also in Baltimore, in 1832. Jackson was running for a second term so they only nominated a candidate for vice president, Martin Van Buren.

Other parties came on the scene in the 19th and 20th centuries but soon fell by the wayside leaving the race for power with just the Democratic and Republican parties.

There was the Nullifier Party (against everything), the Liberty Party, the Free Soil Party (farmers ?), the American Party, the Opposition Party (opposed to new states having slavery), the Constitutional Union Party, the Readjuster Party (following Civil War they aspired to break the power of wealth and established privilege. Hasn’t worked yet.).

Then the Vegetarian Party, the American Nazi Party (not too popular, 1959-1967), Looking Back Party (not much future), and the Christian Freedom Party (a spoiler for the John Kerry and George W. Bush campaigns.)

The Prohibition Party was the oldest third party to have a life in the United States. They were an outgrowth of the temperance movement. The Prohibition Party was an important force during the late 19th century and early 20th century. Since the repeal of Prohibition in 1933 they have advocated numerous socially conservative causes.

The year 2012 is one ‘sticky wicket’ of a year and not just on the cricket pitch.

Therefore between now and November here are my suggestions: turn off the TV set (except for March Madness, the World Series, some football, cricket and soccer); even better, join a book club, visit the city library or buy a Kindle; get a bicycle or take a hike.

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Call me Colonel

In remembrance of the Confederate Air Force

According to the certificate I found deep in the bowels of a rusty old steamer trunk, that has crossed the Pacific at least twice, I was made a Colonel in the Confederate Air Corps on July 5, 1959.
The hallowed and yellowed document was signed by the Honorable Secretary of the Corps, Thadeus P. --- (the last name was not legible after half a century in my trunk).
I immediately wanted to have the document framed to hang on my study wall.

There being nothing in my diary for July 5,1959 I had no way of finding out just how this honor came my way. I was living in Taiwan’s southern most city, Pingtung, and had a number of Chinese Air Force officers and American military advisor (MAAG) friends. It was probably a joint allied decision to make me a Colonel. (Until then I was only a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force Reserve.)

After all these years without a record of a discharge from the Confederate Air Corps I felt it my duty to check in with them. That is where the Internet came in handy.

On the Brian Dunaway Archive web pages I found a thumbnail history of the outfit. In the Dunaway account (I suppose he is a CAF officer. His web site of 2004 says he is a chemical engineer and a native Texan.)

Back in 1951 Lloyd Nolen (spelled with an ‘e’ and so not the famous actor Lloyd Nolan) purchased a surplus Curtiss P-40 Warhawk. Nolen was a World War II Army Air Corps flight instructor.
Dunaway writes: “In 1957, Nolen and four friends purchased a P-51 Mustang, each sharing in the $2,500 cost of the aircraft. With the purchase of the Mustang, known as Red Nose, the group was unofficially founded.”

The history continues: “… In 1961, the CAF was chartered as a nonprofit Texas corporation in order to restore and preserve World War II-era combat aircraft. In 1965, the first museum building consisting of 26,000 square feet was completed at old Rebel Field, Mercedes, Texas. The CAF created a new Rebel Field at Harlingen, Texas, when they moved there in 1968, occupying three large buildings. The CAF fleet continued to grow and included medium and heavy bombers such as the B-29, B-25, B-17 and B-24.”

The CAF is comprised of over 11,000 members, several hundred of whom serve as pilots and flight or maintenance crew members committed to preserving World War II American aviation heritage. The CAF is responsible for operating a fleet of more than 140 airplanes known as the Ghost Squadron.
Not long after September 11, 2001, the name of the CAF was changed. It was changed to the “Confederate Commemorative Air Force.” The word “Confederate” was offensive to some and the change made it politically correct. It was a change that was not welcomed by chemical engineer Brian Dunaway.

Mr. Dunaway is not the only Confederate flyer to dislike the “Commemorative” name. Ronald Khol of “Machine Design” is one of those dissidents. “Political correctness has run amok.”
Ronald Khol writes that of the thousands of Boeing B-29 Superfortresses built during World War II only one of them remains in flyable condition. It is owned by the Confederate Air Force. He refuses to call the organization by the new name.

(This an aside I found interesting: The B-29 with its four massive engines and wingspan of 141 feet was discarded after the war. Some went to museums, and others to a Navy gunnery range as targets. Most were chopped to pieces and sold for scrap.)

After learning all this I am much more proud of my Confederate Air Corps document. I still may frame it and hang it on the front porch for all to see I refuse to be politically correct when it comes to being a Colonel in such a grand old outfit.
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