You Think It's Cold Now?

Headline in the Harrisonburg Daily News January 15, 1912

The predicted cold weather from the upper mid-west arrived on winds of 45-50 miles per hour. The cold spread southward and eastward and sent temperatures to the zero mark. Lewis J. Heatwole, the weather observer at the Dale Enterprise station, reported that on Thursday evening, January 4, temperatures dropped from 32º F to - 2ºF. Temperatures may have been a little warmer in Harrisonburg, but were cold enough to frost plate-glass windows nearly an inch and to require merchants on Court Square to keep their electric lights burning during the day. Plumbers experienced increasing demand for their services.

Valley Christmas Folk Traditions

The three solemn holy days that span the darkest days of winter are also paired with folk customs that include performances in masks and other disguises. The holy days are All Souls, Christmas, and Lent; Halloween, Belsnickling, and Mardi Gras are the folk traditions coupled with the holy days.

Pelsnickling, as it was called locally, was a popular rural amusement, especially among the Pennsylvania-German settlers living in the western side of the Shenandoah Valley and eastern West Virginia. Pelsnickling or Belsnickling occurred during the last half of December. Also during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries similar customs adopted by other ethnic groups in the Shenandoah Valley were Kris Kringling, Shanghaiing, and urban mumming. Belsnickling derived from the earlier activities of the Belsnickle.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Dewey!

Image from flickr.com member Eigappleton Some rights reserved

Born on Dec. 10th, 1851 in Adams Center, Jefferson County, New York, Melville Dewey is best known as the inventor of the Dewey Decimal Classification System that bears his name and is used in libraries world wide. Often dubbed the Father of Modern Librarianship, Dewey developed much more than a filing system.

In 1872, as a sophomore at Amherst College, he invented the Dewey Decimal Classification System which was the beginning of many contributions to the field of Library Science. In 1876 he co-founded the American Library Association. In 1887 he established the first professional library school in the United States at Colombia University. He also co-founded and edited Library Journal which is still the major library publication today. Fortunately for the Journal, his passion for simplifying spelling did not catch on with the masses. He did found the Spelling Reform Association in 1886 and changed the spelling of his name from Melville to Melvil.

"A date which will live in infamy"

December 7, 1941
7:58 am
Pearl Harbor

“[I]t was a day, they would never forget...life would be changed by what was happening in Hawaii.” [i]

December 6, 1941
9:30 pm. General Walter C. Short returning from the Schofield Barracks Officers’ Club looked down on Pearl Harbor at the Pacific Fleet ablaze with lights. “Isn’t that a beautiful sight?” signed General Short, adding thoughtfully, “and what a target they would make.” [ii]

December 7, 1941
2:00 am. Ensign Malcolm discovered he would never make the last launch to the Arizona. He spent the night at on the floor of Captain D.C. Emerson house where with three other officers they argued about Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points. [iii]

3:58 am. After following a trailing wake for sixteen minutes, Ensign R.C. McCloy on the small minesweeper Condor blinked to the destroyer Ward “sighted submerged submarine on westerly course, speed nine knots.” [iv]

6:00 am. Mrs. Blackmore dropped-off her husband, the chief engineer of the tug Keosanqua. Returning in the first gray light of day Mrs. Blackmore observed “this is the quietest place I’ve ever seen.” [v]

6:45 am. At the Army’s Opana radar station, which had just started operating around Thanksgiving and was full of bugs, the 4:00 to 7:00 shift was about to close-up, when a flicker on the radar screen noted a couple of planes about 130 miles away. [vi]

6:53 am. Skipper, Lieutenant William W. Outerbridge of the destroyer Ward, radioed the Fourteenth Naval District “attacked, fired on, depth bomb, and sunk submarine operating in defensive area.” [vii]

7:08 am. Private Lockhart, who stayed behind at Opana reported to Private Joseph McDonald at the Army information center switchboard “blips 113 miles away traveling at almost 180 mph”... “at 7:39 22 miles away.” [viii]

7:45 am. Mess Attendant Walter Simmons was setting the table in the officers’ wardroom at Kaneohe Naval Air Station, but no one had turned-up to eat. [ix]

7:53 am. Commander Mitsuo Fuchida, so sure of victory that before the first bombs fell signaled, the carriers “Tora...tora...tora....” [x] (“tiger, tiger, tiger” was code for a successful surprise attack)

7:54 am. James B. Mann, Jr. stood with his father outside their beach house at Haleiwa on the northeast coast Oahu saw more then 100 planes above. James Jr. observed “they’ve changed the color of our planes.” [xi]

7:58 am: The alarm sounded: "Air raid, Pearl Harbor. This is not drill!" [xii]

Most of the information in this post is quoted from this absorbing book. This book is still, after more than sixty years since publication, a must read for those interested in WWII, and it is available at your local public library.

______________________________
[i] Walter Lord. Day of Infamy. Henry Holt and Company, NY. 1957. Foreword.
[ii] 4.
[iii] 8.
[iv] 27.
[v] 34.
[vi] 43.
[vii] 39.
[viii] 44-45.
[ix] 57.
[x] 63.
[xi] 48.
[xii] http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1691753,00.html#ixzz1dPmMqWgo

1. 9:30pm, Dec. 6
2. 2:00am, Dec. 7
3. 3:58am; 6:53am
4. 6:00am
5. 6:45am; 7:08am
6. 7:45am
7. 7:54am
8. 7:58am

1939 Turkey Festival

In September 1939 the first ever Turkey Festival was held here in Harrisonburg. The two day event took place on Monday, September 4, 1939 and Tuesday, September 5, 1939. The festival was designed “to pay homage to Lord Rockingham II, the big American bird emblematic of the county and city’s five million dollar poultry industry.” [1] It was hoped that the Turkey Festival would become an annual event that would earn Harrisonburg and Rockingham County nationwide attention.

Harrisonburg-Rockingham Chamber of Commerce secretary Russell L. Shultz originally proposed the idea for the Turkey Festival in January 1939. The membership of the Chamber of Commerce adopted the idea and went forth making plans.

According to the festival program printed in the Saturday, September 2, 1939 edition of the Daily News Record both days of the festival were packed full of events from 8 am Monday morning through late Tuesday evening. Events included a turkey exhibit hall, band concerts, a Turkey Institute, turkey stunts, tours of Rockingham turkey ranches, historic point tours, tours of Natural Wonders, a turkey throw, a baseball game, the Queen’s coronation ceremony and special reception, Turkeyrama pageant, turkey roasting demonstrations, flights on the Goodyear blimp, two parades, a tournament, street entertainment, a turkey race, open air chorus, and two dances. Of course, each day was also highlighted by the opportunity to partake of some turkey as the schedule actually says,

Monday - Noon - Eat Turkey

Monday - 6:00 - Eat More Turkey

Tuesday - Noon - Roast Turkey Dinner

Tuesday  - 6:00 - Turkey Supper. [2]

Members of the 4-H Club started Monday morning with a turkey roasting contest. First place went to Carolyn Long and Lydia Ann Miller. At 10:30 Mrs. Elva S. Bohannon, Home Economist of the Rural Electrification Administration, presented a turkey roasting demonstration complete with advice on how to kill a turkey at home. Souvenir booklets containing turkey recipes were distributed after the demonstration. [3]

Veterans History Project

PFC Tommy Tucker Showalter
US Army, WWII European Theater

In 2000, the United States Congress created and funded the Veterans History Project under the auspices of the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress. The mission of the project is to collect first-hand accounts of U.S. veterans who have served in WWI thru the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Participants are those who served on the frontline and those civilians who worked war industries and volunteered at the USO. Spotlighted stories have included women veterans, the Buffalo Soldiers, Coast Guard and Merchant Marines, the Southeast Asia campaign, and tactics used in the War on Terrorism. The website is www.loc/gov/vets. To recognize the 5,000 residents of Rockingham County who served in WWII and the numerous other local veterans of the Korean War, The Viet Nam War and Desert Storm, the Massanutten Regional Library is a project participant.

1940 Turkey Festival

In late August 1940 news cameramen from M-G-M News of the Day, Paramount, Fox Movietone, and Universal descended on Harrisonburg to film footage for news reels to be shown in theaters. The purpose of the footage was to publicize the 1940 Turkey Festival which was scheduled to be held on October 10th and 11th. The film would eventually be shown in local theaters as well as theaters across the United States and overseas.

The cameramen were invited here by Robert F. Nelson, public relations counsel for the State Chamber of Commerce.

Upon their arrival the cameramen headed to the farm of P.A. (Dick) Carver where they were joined by a flock of 2,000 turkeys and more than 60 attractive Harrisonburg and Rockingham County girls. The girls were filmed driving the flock of turkeys and engaging in a “battle royal” pillow fight.

You can view 35 seconds of the newsreel footage on the Critical Past website by clicking one of the screen shots.

You can read more about the 1940 Turkey Festival on the Daily News-Record microfilm housed at Massanutten Regional Library.