A Little New Years History...!

First of all, let me wish everyone a Happy New Year...almost!

If nothing else, I think we can all say it's been an interesting year! Strange weather, strange politics (as always), and a strange series of events leading us into the unknown of 2012!

Because of all this strangeness, I wanted to calm things down by offering a little history about new years, OK?

New Year Traditions From Around the World

Many New Year customs that we take for granted actually date from ancient times. This year, ring out the old and ring in the new with a New Year tradition—or two!

Make Some Noise

In ancient Thailand, guns were fired to frighten off demons.

In China, firecrackers routed the forces of darkness.

In the early American colonies, the sounds of pistol shots rang through the air.

Today, Italians let their church bells peal, the Swiss beat drums, and the North Americans sound sirens and party horns to bid the old year farewell.

Eat Lucky Food

Many New Year's traditions surround food. Here are a few:

In the southern US, black-eyed peas and pork foretell good fortune.

Eating any ring-shaped treat (such as a donut) symbolize "coming full circle" and leads to good fortune. 

In Dutch homes, fritters called olie bollen are served.

The Irish enjoy pastries called bannocks.

The tradition of eating 12 grapes at midnight comes from Spain.

In India and Pakistan, rice promises prosperity.

Apples dipped in honey are a Rosh Hashanah tradition.

In Swiss homes, dollops of whipped cream, symbolizing the richness of the year to come, are dropped on the floors (and allowed to remain there!)

Drink a Beverage

Although the pop of a champagne cork signals the arrival of the New Year around the world, some countries have their own traditions.

Wassail, the Gaelic term for "good health" is served in some parts of England.

Spiced "hot pot" is the Scottish version of Wassail. It's customary to drink a glass or two at home before sharing with neighbors.

In Holland, toasts are made with hot, spiced wine.

Give a Gift

New Year's Day was once the time to swap presents.

Gifts of gilded nuts or coins marked the start of the new year in Rome.

Eggs, the symbol of fertility, were exchanged by the Persians.

Early Egyptians traded earthenware flasks.

In Scotland, coal, shortbread and silverware are exchanged for good luck.

Put Your Best Foot Forward

In Scotland, the custom of first-footing is an important part of the celebration of Hogmanay, or New Year's Eve Day.

This practice holds that the first foot to cross a threshold after midnight will predict the next year's fortune. Although the tradition varies, those deemed especially fortunate as "first footers" are new brides, new mothers, those who are tall and dark (and handsome?) or anyone born on January 1.

I do hope the rest of this new years eve goes good for all of my friends! Please, be safe and take care of yourself. It wouldn't be any fun without you all around!

Coffee in the kitchen this morning! Bread is in the oven!

The High Cost Of Patriotism...!

I know most of us have used or have heard the expression..."Freedom is not free" and this bit of history shows just how costly it can be!

We tend to forget that many, many folks over the years gave all for our freedom! Let's continue to hope that the sacrifices made by so many were not in vain!

Dec 30, 1803:

Francis Lewis dies

On this day in 1803, Francis Lewis, signer of the Declaration of Independence, dies in New York City, at the age of 90.

Lewis was born in Llandaff, Wales, and educated at the prestigious Westminster School in London before immigrating to the North American colonies at 22 years old. Lewis founded businesses in New York and Philadelphia, winning lucrative contracts to provision the British army in America.

During the Seven Years' War, Lewis served General Hugh Mercer as an aide. Traveling with Mercer, Lewis was captured in Oswego and taken as a prisoner of war to France. For his service, the New York government granted him 5,000 acres upon his return to the colony.

In 1765, Lewis served as a delegate to the Stamp Act Congress and retired from his mercantile career to settle in Whitestone, Long Island, becoming active in revolutionary politics, including the Sons of Liberty. In 1775 alone, he participated in the provincial convention, the Continental Congress and the Committee of One Hundred. In 1776, he continued to serve the first two bodies and signed the Declaration of Independence. He continued as a member of the Continental Congress until 1779, when he assumed the position of commissioner of the Board of Admiralty.

Lewis' patriotism came at a high cost. The British army destroyed his Long Island estate and took his wife prisoner in 1776. She remained a prisoner, reportedly without a bed or change of clothes, for many months because the Continental Army had no women of similar status in captivity for whom George Washington could orchestrate an exchange. Neither Mrs. Lewis' health nor the couple's fortune ever recovered from the attack.

I can't help but wonder just how many of us would be willing to pay the price paid by this family. The same type of price is being paid even today by many of our fighting men and women coming back from foreign soil! All paid some...some paid all!

God bless our troops, past and present! Let's remember them even more as we go into a new year!

Coffee on the patio once again! Want some pumpkin pie with that? I've got Cool Whip for the top!

The Present Truth Predicted In 1958...!

Sometimes when you research the past, you find some startling information about the present.

The following clip is from the year of 1958, and more of these predictions than we may want to admit to have come true. In fact, much of what this guy says hits the nail right on the head! If you don't think so, then just watch the first half of this clip and see what I mean!



If for no other reason than this came from 1958, we should pay attention to this bit of the past...because much of it exist right now in the present!

Coffee on the patio this morning! I'll share the last of my home made chocolate chip cookies, just because you're special!

Now THAT'S What I Call Tradition...!

In a time of hustle and bustle, so much of the older traditions seem to be fading away more and more!

A tradition can come in many forms and probably every family either has or has had one over the years. I would venture that not many have one that lasted this long, and in a way...that's a tragedy!

Texas men trade the same Christmas card for decades

Dec. 24, 2011 02:54 PM

Associated Press

WHITEHOUSE, Texas -- A Christmas card that crisscrossed the country as part of an old joke between two Texas men will rest this holiday for the first time in 61 years.

Acker Hanks mailed the card to his former neighbor Lee Kelley in 1950. Kelley, a prankster, mailed it back a year later.

The two continued sending the card back and forth, and when Kelley died, his widow mailed the tattered message for over a decade. Last year, it returned to Hanks unread. He believes Kelley's widow moved to a nursing home.

A list of dates and places in the worn card documents its journey. Hanks plans to frame it.

"I always looked forward to getting the card," he told the Tyler Morning Telegraph. "I don't think it'll ever leave me now."

That, my friends, is as good an example of tradition as there is! Not only that, but it shows a pretty fair amount of love between friends, if you ask me!

There should be that much love in all relationships, I think! Just my opinion, of course!

Coffee on the patio this morning. It's chilly but dry...so feel free to huddle up if you want!

I Wondered Where That Came From...!

I remember the song, but never had even the slightest idea where it came from!

I guess that I always figured that, like most songs, it was something that someone made up. Somehow it's kind of exciting to find out that the character in the song was based on a real person. Kind of makes me want to go back and listen to the song again, only with "new ears!" Does that make any sense?

Dec 27, 1895:

The legend of "Stagger Lee" is born

Murder and mayhem have been the subject of many popular songs over the years, though more often than not, the tales around which such songs revolve tend to be wholly fictional. Johnny Cash never shot a man in Reno, and the events related in such famous story songs as "El Paso" and "I Shot The Sheriff" never actually took place. The same cannot be said, however, about "Stagger Lee"—a song that has drifted from the facts somewhat over the course of its many lives in the last 100-plus years, but a song inspired by an actual murder that took place on this day in 1895, in a St. Louis, Missouri, barroom argument involving a man named Billy and another named "Stag" Lee.

Under the headline "Shot in Curtis's Place," the story that ran in the next day's edition of the St. Louis Daily Globe-Democrat began, "William Lyons, 25, colored, a levee hand... was shot in the abdomen yesterday evening at 10 o'clock in the saloon of Bill Curtis... by Lee Sheldon, also colored." According to the Globe-Democrat's account, Billy Lyons and "Stag" Lee Sheldon "had been drinking and were in exuberant spirits" when an argument over "politics" boiled over, and Lyons "snatched Sheldon's hat from his head." While subsequent musical renditions of this story would depict the dispute as one over gambling, they would preserve the key detail of "Stag" Lee Sheldon's headwear and of his matter-of-fact response to losing it: "Sheldon drew his revolver and shot Lyons in the abdomen... When his victim fell to the floor Sheldon took his hat from the hand of the wounded man and coolly walked away."

In his 2003 book Stagolee Shot Billy, based on his earlier doctoral dissertation on the subject, scholar Cecil Brown recounts the story of how the real "Stag" Lee became an iconic figure in African-American folklore and how his story became the subject of various musical renderings "from the [age of the] steamboat to the electronic age in the American 21st century." The most famous of those musical renditions were 1928's "Stack O' Lee Blues" by Mississippi John Hurt and 1959's "Stagger Lee," an unlikely #1 pop hit for Lloyd Price. Versions of the story have also appeared, however, in songs by artists as wide-ranging as Woody Guthrie, Duke Ellington, Bob Dylan, James Brown, The Clash, the Grateful Dead and Nick Cave.



There ya go! Now I feel a lot better that I've used "new ears" to listen to the song again! Sort of makes you appreciate the old songs again, ya know?

Coffee in the kitchen this morning. Let's put on some more of the "oldies" and liven the place up! OK?

Still Hungry ? Try This...!

I have a recipe for a cake from none other than Martha Washington herself!

If this doesn't kill your appetite, nothing will! Believe me!

Martha's Great Cake

Although not the first Christmas cake, this is a recipe from our first First Lady, Martha Washington. These are the exact words in which it was written for celebrating what she called "a true Virginia Christmas" at Mount Vernon:

"Take 40 eggs and divide the whites from the yolks and beat them to a froth, start to work four pounds of butter to cream and put the whites of eggs to it a spoon full at a time till it is well worked. Then put four pounds of sugar finely powdered to it in the same way, then put in the yolks of eggs, and five pounds of flower, and five pounds of fruit. Two hours will bake it. Add to it half an ounce of mace, one nutmeg, half a pint of wine, and some French brandy."

If this doesn't do away with your sweet tooth, don't worry about it! After a couple of slices, the booze will at least make you where you just don't care!

Coffee in the kitchen this morning. Sorry, but no cake left! I drank it...er, I mean ATE it all!

A Few Christmas Facts From The Almanac...!

First of all, let me say "Merry Christmas" to one and all!

This sentiment is from me and my roomie C.B.!

You may or may not already know some of these, but I figured I would offer them to you just in case! Never hurts to have a few mundane facts hidden away to throw out if the conversation gets too slow, ya know?

Here is a little bit about the history of Christmas traditions in America, from Christmas trees to greeting cards, that we all know and love today.

Christmas Trees

The first American Christmas tree can be credited to a Hessian soldier by the name of Henrick Roddmore, who was captured at the Battle of Bennington in 1776. He then went to work on the farm of Samuel Denslow in Windsor Locks, Connecticut, where for the next 14 years he put up and decorated Christmas trees in the Denslow family home.

The first Christmas tree retail lot was established in 1851 by a Pennsylvanian named Mark Carr, who hauled tow ox sleds loaded with Christmas trees from the Catskill Mountains to the sidewalks of New York City.

The first president to set up a Christmas tree in the White House was Franklin Pierce, and the first president to establish the National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony on the White House lawn was Calvin Coolidge.

In 1882, the first tree lights were sold in New York City.

Well, now you are all set for your next round of Trivial Pursuit! Always something interesting in the Old Farmer's Almanac!

Coffee is ready in the kitchen this morning! I have some Clementines to go along with it!