Henry was a skinny, sallow fellow who ate nothing but hot dogs.

He craved these meaty tubes morning, noon and night. He ate them with or without buns, relish, onions, beans or condiments. He ate them with scrambled eggs for breakfast. He occasionally chewed them raw from the package. 

Loving family and friends tried to convince Henry that a hot dog diet was not healthy. Henry ignored them.

Eventually, Henry’s body revolted. His arms and legs swelled like those balloon dogs. His torso became an elongated chubby tube. The chemicals in those hot dogs rotted his teeth, elevated his blood sugar and blood pressure, blurred his vision, sapped his memory, constipated him and magnified his arthritis.

In short, Henry became what he craved above all else. Henry became a hot dog.

Moral of the story: We do become what we crave, what we do and certainly what we eat. And April Fool’s to you!!

My husband’s ancestors came west from Troup County, Georgia. Imagine my delight to come upon a book of old historic postcards of that county! Arcadia Publishing, in business for decades, offers affordable small books on hundreds and places in America and offers many similar books of historic postcards from some areas.

Old historic postcards are about the only way we’ll ever get to “see” what the place was like where our ancestors lived. 

Another place to search for old postcard images is the Newberry Library in Chicago. Their historic postcard collection numbers over 500,000 with nearly 8000 of places in Washington State…. this one states A Trainload of Pears, postmarked Walla Walla.  

Ask Google for “websites for historical postcards,” and you’ll have a full day’s fun! One such site mentioned is eBay…. this one (below) you can order from the seller for $12. (It’s the Spokane Club,1915.)

Do most of your ordered packages arrive on time? Either from the US Postal Service or the UPS, I’ll bet they did. 

Bet you had no clue that the company that would become United Parcel service (UPS) began in Seattle, Washington, on August 28, 1907. Teenagers Jim Casey and Claude Ryan founded the American Messenger Company, a messenger and delivery service, with a $100 loan and two bicycles. They delivered packages and messages around Seattle, laying the groundwork for the global shipping giant UPS is today. 

By 1919, the company had expanded to Oakland, California, and changed it’s name to United Parcel Service. That same year, the brown trucks and uniforms became the company colors. The headquarters of the company today is in New York City. 

There are over 5700 UPS stations across America and Washington state boasts over 130 of them. 

Did you or an ancestor work for UPS?? Why did they choose to work for UPS?

The Diamond Point Quarantine Station across Discovery Bay from Port Townsend. was a 156-acre federal facility opened in 1893 to control infectious diseases on ships entering Puget Sound. The station featured barracks, labs, staff housing and disinfection services for vessels wishing to enter Puget Sound and an isolation hospital for passengers or crew members found to be suffering from or suspected of carrying infectious disease. The site grew from three to 27 buildings over the course of its 43 operational years. Moved eventually nearer Port Townsend, it is now the site of Miller Peninsula State Park. 

If you’d care to learn more about this episode in Washington history, click to www.historylink.org (a free website) and look for the article by Paula Becker, posted in 2007 on this subject. 

All vessels arriving from foreign ports were required to pass through quarantine. When deemed necessary, vessel were fumigated with burning pots of sulphur in order to kill fleas, rats, live and other vermin. Passengers or crew members were inspected for any symptom of infectious diseases such an influenza, cholera malaria, smallpox, yellow fever, diphtheria and leprosy. This place was not a happy place. Quoting from a 1937 book: “Port Townsend’s pest-house was situated in the dense woods about two miles west of town. Here the unfortunate patients was kept under the care of a volunteer nurse, usually an old sailor, and a doctor visited the sufferer when he could spare the time.”

In 1878, Congress had passed the National Quarantine Act which prevented vessels from carrying infectious diseases into any U.S. port. In 1888, the Diamond Point station was authorized and a total of $55,000 allocated for the construction. 

There is much more to learn about this episode, event and place in Washington history. Ask Google to help you find more information. 

The phrase “mad as a hatter” referred to the 19th century hat-makers were were poisoned by the mercury they used to treat the felt.

Christmas was not declared a national holiday until 1890.

The phrase “second string,” which today means replacement or backup, originated in the Middle Ages, when an archer carried a second string in case the one on his bow broke.

During the peak of the western cattle drives, as many as one in four cowboys was African-American.

After she was crowned, the first act of Britain’s Queen Victoria was to move her bed out of her mother’s bedroom and into a room of her own.

The first bomb dropped by the Allies on the city of Berlin during WWII claimed an unusual casualty…the only elephant in the Berlin zoo. 

During his invasion of England in 1014, King Olaf’s fleet of Viking ships managed to pull down London’s wooden Thames River bridge. Hence the children’s song about London Bridge falling down. 

The last soldier of WWII, Japan’s Lt. Hiroo Onoda, didn’t surrender until 1974. He refused to be “fooled” by allied stories about the war ending in 1945 and only gave up the fight after his old unit commander was flown to the Philippines and ordered him to lay down his arms.

And where did these wonderful bits come from? The Armchair Reader: Amazing Book of History, published in 2008, and found in a thrift store. Are they true? 

The FamilyTree blog recently used this very image to head their article titled 31 Free Social History Websites. Today’s post is a Part 2 from last week’s post.

Some of those 31 sites mentioned in that article include:

* American History (www.USHistory.org)

* Digital Public Library of America (www.DP.LA)

*Library of Congress (www.loc.gov)

* American Rails (www.American-Rails.com)

*Erie Canal (www.eriecanalway.org)

*Food Timeline (www.foodtimeline.org)

*Old & Interesting (www.oldandinteresting.org)

*American Disasters (www.evergladesuniversity.edu)

*Documenting the American South (www.docsouth.unc.edu)

Whatever you want to learn about your ancestors’ life and times, type that question into YouTube:  Immigration, Civil War, Recipes, Dress Styles, Oklahoma Land Rush, tuberculosis, U.S. Navy….. hopefully you get the idea. 

Ask these questions:

*What was a typical dinner in Maine in 1880?

*What was typical Sunday dress in 1910?

*Did my ancestor attend a World’s Fair?

*Did my ancestor serve in the military?

* Did my ancestor come by steamship or sail in 1870?

*Why did my people settle in ______________? 

Social history is learning the answers to those questions.  

Google AI says: Social history studies the everyday lives, experiences, and cultures of ordinary people, focusing on social structures, class, gender, and community rather than just elites or politics, often called “history from below“. It explores how societies function through the perspectives of different groups, examining work, family, belief, and culture, using diverse sources like diaries, newspapers, and material artifacts to bring the past to life and understand societal change from the ground up. 

Social History is learning what our ancestors did and did not do. What they wore and why. What they ate and why. Why they feared bathing. Why they believed the homilies they recited. Why they moved to and/or lived where they lived. What sort of shoes did they have? Did colonial women smoke?  How did they cope with pain? What was share-cropping?Amazon offers hundreds of books on this subject; just type in “social history California” or your state. Or just type those words into Google. 

If you’re not satisfied with only knowing the names-dates-places for your ancestors, and what to know who they were, then dig into the social history of their lives and times. 

Did you know that one of Washington’s first cross-state highways, the Sunset Highway, provided the first automobile route over the Cascade Mountains? When it opened in 1915, the highway largely followed the route of an Indian trail that had been developed into a wagon road. The Sunset Highway changed designations a number of times over the years…. being known as Highway #2, U.S. 10 and Interstate 90. The route serves as the primary east-west route in Washington.” So states the HistoryLink article by Jennifer Ott.

As early as 1853, a passable route over Snoqualmie Pass was becoming a necessity. There were several trails connecting points in Washington, but the Cascades were a major headache to cross. By 1867, a wagon road was open from North Bend to Easton. A 1906 report emphasized the importance of such a route, calling it “the most important trans-mountain road projected.” 

The 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition’s transcontinental auto race form New York to Seattle underscored the urgent need for better roads. During the race, cars were frequently bogged down in mud, particularly along some sections over Snoqualmie. 

By 1913, the Sunset Highway was designated as a primary state route and on July 1, 1915, it was officially opened. But what did it look like then compared to today??

I’ve been state-crossing in I-90 since 1954 and I can tell you that without a doubt there has not been a single year without road construction! The route is getting busier and busier and better and better all the time. 

And by-the-by, it’s Sno-qual-mie NOT NOT  Sno-qual-a-mie. 

“The DAR of our grandmothers has grown and flourished. Inspired by our Founders, we are celebrating history while shaping the future.” So stated an email message from DAR headquarters inviting me into membership. 

The email went on to extole and explain:

*DAR member achieved 7.4 million service hours to their communities in 2024.

*DAR is heavily involved and promoting the America 250! celebrations nationwide.

*DAR gave a $2 million contribution to help preserve Washington DC’s iconic cherry trees.

*DAR’s Patriots of Color Database now featured on the 10 Million Names project, providing public access to research on those of African descent who lived in pre- and post-colonial America.

*DAR donated $250,000 to the Military Women’s Memorial.

And the list went on for a full page. 

Did you know there are 36 DAR chapters in Washington State? Surely there is one in or near your town. Click to www.dar.org/national-society/become-member-chapters to find one.

If you’ve been doing family history for most any time at all, and if you have Colonial era ancestors, you do most likely qualify for DAR membership. You most likely do have a patriot ancestor. Be proud to recognize your connection! 

David Benscoter is a pomologist on a mission. That means he studies fruits and in his case, his passion is apples. 

He’s given several presentations in the area, and I enjoyed learning about his apple passion at a Westerners meeting in November, 2025. 

David explained that by the early 1900s, there were over 17,000 cultivars of apples in North America. A “named cultivar” is any apple someone thought was good enough to give a name to after immigrants first came to North America. But unfortunately, over 12,000 of those apples are lost and probably extinct today, he told us. 

In his 2024 book, Lost Apples: The Research for Rare & Heritage Apples in the Pacific Northwest, Benscoter states “When the earliest settlers reached Washington, Idaho and Oregon, one of the first things they did was plant apple trees. They knew each apple tree planted had a specific purpose. Some apples ripened early and could be enjoyed in the middle of summer. Fall apples were especially good for canning or drying while late fall apples kept well in the cellar until the next spring.”

For over a decade, Benscoter has searched out old homesteads…. old apple trees…. wanting to resurrect some of the lost apples. And he has succeeded in identifying (by DNA) some 1623 previously-lost varieties. He said that evening that he’s still on the hunt. 

“Did you know,” he said, “that the Spokane Beauty apple was introduced about 1900 by a WSU nurseryman? This was a big commercial success. Cosmic Crisp is one of the newest varieties to come out of WSU.”

David ended his excellent presentation with a quote from Henry David Thoreau: “Surely, the apple is the noblest of fruits.”