The Chuck Wagon

a picture taken in 1907

Charles Goodnight of the Goodnight/ Loving cattle trail from San Antonio, Tx. to Denver, Co., is credited with the invention of the "chuck wagon".  Goodnight invented the chuck wagon in 1866, when he and his partner, Oliver Loving, were herding 2000 head of longhorn cattle from Ft. Belknap, Texas, to Denver. Goodnight knew that the cattle drive would be much more successful if his cowboys were fed well.  He bought a government wagon and had it refitted into a "kitchen on wheels", one that would make even Chef Ramsey proud. The chuck wagon had a sloping box attached to the back; this box could be folded down to make a work table for cooking. The chuck wagon was so successful that other cattle bosses adopted the concept for their cattle drives.

Andreas Vesalius

Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564), a Belgian anatomist, was known as the father of modern anatomy. He was one of the first anatomists to perform dissection of a human cadaver in the classroom. Vesalius wrote the first complete book on anatomy, 'de Hemani Corporis Fabrica' or The Fabric of the Human Body.

Round Churches

image from http://fromoldbooks.org/
 This is an image of The Round Church in Cambridge, England.

There are five round churches in England; the largest round church is Temple Church in London, England.

Gravity on the Sun

image provided by http://www.beautifulfreepictures.com/

Gravity on the sun's surface is twenty-seven and two-thirds times as great as gravity at the surface of the earth.

Symbol of the Elephant

image by http://www.beautifulfreepictures.com/

The elephant in oriental mythology, is a symbol of temperance, eternity, and sovereignty.

Khaki Uniforms in the Army

Khaki uniforms became the official uniforms of the US Army in 1902. Serving in the tropics, the heavy blue uniforms were too heavy for the volunteer army of the Spanish American War. Khaki uniforms were cooler for the service men. Then, later, the khaki cloth uniform was made official.

Barbie.....We Love You!!!

The original Barbie doll made her debut on March 9, 1959. A woman named Ruth Handler was the creator of Barbie. The doll, designed after a German doll named Bila Lilli, was named for Ruth's daughter, Barbara. Barbie's full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts. Lilli's production was discontinued after the Handler's bought the Lilli line.

Ruth Handler's husband was Elliot Handler, the co-founder of Mattel Toy Company. Hence....Mattel manufactured the Barbie doll.  Ken was introduced as Barbie's boyfriend in 1964. His full name is Ken Carson.

The original Barbie doll wore a zebra striped bathing suit. Barbie was manufactured in Japan with Japanese homeworkers producing the fabulous Barbie clothes line. The first year 350,000 Barbies were sold at a price of $3.00 each!!!!

Barbie has evolved over the years. I was born in 1952. I owned some of the first Barbie dolls ever made...Boy, do I wish I had those dolls now.

Gobstoppers

Gobstoppers are a colorful hard candy made up of several layers. In the US and Canada they are known as Jawbreakers. Gob is a slang word from the United Kingdom/Ireland for "mouth". One should never bite down on the hard candy unless he/she wants to risk dental damage. The candy is meant to be sucked or otherwise held in the mouth until it dissolves. This process can take a long time. Actually, there is a version of the candy that are as much as 8cm. in size. It is thought these gobstoppers can take forever to dissolve.....hence, the name Everlasting Gobstopper!!  I apologize for the small size of the Gobstoppers in the picture. I thought I would easily be able to get some "Big" Gobstoppers. These look more like M & M's to me. Just mentally multiply the size of these small gobstoppers by five or six.....THAT'S the picture  of a gobstopper that I wanted to have on this blog...... Sigh!!!

Pantyhose

This summer I won't be wearing pantyhose, but during the winter , I definitely will be wearing the all in one underpant and stocking garment. While pantyhose was invented in 1959, I don't remember wearing them until I was a junior or senior in high school. Actually, my memory is much clearer when it comes to garter belts and single nylons......you know, the kind that had to be held up! I know I must have started wearing pantyhose in the later part of the 1960's!! This is huge in my mind because when I was in Junior High School in Duncan, Oklahoma, we had to wear dresses to school every day. Finally, sometime during my high school years, the school board allowed us to wear nice slacks. I never wore jeans to school until college!!

Anyway....I digress! The fact for today is .......about pantyhose! Invented in 1959 by Allen Grant, they were manufactured by the Glen Raven Mills of North Carolina. With the advent of the mini-skirt in 1965, the company began producing a seamless version of the nylons!

Merchandise 7X

Merchandise 7X is the formula name for the popular soft drink....Coca Cola. The exact ingredients for this top secret recipe is kept in an Atlanta, Georgia, bank vault. The formula was invented in 1886, by Atlanta, Georgia, pharmacist Dr. John Pemberton. The drink was originally sold as a tonic that eased headaches and soothed the nerves. When the prohibition law came into effect, Pemberton changed the name of his popular nerve tonic from "Pemberton's French Wine Coca" to Coca Cola. Sugar was substitued for the wine. Pemberton's accountant, Frank Robinson came up with the Coca Cola logo. After carbonation was added to the syrup, it was sold as a soft drink at Jacob's Pharmacy in Atlanta, Georgia. At only five cents a glass, that first year Pemberton sold only nine drinks a day for a year end total of $50.00.  Pemberton's opinion that the drink was a failure is understandable since the Coca Cola venture had cost him $70.00.

Pemberton's conviction that the formula was a bust became evident when, one year later, in 1887, he sold the Merchandise 7X formula to another Atlanta pharmacist, Asa Chandler, for a mere $2300.00. While not much by today's standards, he did make more than $50.00 on the concoction that year!!  Mr. Chandler is the person who first marketed Coca Cola making it into the successful business it is today.

Spectacles.....

image by beautifulfreepictures.com

Did you know that the first eye glasses or "spectacles" were made between 1268 A.D. and 1289 A.D.?  But.....people did not figure out how to keep them on the face until 1730 A.D. when a London optician, Edward Scarlett, invented rigid curved frames to rest over the ear! Bifocals were invented by none other than our own Benjamin Franklin in the 1780's!

Mosquitoes

image by beautifulfreepictures.com

There are 2,700 species of mosquitoes in the world!! 176 of these species live in the United States!! Approximately two million people worldwide die each year from one of the many diseases transmitted by mosquitoes!