Home in Henderson

Friday, July 29th. The nation’s love affair with automobiles is generations old. Our devotion can be traced down through the decades by looking at advertising, as cars progressed from romantic if noisy new playthings to a near necessity in our vast country. The first known national ad promoting a car appeared at the end of July 1898 in the Scientific American magazine. It was for the now forgotten Winton Motor Carriage with the headline “dispense with a horse.” Americans did …

The home front during World War II had to cope with some irritating impositions, notably gas rationing and a lack of new cars and tires. But what for many was a real crisis was coffee rationing. Decreed in 1942 because of hoarding and supply concerns, it proved very unpopular. President Roosevelt ended the rationing on this date in 1943 because imports had rebounded. Coffee may have been an early import by the Jamestown colony in the 17th century. Coffee consumption …

The past few decades have seen ever more frequent public opinion polls, whether from the traditional Gallup and Harris firms, to those commissioned by newspapers or political campaigns. The first such poll in U.S. history appeared this month in 1824 in the Harrisburg Pennsylvanian, finding that Andrew Jackson was favored over John Quincy Adams in the four-man presidential race. But most favored “none of the above,” as that contest recorded the lowest participation rate in our history–under 27 percent. Although …

On this date 26 years ago, the Americans with Disabilities Act became law. First introduced in Congress in 1988, the goal of the legislation was to guarantee equal opportunity for people with disabilities in public and commercial facilities, employment, transportation, and services at all levels of government. Nearly 57 million Americans — or about 19 percent of the population — have at least one disability. Some 12 million over the age of 15 need assistance with one or more activities …

On July 24, 1894, Kenneth Royall, the last United States Secretary of War and the first Secretary of the Army, was born in Goldsboro. After graduating from Harvard Law School in 1917, Royall joined the Army. He served in France from August 1918 until he was wounded in February 1919. At that time, Royall returned to Goldsboro and began practicing law. In June 1942, he retired from his legal practice, by then headquartered in both Goldsboro and Raleigh, in order …

Friday, July 22nd. It’s time to pass the mixed carrots, or maybe the pear zucchini corn. Fremont, Michigan is celebrating the 25th annual National Baby Food Festival, which began Wednesday and ends tomorrow. The town of 4,000 is home to the Gerber Baby Food Company, and is welcoming thousands of visitors to enjoy entertainment as well as baby food eating contests by adults and a baby crawl race. Today in the U.S., there are around 4 million babies being cradled …