Wearing Of the Green--Irish for a Day

St. Patrick's Day
by Martha Rogers

Every year, thousands of people across our country celebrate what many call "St. Paddy's Day" and have parades and drink green beer to celebrate a man about whom most people know little. So many aren't even aware of the origins of the holiday or the true meaning. All they know is the fun of wearing green, going to parades, eating Irish food, wearing shamrocks of some kind, and having fun at local pubs. I remember getting pinched if I didn't wear something green on March 17. 

Just who was St. Patrick and how did he manage to have a holiday named for him? Curiosity drove me to the internet and the number of websites telling the

history of the holiday and the story of St. Patrick amazed me. 

The legend has him driving snakes out of Ireland, but did he really drive them out? What was his background? How did all the celebrations surrounding him get started?

St. Patrick, who wasn't Irish by birth or descent, was a Catholic priest whose birth name is believed to have been Maewyn Succat. He changed it to Patricius or Patrick, derived from the Latin term for "father figure." Born in Briton at the time it was part of the Roman Empire, he was taken to Ireland as a slave. Whether he escaped or was released is all speculation, but he later returned to Ireland and became involved with converting Druids to Christianity. 

As far as the snake legend is concerned, Ireland never really had snakes like

that and it is believed snakes had become the symbol for the Druids. However, St. Patrick didn't convert all of Ireland to Christianity, so tale is believed to be simply a myth or legend. 







Another myth associated with St. Patrick is the use of the shamrock, a three leaved clover, to teach the concept of the Holy Trinity, but nothing like that was ever discovered in his writings, so it joined the ranks of myth and legends. However, the shamrock became associated with St. Patrick and thus a part of the celebration of St. Patrick's Day.

Patrick and his four disciples traveled all over Ireland converting clan chiefs, building churches, opening schools and monasteries and convincing many Irish to become monks and nuns. For forty years he preached throughout Ireland. Most of his life was spent in poverty. He died on March 17, 461 A.D. and that became the day to celebrate his life. He died in his Church in Sabhall, County Down.

The first St. Patrick's Day parade took place in 1737 in Boston to celebrate the Irish culture in the new colonies. The idea took hold and made it back to Dublin as well as spread to other parts of the colonies. Eventually it spread to other countries and became a popular holiday. In Ireland, it is a national holiday and has been celebrated since the beginning of the 20th century, but they didn't hold a parade in his honor until 1930. 

In 1848, several Irish Aid Societies in New York decided to band together for one big parade. That parade has grown into the world's oldest civilian parade and the largest in the U.S. Other large parades are held in Boston, Chicago, Savannah, and Philadelphia. Chicago is even known to dye the river green as it flows through the area. 

Today, St. Patrick's Day isn't seen as a religious holiday, but as a day to have fun and drink Guinness beer and dress like Leprechauns. Celtic music, dancing and wearing green are a part of the holiday. It's now largely symbolic, but it's a great day to have fun with your friends. Erin Go Braugh.


To learn more about this day, visit https://www.history.com/topics/st-patricks-day/history-of-st-patricks-day

Martha Rogers is a multi-published author and writes a weekly devotional for ACFW. Since receiving her first novel contract at age 73, Martha has written and published over 50 books. Martha and her husband Rex live in Houston, Texas where they are active members of First Baptist Church. They are the parents of three sons and grandparents to eleven grandchildren and great-grandparents to five. Martha is a retired teacher with twenty-eight years teaching Home Economics and English at the secondary level and eight years at the college level supervising student teachers and teaching freshman English. She is the Director of the Texas Christian Writers Conference held in Houston in August each year, a member of ACFW, ACFW WOTS chapter in Houston, and a member of the writers’ group, Inspirational Writers Alive.

Find Martha at:

www.marthawrogers.com, www.hhhistory.com 

Twitter:  Martharogers2                                                                                 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarthaRogersAuthor                                    

Rodeos and Trail Rides

All Trails Lead to Houston

 by Martha Rogers

When I moved to Houston from college in 1957, I heard about the big rodeo and livestock exposition held every February. I became fascinated with the idea of rodeos and how the majority of Houston citizens celebrated Go-Texan Day for the big rodeo parade downtown.

I saw my first parade in February, 1958. I learned that schools closed on that Friday and business allowed people to take a break and witness the parade to kick off the two weeks of rodeo and livestock exposition. As I thought about those days recently, I became curious as to the origin of the rodeo and the trail rides that precede the week and make up most of the parade.

In January, 1932, seven businessmen met for lunch at the Texas State. They decided to host a livestock exposition Houston. They named Sartwelle as the first president and named it the Houston Fat Stock Show.

The very first show opened in April of 1932 at Sam Houston Hall, the Democratic Convention Hall. The show was designed as a regional event to showcase the agriculture and livestock of the area. The show ended with a deficit of $2,800 with approximately 2000 attendees at the end of one week. The only performers were the members of the Future Farmers Band of 68 high school students from across the state. A Grand Champion Steer was named and auctioned off to a local restaurant owner for $504. Here are ranchers bringing in their livestock for one of the early shows and then gathered around the Grand Champion.

Undaunted, the committee went ahead and held the show for the next four years and attendance grew to the extent that they outgrew the venue. They
began looking for a larger arena in Houston, and at the end of the 1936 show, the old Sam Houston Hall was torn down and the 1937 show was cancelled to allow for construction of a new arena. That year off gave the organizers the opportunity to expand and solidify plans for a larger even.

Sam Houston Coliseum: Home to the Rodeo until the Astrodome was built.

In 1938, they added the parade through downtown Houston, a carnival and a midway, and a rodeo that yielded a $640.50 purse. As interest and attendance grew, so did the plans. In 1940, the organizers decided to add musical entertainment.


 




At first, local talent performed at the rodeo in the evenings. In 1942, Gene Autrey, the singing cowboy appeared on stage as the first nationally 

recognized entertainer to perform at the show.

Roy Rogers and Dale Evans were two other popular performers at the rodeo.

One of the early posters advertising the Rodeo

As Houston grew and became more urban, interest flagged in the early 1950’s. In order to attract more  attention, the organizers decided to add a trail drive to the activities to precede the show. The first one originated in 1952 when the media were invited to join some cowboys for a 75 mile ride from Brenham, Texas to Houston and the Fat Stock Show.

When the event was so well-received, the Salt Grass Trail Association decided to continue with the drive. This inspired groups from other parts of the state to do the same. Thus one trail drive for publicity became a much larger event drawing statewide attention.

In 1961, the show became the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. The show grew even more and moved from the Sam Houston Coliseum to the Astrodome and Astrohall in the mid 1960’s.

To go along with the trail drives, a day shortly before the first night of the show, the committee designated a Go Texan Day for everyone to wear traditional Western wear. Someone said that now Texans were dressing the way most of the rest of the country thought they dressed all the time.

              Heading for Camp on the Trail                         Cooking on the Trail
Photo by Atha Marks
    Dimon


                                    
The Salt Grass Trail ride is still the “Granddaddy” of the trail rides that now converge on Houston the final Friday before the show begins. They camp out in Memorial Park the night before the parade and then ride in formation to 
downtown Houston for the parade on Saturday morning. People line the highways leading into Houston to greet the trail riders as they make their way to the park from all over Texas.  

Today, the show gives thousands of dollars in scholarships to deserving youth for their college education. In addition, the auctions at the end of the championship judging now bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars for the owners of the champion and reserve champion livestock.

So, the dream of seven men at a lunch at a hotel gave birth to what is now one of the largest rodeo events in the country and is recognized by the Professional Rodeo Association.

I have several special memories about the event held at the end of February and beginning of March. One of my favorites is the time my middle school homemaking class entered a contest in which we had to decorate a table with a theme of “Go Texan” for the rodeo. My class won first place for middle schools with our theme, “All Trails Lead to Houston” featuring the Salt Grass Trail Ride. I was so proud of my girls.

Pictures are from: https://bit.ly/2lHTG4V  and the files of The Houston Chronicle

Have you ever been to a rodeo? If so, what was your favorite part? Mine is the barrel races. 

Martha Rogers is a multi-published author and writes a weekly devotional for ACFW. Since receiving her first novel contract at age 73, Martha has written and published over 50 books. Martha and her husband Rex live in Houston, Texas where they are active members of First Baptist Church. They are the parents of three sons and grandparents to eleven grandchildren and great-grandparents to five. Martha is a retired teacher with twenty-eight years teaching Home Economics and English at the secondary level and eight years at the college level supervising student teachers and teaching freshman English. She is the Director of the Texas Christian Writers Conference held in Houston in August each year, a member of ACFW, ACFW WOTS chapter in Houston, and a member of the writers’ group, Inspirational Writers Alive.

Find Martha at:  www.marthawrogers.com, 

                        Twitter:  @martharogers2   

                        Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarthaRogersAuthor

America's Thanksgiving Day Parade!

Welcome to Heroes, Heroines, & History! I’m Michele K. Morris, thank you for joining me on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
Regardless if you celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday with a house full family and/or friends while indulging in a home cooked feast, or you spend a quiet day reflecting on what you’re thankful for, a few things on Thanksgiving Day are traditional for many Americans.

One is good food—and lots of it. Another is an overwhelming abundance of T.V. ads for Black Friday shopping, and a third—Thanksgiving Day parades televised from around the country.

I have very fond childhood memories of waking up on Thanksgiving morning to my mom in the kitchen, and parades on the T.V. My brother and I would watch the gigantic, character shaped balloons, the high school marching bands, the elaborate floats with smiling participants waving their greetings, and celebrity musical entertainment. But the best part was when Santa appeared to usher in the Christmas season. 
   
Being from Michigan, my favorite parade to watch was America’s
Thanksgiving Day Parade which took place on Woodward Avenue in downtown Detroit. In 1924 the J.L. Hudson Company department store started the Thanksgiving tradition. The parade is the second longest running Thanksgiving Day parade in the US, tied with New York City’s Macy's Thanksgiving Day. The longest running parade is the Dunkin' Donuts Thanksgiving Day Parade in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania which began in 1920.

The original idea for a holiday parade came from the J.L. Hudson Department Store’s display director Charles Wendel after he saw the success of similar Canadian celebrations. The parade ran every year from 1924 until a short reprieve in 1943 and 1944 due to shortages from World War 2.

J.L. Hudson Department Store

Then, in 1979, when the costs became burdensome for the floundering J.L. Hudson Department Store, the store gave the parade responsibilities to the Detroit Renaissance Foundation. This organization produced it for four years until 1983. At this time the Detroit Renaissance shifted control of the parade to the newly created Michigan Thanksgiving Parade Foundation. "America's Thanksgiving Parade" is a registered trademark of this foundation.

A fun and unique feature of Detroit’s parade is a yearly performance by The Big Head Corps. These “Bobble Head” style, papier-mâché costumes where brought to the parade by its founder, Charles Wendle. He saw similar costumes during a trip to Europe and wanted to incorporate them into Detroit’s parade. As of 2015, they still march each year. The heads are hand-made in Viareggio, Italy.
   

Another fun tradition is the Distinguished Clown Corps. This is a group of local corporate and community leaders dressed as clowns. What a great way to involve the community leaders with the public.

Until 1979, while Hudson’s department store sponsored the parade, the travel route began at Woodward and Putnam near the Detroit Public Library and ended near Gratiot Avenue at Hudson's Marquee. There, Santa would stop his sleigh, alight the steps, and the mayor would present him with the key to the city and to “the hearts of children of Detroit”.

HoHoHo!

The first broadcast of America’s Thanksgiving Day Parade was on the radio station WWJ in 1931. Then in 1959 it came to T.V. on Detroit’s local channels. The WXYZ program was hosted by ventriloquist and puppeteer Shari Lewis and her sock puppet Lamb Chop and transmitted nationwide on the ABC broadcast system.

               

Shari Lewis and sock puppet, Lamb Chop 

Over the years, other famous celebrities were commentators for the Detroit parades, including John Amos, Ned Beatty, Captain Kangaroo host Bob Keeshan, Linda Lavin, Esther Rolle and Andrew Stevens. The parade is made possible through the labors of more than 4,500 volunteers.

Have you ever attended a live Thanksgiving Parade? Do you have any Thanksgiving memories to share in the comments below? Or perhaps a fun story about this or another Thanksgiving?

Though Thanksgiving 2016 is in our past, we can continue to give thanks for our many blessings. I pray each of you has a safe, joyous, and blessed Christmas and New Year’s season. 

Thank you for joining me here at HHHistory.com today!

Happy Thanksgiving!
Michele


_________________________________________________

Award winning author, Michele K. Morris’s love for historical fiction began when she first read Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House book series. She grew up riding horses and spending her free time in the woods of mid-Michigan. Married to her high school sweetheart, they are living happily-ever-after with their six children, three in-loves, and six grandchildren in Florida, the sunshine state. Michele loves to hear from readers on Facebook, Twitter, and through the group blog, Heroes, Heroines, and History at HHHistory.com 

Turkey Day

Traditions of the Season....
By Martha Rogers

Thanksgiving finally became a national holiday declared by President  Abraham Lincoln following a letter-writing campaign by Sarah Hale, magazine editor of Gody’s. She advocated a holiday that would promote family togetherness and thankfulness. Prior to that, the holiday was celebrated sporadically even after George Washington declared a national day of thanksgiving and praise for December 18, 1877.

Traditional 19th century family dinner. 

The only time Thanksgiving was changed from the last Thursday of November to the next-to-last was in 1939 when President Roosevelt extended the date to give more time for Christmas shopping. That didn’t last long as the outraged public protested and legislation was passed in 1941 making Thanksgiving the fourth Thursday of November.

Traditions surrounding Thanksgiving revolved mostly around what the families of the day established in various regions of the nation although the purpose remained the same. The accounts of the first Thanksgiving in 1621 were

recorded by William Bradford of Plymouth Plantation and Edward Winslow. They celebrated with a feast featuring the bounty of their harvest for the year. Thus, food became more associated with Thanksgiving than other things except being thankful for the harvest. Jennie Auguste Brownscombe rendition in oil is seen here.

We're not sure when cranberries officially became a Thanksgiving meal fixture, however The New Jersey Star-Ledger wrote, “Cranberries officially became a part of the national Thanksgiving tradition in 1864, when Gen. Ulysses S. Grant ordered cranberries be served to soldiers as part of their holiday meal.” Whether it was widely used before that remains a mystery.

Football rivalries took began in the late 19^th century in Massachusetts with games played on Thanksgiving Day, and professional football took root on the day in the 1890’s. When the practice died out for colleges and high schools, the professionals took over. And we thought football games on Thanksgiving were a modern day phenomena.

In New York City, early parades were held with people dressed up in fanciful masks and costumes. They roamed the streets in small mobs making merry for the day. That morphed into what became known as ragamuffin parades of

children dresses as “ragamuffins” in old mismatched clothes and smudged faces. That tradtion morphed into what is now known as the “Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade” watched by millions on TV.

The turkey became the traditional meat as Victorian women were positive that is

what the Pilgrims had served. The custom of snapping the “wish bone” in two after dinner came to us from the English, who got it from the Romans. Apparently early Etruscans thought chickens were oracles, so they used the birds in an attempt to predict the future. After a chicken was killed, it was laid out to dry so that citizens still had access to its alleged powers. The wishbone was then picked up, stroked and revered; people allegedly made wishes on it, hence giving it its current name of wishbone. This was then carried over to turkey as well. Instead of stroking the bone, two people now wish on it then snap it. Whoever gets the longer end receives his or her wish.

Sweet potatoes came to us by way of the slave trade from the West Indies. The slaves used sugar-cane boiled down into molasses and poured it over the raw sweet potatoes. The heat of the boiling sugar was so hot that it cooked the potatoes as it cooled. Thus the source of candied sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving dinner.

The slave population gave the South cornbread as well and became a staple in making a stuffing for the turkey. Pecan pie joined pumpkin pie as the traditional dessert because of an abundance of the nuts in the South.

Whatever foods are served or activities are observed, Thanksgiving is a family holiday. Artists like Norman Rockwell preserved that ideal with his paintings.

 It’s a time when families gather to offer thanks for the blessings of the past year. Even if the day has to be a day early or late because of family commitments, it is still a day of giving thanks.  

Our family has its own traditions and even those changed as our children grew older and married. My grandmother’s recipe for cornbread dressing for the turkey is still served, and I’ve taught our middle daughter-in-law to make it so the tradition will be passed on to the next generation. I also use my grandmother’s Southern Pecan Pie recipe and a variation of her cranberry congealed salad. 

What are some of the traditions of your family at Thanksgiving? Answer below and be sure to leave your email address for a chance to win your choice of a copy of my Christmas book Christmas at Holly Hill or a digital copy of Christmas Blessing from the Mail Order Christmas Angels collection.

It is October 1898, and Clayton Barlow has just returned home after serving time in prison for his part in a bank robbery. His family welcomes him, but the townspeople are skeptical. Bored with life in the small town but determined to make a new start, he goes to work with his father, hoping to regain the town’s trust.   

Clayton recognizes the schoolteacher at the Prairie Grove School as his childhood friend, Merry Lee Warner, and old feelings surface. Still, he doubts that he could ever get a woman like Merry to love him.  

As the townspeople prepare for Christmas, their suspicions about Clayton lead to trouble. Will the trusting heart of an unlikely new friend be enough to restore Clayton’s relationships with his neighbors and reunite him with God and Merry?

Annelle Pugh is the daughter caretaker of her retired sea captain father who is in poor health. As she approaches age thirty, he smothers any of her attempts at a social life, and Nelle becomes discouraged and fearful she’ll never have a home of her own.  While her aunt is visiting and taking of the Captain, Nelle grabs the chance to go west and become one of the Mail Order Angels requested by a group of men in Wyoming. Riley Thornton is a rancher mourning the death of his wife and desperately needs someone to care for his three children. After several nanny attempts fail, Riley signs up for one of the Angel Brides who consented to come to Wyoming. Riley almost backs out when he sees how petite Nelle is and doubts she’ll be able to handle two growing daughters and a barely walking son as well as take care of the cooking and cleaning. Despite her doubts, Nelle begins to love Riley, but at every turn her fear of being sent back East keeps her from letting her feelings be known. As they work together, Riley comes to realize Nelle is special and truly his blessing from God at Christmas. 

Martha Rogers is a free-lance writer and writes a weekly devotional for ACFW. Martha and her husband Rex live in Houston where they enjoy spending time with their grandchildren.  A former English and Home Economics teacher, Martha loves to cook and experimenting with recipes and loves scrapbooking when she has time. She has written three series, Winds Across the Prairie and Seasons of the Heart and The Homeward Journey. Her new contemporary series, Love in the Bayou City of Houston and novella, Christmas Blessing are now available on Amazon.  

Find Martha at:  www.marthawrogers.com