Celebrating All Things Chocolate By Donna Schlachter -- with Giveaway

Photo by Loannes Marc from Pexels

October 28th is the day Americans celebrate chocolate, and it’s one of the few that also have an International or World Day of its own—December 28th or July 7th, depending on which source you follow. Regardless, chocolate is America’s favorite flavor, so let’s talk more about it. Read all the way through to learn how to win a free e-book of Testing Tessa, book 1 in “Healing the Wounded Heart” series.

Chocolate has been consumed for at least 3,000 years, and grows primarily in Mexico, Central America, and northern South America. Documentation dates to around 1100 BC.

How and why the first person ever ate the bean that chocolate comes from is a mystery, since it’s intense and bitter. In fact, the bean must be fermented to develop the flavor, then dried, cleaned, and roasted. Seems like a lot of work for whoever did it first, particularly since there was no guarantee they’d come up with something edible.

However, we are glad they persisted, because once the roasted bean is ground into a powder and combined with enough sugar, milk, butter, and other ingredients, then it becomes not only edible but delicious.

Photo by Polina Tankilevitch from Pexels

As any chocolate aficionado will attest, there are different kinds of chocolate, and we each have our own preference. Unsweetened is good for baking or making cocoa from scratch. Semi-sweet adds just the right touch of flavor to baked goods like cookies and breads. Milk chocolate is, of course, for eating. And white chocolate actually doesn’t contain any cocoa solids. Some argue it is merely sugar in disguise.

Photo by Polina Tankilevitch from Pexels

 

Regardless of your taste preference, there is no dissension for celebrating the Day. You might choose to visit your favorite restaurant and indulge your sweet tooth in an exquisite chocolate creation. Maybe you prefer to bake. If so, invite some friends over and enjoy one of the recipes listed below. You could promote your favorite kind of chocolate on social media using #NationalChocolateDay, or check out the myriad of posts about this topic.

 

https://www.food.com/recipe/chocolate-lasagna-502197

 

It’s probably no surprise that the National Confectioners Association created National Chocolate Day, but I’m sure it was in response to consumer demand. Or a desire to sell more chocolate. Or both.

https://www.pexels.com/photo/architecture-art-clouds-landmark-290386/

Also, not surprisingly, other good things happened throughout history on this special date. For example, in 1886, the Statue of Liberty was dedicated; in 1919 prohibition passed, and in 1954 author Ernest Hemingway won the Nobel Prize in Literature for The Old Man and the Sea.

Enjoying your birthday on this date is second only to dressing up and begging for candy from neighbors (Halloween, of course, my birthday😊). Several notable figures from history set the fun precedence for October 28th, including Remington in 1816, Auguste Escoffier in 1846, Edith Head in 1897, and Jonas Salk in 1914. If any on this esteemed list are strangers, feel free to check them out.

Thanks for joining me on one of my favorite days of the year. Kinda like barbeque, chocolate is one of those foods you need to wear on the inside and the outside. Go for it!

Photo by cottonbro from Pexels

 

Giveaway: Leave a comment about your favorite kind of chocolate or favorite treat, and I’ll draw randomly for an ebook copy of Testing Tessa. Don’t forget to leave your email address so I can contact you if you are the winner. Use the format: donna AT historythrutheages DOT com so those pesky robots can’t track you or spam you.

About Testing Tessa:

 

In 1868, Tessa, a Mennonite nurse graduates from nursing school and is assigned to the Amana Colonies in Iowa because of her expertise in treating asthma and other breathing problems. As a former student at a women's medical school, she knows more than most about respiratory diseases. She's also had her fair share of heartbreak when, upon her mentor's death, she was forced to abandon her dream of becoming a doctor. Will she be able to use her skills? Or will her gender keep her from helping those who truly need her?

Seth, a widower in Amana, is still nursing a broken heart from his sweetheart's passing two years before. Now raising their invalid son Seth on his own, he wonders why God didn't listen to his prayers for healing for his family. Caleb has been afflicted with the same form of asthma that killed Anna, and Seth stands by helplessly as his son fades away. Can he trust God and trust medicine, or is faith in one mutually exclusive of faith in the other?

About Donna:

 

Donna writes historical suspense under her own name, and contemporary suspense under her alter ego of Leeann Betts, and has been published more than 40 times in novellas, full-length novels, and non-fiction books. She is a member of several writing communities; facilitates a critique group; teaches writing classes; ghostwrites; edits; blogs regularly; and judges in writing contests.

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Etsy online shop of original artwork: https://www.etsy.com/shop/Dare2DreamUS

Resources:

https://nationaldaycalendar.com/national-chocolate-day-october-28/

No Bake Chocolate Oat Bars: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/10602/no-bake-chocolate-oat-bars/?evt19=1

Chocolate Lasagna: https://www.food.com/recipe/chocolate-lasagna-502197

The Statue of Liberty

A Symbol of our Freedom

by Martha Rogers

I have never been to New York City, but I’ve heard about the Statue of Liberty all my life. Imagine the thrill of those immigrants in the late 19th century coming into the harbor and seeing her for the first time. I’m sure I’d be as much in awe now

as people were back then. She is a symbol of freedom and liberty to people all over the world, yet the story of her structure is one that covers a number of years and some controversy.

Frederic Auguste Bartholdi was named to design a sculpture for the statue with a deadline of 1876 to coordinate with America’s centennial.

He chose the robed figure of a woman to represent Libertas, Roman goddess of liberty. She holds a torch above her head with her right hand and carries a tablet in her left. The tablet is inscribed in Roman numerals with “JULY IV MDCCLXXVI” (July 4, 1776), the date of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. At her feet lies a broken chain representing freedom, thus leading her to become the icon of freedom and a welcome sight for those immigrants coming to America. Here is a close up of her face and crown.

Because Bartholdi needed an engineer to help with the design, he enlisted Alexandre Gustave Eiffel of Eiffel Tower fame to provide assistance with structural issues. His expertise helped to make the final structure stand upright.

In the beginning, funds were hard to come by and tedious for both Americans and Frenchmen. Entertainment, public fees, and a national lottery were means used to help with the fund in France. In America, things did not go as smoothly or quickly. Auctions, entertainment, and even fights were arranged to help. Joseph Pulitzer became a catalyst to get the American movement going. He wrote an editorial for his newspaper and put pressure on the rich and middle class to help provide funds.

In 1885, the finances for the pedestal were completed, and the construction completed in April of 1886. The statue had been finished and waiting in France since 1884. In order to get here her, she had to be broken down into 350 pieces and packed in 214 crates. Now that’s a big statue. 

The picture at right is the torch that was first used, but it has since been replaced because of the age and

deterioration of the first one.  It is on 
display there at the museum. 







Here is how it looks today. 

Ten years later than the 1876 target date, on October 28, 1886, she was dedicated and placed on the granite pedestal within the star-shaped walls of Fort Wood. New York City’s first ticker-tape parade took place and President Grover Cleveland presided over the dedication.

Various groups have been assigned to her care and upkeep. Until 1901, that responsibility fell on United States Lighthouse Board. In 1903, the Emma Lazarus Poem, “The New Colossus”, was written for the statue and engraved on a bronze plaque, 20 years after it was written.

“Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door:”

Those words give me chills even as I read them today. So many thousands of people have come to our shores for the very reasons stated in the poem.

After the Lighthouse Board, the war department took over in 1901. On October 15, 1924, she was declared to be a National Monument by Presidential Proclamation that included Ft. Wood.  In 1933 she was placed in care of the National Park Service which later expanded to include Bedloe Island. In 1956, the name was changed to Liberty Island.

Not until 1965 was Ellis Island transferred to the National Park Service to become part of the monument. In 1982, President Ronald Reagan began a campaign to restore the monument at the cost of $87 million dollars. In 1984, the Statue of Liberty was declared as a World Heritage Site by the United Nations. Reconstruction was completed on July 5, 1986, one hundred years after her first dedication.

Originally, tourists could explore all parts of the statue, including the arm and torch she held high. The crown contained observation windows for tourists to look out over the harbor.  In 1916, the arm and torch area were declared unsafe and shut off from tourists.

In order to comprehend how huge the statute is, remember it was shipped in 214 crates. Parts of her were sent to various places to be on display. The Centennial Exposition in 

Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876 displayed the torch and arm. Other parts were displayed elsewhere. This is her foot to give you some perspective of her colossal size. 

After September 11, 2001, she was closed for 100 days. The grounds re-opened, but the statue remained closed until August of 2004. Today visitors may tour the island and go to the pedestal observation deck to view the harbor. Tourists also have access to a promenade, museum, Fort Wood and Ellis Island. Although I have never seen the Statue of Liberty in person, her image still brings a lump to my throat and thankfulness for this country to my heart. 

My new novella, Freedom's Journey tells the story of a young woman who came as an immigrant in 1887 will be released in February.

After her grandmother's death in England, Rosemary Beckett is left with only a house and no means of support. An old friend of her deceased father offers her a position as governess to his grandchildren. He pays her passage and Rosemary embarks on her journey. When they arrive in New York Harbor, she meets a charming young man who catches her interest, but because he's a first class passenger, she flees the ship without revealing her identify. Alexander Cartwright finds her again when he visits his brother and sees her as the governess. He believes this is God's answer to his prayers to find her, but her heart is locked against any relationship with a family member. He is determined to break that lock and set her heart free for love.

Martha Rogers is a multi-published author and writes a weekly devotional for ACFW. 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 four. 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

Lady Liberty

A footnote from history by Stephanie Grace Whitson.

"...the ferry passes near Bledsoe's Island, soon to be graced by a very significant monument ... It's over three hundred feet high. Named 'Liberty Enlightening the World,' the figure of a woman holding high a lighted torch. They expect the light to be visible from fifty miles at sea." 

Those are the words that introduced my imaginary friend Liberty Belle to Buffalo Bill's Wild West and her chance to ride in the parade the day the Statue of Liberty was dedicated in New York. The dedication included a parade, fireworks (which had to be postponed) and a speech by President Grover Cleveland.

Lady Liberty was the brainchild of French sculptor, Frederic August Bartholdi, who was inspired by an 1865 after-dinner conversation with another Frenchman who was a supporter of the Union during the American Civil War. That conversation introduced the idea that perhaps a joint project (between France and the United States) would inspire the French to champion democracy over the repressive regime of Napoleon III. 

Creating the statue was slow going. Bartholdi would cross the Atlantic in search of a site in 1871, a year after creating his first working model. Eventually, it was decided that the French would finance the statue, while the U.S. would provide a site and pay for the pedestal. In 1876, the arm and torch were displayed at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, moving to Madison Square Park in Manhattan until 1882. In 1878, the head was on view at the Paris World's Fair. 


Fundraising was difficult and by 1885 work on the pedestal was threatened due to lack of funds. Joseph Pulitzer began a drive for donations and almost 120,000 responded ... with less than a dollar each. At last, Lady Liberty arrived ... in pieces. She was dedicated in 1886 and remains one of our most beloved landmarks. 

Have you visited Liberty Enlightening the World?

What's your favorite U.S. landmark?

_________________________________

In Stephanie's novel Belle of the Wild West (previously published as Unbridled Dreams), a Nebraska gal gets a chance to live her dream, performing with Buffalo Bill's Wild West during the summer of 1886, when the Wild West camped on Staten Island. Performers (including Native Americans in full regalia) rode the ferry daily to reach the performance venue at Madison Square Gardens.

Watch for the announcement of this book's re-release (first time as an ebook!) by visiting Stephanie's Facebook page  
https://www.facebook.com/StephanieGraceWhitsonofficial/ or subscribe to receive book announcements at www.stephaniewhitson.com.

The Lady was a Lighthouse

Statue of Liberty, Photo courtesy The Lighthouse People

By Marilyn Turk

Although the lady is 125 years old, she’s still standing tall and proud at the entrance to New York’s Harbor.

Famous for her imposing stature and her regal form, she has represented freedom to thousands of immigrants. The people of France named her “Libertas,” after the Roman goddess for freedom, when they built her and shipped her over as a gift for the United States.

She holds a torch in her right hand representing enlightenment or progress and in her left arm rests a tablet inscribed with the date of American’s Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776. Since her  establishment on the island leading into the harbor, thousands of ships have hailed her as their welcome to the country.

She retains another unique position in that she was considered a lighthouse and governed by the US Lighthouse Board from 1886 to 1901 and owns the distinction of being the first lighthouse lit by electricity.  Her torch, held 305 feet in the air, contained nine electric arc lamps and could be seen 24 miles out to sea. In fact, the first lightkeeper, Albert Littlefield, received a higher salary than any other  lightkeeper because he was familiar with the “new” technology.

Although the torch was extinguished many years ago and her status as a lighthouse was removed, flood lighting was installed to reveal the entire figure at night. Therefore, now her whole body reflects light for all to see.

On the Fourth of July, the lady, the Statue of Liberty, will be emblazoned by thousands of fireworks set off in the harbor as the United States once again celebrates its freedom, commemorating the words at her base:

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of you teaming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

A multi-published author, Marilyn Turk writes historical fiction about and lives in the coastal South. Her most recent novel, A Gilded Curse, released in March 2016 from Heritage Beacon Fiction, an imprint of Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolina. Her fascination for lighthouses spawned her popular weekly lighthouse blog @ http://pathwayheart.com, and inspired her book, Lighthouse Devotions – 52 Inspiring Lighthouse 
Stories.