Category Archives: History
Hot Chocolate, Cold Meat, Gingerbread: What Washington Really Ate
For George Washington’s birthday, my mother used to buy a supermarket cake overloaded with pink frosting that stuck to the knife. Never mind that the cherries tasted more of chemicals than fruit. Every bite felt patriotic. At my elementary school … Continue reading
‘Bullet’ Joe and Big Boy
Back in the days of leather football helmets (not mandatory) and canvas-and-leather shoulder pads, my grandfather captained his football team at Washington & Lee University to a Southern Championship in 1919. Nicknamed “Bullet Joe” because of his running speed, he … Continue reading
‘One of the Housekeeper’s Necessaries’
I am named after my great-grandmother, Clara, whose parents emigrated from a small village in southern Germany to Cleveland, Ohio in the 1870s. She looks genteel in this photo but her family supported itself with the rough-and-tumble Black Cat Whiskey … Continue reading
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