American Legacies Organization, Inc.

Ice Before Refrigerators

How did families who lived out in the country keep ice for their ice boxes, and how did they keep it from melting?

C. Smith

Reply from Darrell Wiseman, Indiana

An ice man came around in a wagon and delivered large blocks of ice. You would take an ice pick and break off a chunk for your ice box. The rest of the ice was wrapped in cloth and placed in straw, out in your "ice" house.

Author Eva Whitehead

I was next to the last child, both of us were girls. My sister is about 18 months younger than myself. We would cut out paper dolls and make their dresses from my mother’s wallpaper books she received through the mail. We had some well-dressed paper sack and old newspaper dolls we would cut out ourselves. A head, 2 arms, a small neck, and a flared body with two legs. Then we would cut the dresses to where they would go over the head and hang over the shoulders to below their flared body. The others were cut out the same way.

MAYFIELDS CORNER

By: Joe Mayfield

by Anjum Wasim Dar

Rawalpindi, Pakistan

I remember that evening when we went to see our new house. 24 Willoughby Road. I was the excited little child, running from room to room, all around the house. Outside, it was so spacious, so open, so adventurous. You could play hide and seek and hide so well that no one could find you for hours and you would be the WINNER. Two tall trees gave the pillaric grace to the front of the house!!!!

By Susan Hopkins

I stood in a small Irish cemetery. The weather was unusually warm for Ireland. The sun shone brightly, and there was not a trace of the common soft Irish rain in the air. The grass grew very high, uncut for months, a traditional Irish custom I later found out, to help preserve the natural feel of the setting. The tombstone listed the names of distant relatives I had only discovered a year earlier.

Genealogy

Connie Sychowski

Editor Genealogy Corner

When growing up all holidays were special ones. The family would always gather at our home, all of dad’s children present and accounted for. It was just a special time for him to take a break from his busy schedule and make time for his family. BBQs and watermelon, I can almost remember the smell of my dad cooking London broil on the grill.

Red Velvet Cake

Legacy of Alice DeLuca nee Held

Grandview, Indiana

1 cup shortening

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs

2 Tablespoons cocoa

2 oz. red food coloring

2 cups flour

1 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vinegar

1 teaspoon soda

Earthquake Cake

Legacy of Polly Mazariegos nee Wagaman

1 cup coconut

1 cup chopped nuts

1 box chocolate cake mix

1 8 oz package cream cheese

1 cup margarine or butter – 1 stick

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups powdered sugar

¾ cup chocolate chips

Copyright: Bill Hawksford

In 1948, much to Billy’s consternation, he was wasting away his valuable young life performing dull uninteresting menial tasks at Catterick camp in Yorkshire.

Composer Unknown

The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5
inches.

That's an exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge used?
Because that's the way they built them in England, and English expatriates built the US Railroads.

Why did the English build them like that?

Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used.

Why did "they" use that gauge then?