American Legacies Organization, Inc.

Noua Zece

My great-grandmother was French. She was born approximately in 1899, in France. My great-grandfather was Romanian like me. He worked for almost 30 years for Romanian Crown Estate being a wealthy man, having business and traveling a lot in the West of Europe. It is said about him that he spoke besides Romanian, French, English, Latin and German.

By Franklin T. Wike, Jr.

Growing up, I used to spend the summers with my grandparents, Warren and Marion Hostetter. They had a small truck patch type farm consisting of around 10 acres in Mishawaka, Indiana. The main reason I spent my summers with them, was to help out on the farm and while those years created some great memories, I think my favorite memories involve the time I spent in Grandmas Kitchen. My grandmother was ALWAYS cleaning fresh vegetables and canning them. She was a fantastic cook and I still miss the great foods she used to make.

One day I ran into a stranger as he passed by, "Oh excuse me please" was my reply.

He said, "Please excuse me too; I wasn't watching for you."

We were very polite, this stranger and I. We went on our way and we said goodbye.

But at home a different story is told, How we treat our loved ones, young and old.

Later that day, cooking the evening meal, My son stood beside me very still. When I turned, I nearly knocked him down. "Move out of the way," I said with a frown.

He walked away, his little heart broken. I didn't realize how harshly I'd spoken.

I had the privilege of speaking personally to General Patton twice. The first time was on a beach, Nov. 1942, just north of Casa Blanca. There were two others besides myself. The General came up to us, asked where we were from. Told us to be very careful and just make the enemy suffer.

Author: A U.S. Navy Pilot

Dear Terrorists,

I am a Naval Aviator. I was born and raised in a small town in New England. I come from a family of five. I was raised in a middle class home and taught my values by my mother and father.

My dad worked a series of jobs in finance and my mom took care of us kids. We were not an overly religious family but attended church most Sundays. It was a nice small Episcopal Church. I have a brother and sister and I am the youngest in my family. I was the first in many generations to attend college.

Milton Long Wedding

Preparing Children for the Future

From Milton Long

Recipe below is a great example to read thoroughly before starting.

Caramel Pie will make 2 large pies.

Legacy of Mildred Louise Craig/nee Lewis

Born Ocotober 16, 1876 in Ripley Tennessee

Died November 5, 1963

Most of her adult life was spent on Island 35, better known as Reverie Tenn.

Contrbutor: Grand daughter Mildred C. Sanders/nee Prentice who reports,

Below is some information from the U.S. Legacies archives on Burma Shave.

Way back in 1925 young Allan Odell pitched this great sales idea to his father, Clinton. Use small, wooden roadside signs to pitch their product, Burma-Shave, a brushless shaving cream. Clinton wasn’t wild about the idea, but eventually gave Allan $200 to give it a try.

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.