Your God Sibling. The one you told all your secrets to. God Sibs… godsibs…ta-da…gossip! Often near your own age, your God Sib was the Godchild of your parents. Your God Sib was the one you trusted above all others. More than your sisters. More than your brothers. Even more than your cousin, unless, of course…
The Year was 1736
Peter Studebaker, his brother, their wives and a cousin arrived in America from Germany in 1736. Industrious, they began making farm equipment, then wagons and Army wagons. The families burgeoned and so did the business – Studebaker became the largest wagon manufacturer in the world. They advanced to making fancy horse-drawn carriages. In the 1850s,…
The Year was 1993
Amy McGrath could not know what the date, 1993, would mean to her. That was the year Amy, captain of her school soccer team, graduated from high school. It was also the year Congress said women could become fighter pilots. In her senior year, McGrath was appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy. What she did…
The Year was 1974
“Mr. Oklahoma,” they called him. Robert S. Kerr of the Kerr-McGee Corporation, born in a log cabin in Indian Territory in 1896, became wealthy through oil and other investments and rose to be governor of Oklahoma, and then senator. Through it all, a devout Baptist, he taught a Sunday school class. But Bob Kerr was…
The Year was 2019
What do twerking and Norway’s National Women’s Soccer Team have in common? Twerking is a dance move originating in New Orleans in the 1980s. It is sexually provocative and almost exclusively done by women. Ada Hegerberg is the best women’s soccer players in the world. Hegerberg, from Norway, is 23 and has won 11 of…
The Year was 1984
Where do bad words come from? Or maybe why are some words “bad”? Who decides this? Think of a tiny kid, red in the face, yelling in frustration at a parent. Even with the most rudimentary vocabulary, these kids can get the point across. What about animals? Do they curse at us? We actually have…
The Year was 1492
What if we could go back in history with our DNA kits and do a few tests? I would go back to the time when a kingdom was inherited and a king had to have a son. And that first son, no matter what his problems, was heir to the throne at the moment of…
The Year was 1576
Into a far corner of his huge throne room, covered with tatami (rough-woven brown mats made from rice straw), Oda Nobunaga tossed a single peach pit. He then called in a cleaning girl. When she was finished, Nobunaga asked her if she had done a good job. She said yes. Nobunaga went to the corner…
The Year was 1923
Lillian Bounds was born on the Nez Perce Reservation in Idaho in 1899. Her father was the federal marshal on the reservation and also the blacksmith. Lillian was the youngest of 10 children and the family struggled financially. Her father died when Lillian was 17. Lillian graduated from high school and went to business college….
The year was 1558
Suggested by Rose Kleidon People can be afraid of a lot of things. But a deathly fear of roses? Really? Elizabeth, who became queen of England in 1558, had it. And no wonder! She was the third Tudor to sit on the throne of England and the dynasty emblem was the Tudor Rose. This rose…
The Year was 1926
Missing! For 11 days, police, dogs, airplanes and 15,000 searchers scoured the English countryside for the missing wife. Was she kidnapped? Murdered? Or had she killed herself? This was straight out of a Stephen King novel. Or an Agatha Christie mystery. Wait! This was Agatha Christie. Agatha was married to the tall, dashing Archie Christie,…