Dusty D has been extremely busy this past week, finishing off an article for Michigan History Magazine. I hope they run it! If so, it'll be in the March/April issue. Just sent it off; now I can breathe again. I apologize for the recent lack of blog posts but now that things are back to the normal level of crazy I'll be postin' again. Thank you for your patience.

Christmas Wish Lists in the Depression

Have kids in your life with Christmas wishes? Sons, daughters, nieces, nephews? Take a look at what Depression--era kids requested, in today's story in the Courier.

Wednesday Mystery Spot: 1927 N. Huron

Last week's Mystery Spot showed a sliver of a familiar street with a barber pole and an enigmatic sign saying "YPS BA."

This is a bit of the west side of North Huron from about 1927. At right you can see Pearl Street's mouth. The "Bazaar" was a notions and variety store. On the first floor is a "Men's Furnishings" store. Heading south we can see the Sonora phonograph shop ("clear as a bell"), a small dentist's office, "Louis the Tailor," Shaefer Hardware in its original spot, and the Economy Store (click to enlarge).

Today we're venturing out of Ypsilanti--but not far. Take a gander at this view from a Washtenaw County spot. Take a guess and good luck!

Depression-Era Children's Letters to Santa

Some say that unemployment levels in Michigan, if you count those people who have simply given up on looking for work, approaches or equals depression-era levels.

How does one Depression-era Christmas compare to Christmas 2010? In particular, how did Ypsi children react to the difficulties they could see all around them, to the worried nighttime conversations around the kitchen table overheard from their bedrooms, to their parents' inability to buy them a new warm coat?

How many could afford the trains, skates, and velocipedes on sale at Shaefer's Hardware in December of 1932?

That story will be in tomorrow's Ypsilanti Courier (if they run it); be sure to snag a copy!

A tale of a tiff over toilet paper and the onetime downtown "Rest Room."

Ypsilanti Thanksgivings in a Hard Time

Husband and I had for tonight's dinner "Thanksgiving Hash," a delicious mishmash of mashed taters, cooked yam, gravy, stuffing, and turkey all warmed up together.

There is a tower of reusable tubs in the freezer with at least six portions of leftovers for upcoming lunches.

But there was a time when such lavish, easily-obtainable amounts of food was simply not the case in Ypsilanti. It was during World War Two.

Venison and Sneaky Saloons

News tidbits from the November, 27 Ypsilanti Commercial.

A drunk staggering around in the street tipped off police that no fewer than three saloons were secretly open on Sunday. The four saloonkeepers were arrested: George Letter, Anson Wright, and misters Smith and Fulton.

A 150-pound deer carcass shipped down from the U.P. was among the venison hung up in P. Grant Voght and Edward Rogers' butcher shop at 127 Michigan Avenue. Hunter and Ypsilanti funeral director Jay Moore brought them down and apparently sold them to the shop. Strange to think of shooting a deer and hauling it over to, say, Kroger's today...

Surprise in the Archives

Last week a friend stopped by with a remarkable artifact: one made in Ypsi in the 19th century!

Read all about it in this week's Courier story!

Turn of the Century Soups

Quick, what would you say are the seven most popular soups for sale at Kroger? Dusty D would guess chicken noodle, cream of chicken, beef and veggies, tomato, chicken and rice, beef barley, and that grand old lynchpin of Midwestern "cooking," cream of mushroom.

Well, according to a November 27, 1896 ad for Kief and Meanwell's grocers on North Huron, these preferences were very different--if we assume that the soups advertised were the popular ones that would appeal to readers.

The seven soups here are "Tomato, Chicken, Ox Tail, Mock Turtle, Consomme, Julienne, French Bouillon."

Dusty D is proud to say that with my usual penchant for anachronism, I have oxtails in my freezer at this very moment! Yesirree.

Then the Queen left off, quite out of breath, and said to Alice, "Have you seen the Mock Turtle yet?"
"No," said Alice. "I don't even know what a Mock Turtle is."
"It's the thing Mock Turtle Soup is made from," said the Queen. --Alice in Wonderland, 1865

Wednesday Mystery Spot

The last Mystery Spot was tricky, since it was long gone before any of our lifetimes. It's the County Poorhouse, or County House as it was euphemistically called. It had a working farm on the property. Today it is called County Farm Park, at Washtenaw and Platt. Building Place, BF, and Joe guessed correctly.
This week we're back in town for our Mystery Spot. But where? See if you can figure out the location of this Spot and good luck!

Thanksgiving Suggestions from 1896

The Ypsilanti grocers Kief and Meanwell offered a list of tempting Thanksgiving goodies in the November 20, 1896 edition of the Ypsilanti Commercial.

Two items that seem to have been more popular then are an assortment of table relishes and plum pudding. There are also a few brand names that I hadn't realized were so old. I also hadn't realized that salad dressing was commercially available this early, in lieu of making one's own at home. The foods are:

Queen Olives in bulk
Queen Olives in Bottle,
East India Pickles,
Cross & Blackwell's Pickles,
Heinz's Chili Sauce,
Heinz's India Relish,
Lea & Perrin's Sauce,
Durkee's Salad Dressing,
Keystone Gelatines,
Bon Ton Cheese,
Nose Gay Club Cheese,
Malaga Grapes,Catawba Grapes,
Jersey Sweet Potatoes,
Cape Cod Cranberries,
Fancy Layer Figs,
New Mixed Nuts,
Gordon & Dilworth's Plum Pudding.

Thanksgiving Note to the Ministers of Ypsi from Editor C. R. Pattison

C. R. Pattison was the most fiery editor in all of Ypsilanti history. He treated his paper, the Ypsilanti Commercial, as a large cannon. He didn't fire it in every weekly issue of the Commercial, but when he did not even local ministers were out of range.

The Commercial's printing-house stood at the corner of Huron and Cross Streets, though I don't know which corner it stood on. In the November 22, 1884 edition, Pattison tells local preachers to tone it down already.

A HINT
As a rule Thanksgiving sermons are unmercifully long. This fact has kept a great many people away from church. A year's thoughts and ideas are piled into one effort. Boil down, cut off the prefaces and expletives and long drawn conclusions. Give the solid meat.

Again enough singing is piled service to last five years. Last year we laid up the program of song, such a multiplicity of pieces on purpose as a reminder to this coming occasion, but we have mislaid it.

At all events short prayers, not over three glorious Thanksgiving hymns, a brief boiled down wide awake sermon, and there will be many more thankful souls. Many a good woman can give the promised good dinner and yet enjoy the church service, many a farmer and farmer's wife can come to church and get back to their turkey, and not grumble all the way homeward and be [ticked off...]

In the very same issue, even on the same (front) page, Pattison delivered another editorial, this one aimed at the Commercial's detractors.

ANYTHING BUT STAGNATION
Some would like to have the Commercial tamed or toned down so as to give no progressive ideas, to be very careful not to advance a step beyond the path it has been accustomed to tread. Not give its readers anything to think of but lull them to sleep with the same old song. Better give them something to get mad on, for they will soon get over it and feel better, than to administer to a perpetual stagnation of thought and action. It is the glory of American freemen that they are not hampered and if they kick and get a little mad [they] yet have common sense enough to soon get over it and behave manfully and nobly. The COMMERCIAL would not be worth taking did it not stir up your laggard brains and ideas occasionally. Count on it doing so at least when you need it bad.

The 1888 Diary of Abba Owen

Newest chapter in an ongoing serialization of the 1888 diary of Abba Owen, daughter of Ypsilanti mineral water baron Tubal Cain Owen and Anna (Stowe Foote) Owen. The Owens lived in a now-vanished house near the current day Roosevelt School building on EMU, where Tubal also had his magical and very profitable well.

Friday Nov. 23rd: Mama went to a reception given by Prof. Sill to Gov. Luce last evening. Grandpa and Aunt Kate went also and they had a very nice time. It has been a very pleasant day.

Saturday Nov. 24th: Nothing particular only that we went to the German class and it has been a pleasant day.

Sunday Nov. 26th: Mabel was sick and could not go to church with us this morning. We all went down as usual to Grandma's to tea.

Note: Abba's diary entries for 1888 end here. On the next page, she picks up her diary again on January 1, 1890. We will resume serializing her diary on New Year's Day, 2011. In the meantime, next Tuesday we'll be starting the serialization of a new diary, so be sure to check it out!

Menu at Detroit's Michigan Exchange

What were Ypsilantians eating in 1870? Well, their diet was somewhat different. For one, they observed "tea" at what we now think of as dinnertime, and ate another meal around 8 p.m. Kind readers may remember Ypsi teen diarist Abba Owen in 1888, still making reference to having tea at her grandmother's house. Earlier in 1874, another Ypsi teen diarist Allie McCullough made reference to it too.

The Michigan Exchange was a big hotel and restaurant in Detroit on Jefferson Avenue. This ad in the Ypsi paper was meant to lure Ypsi travellers and tradesmen taking the train to Detroit, and farmers coming into town there, to stop off for a meal. Menu for November 10, 1870 as printed in the Ypsilanti Commercial:

BREAKFAST: Green Tea, Coffee, Black Tea, Chocolate.
Broiled--Beef Steak, plain, Mutton Chops, Beef Steak with Onions, Ham, Liver, Salt Mackerel, Pork Steak, Salt Pork.

Fried--Oysters, Veal Cutlets plain, Mush, Calf's Liver and Pork, Veal Cutlets in Butter, Pork and Apples, Codfish Balls, Sausages, Fresh Fish.

Miscellaneous--Minced Codfish, Hashed Potatoes, Stewed Potatoes, Cold Boiled Ham, Stewed Oysters, Hashed Meat, Baked Potatoes.

Bread, etc.--Rice Cakes, Plain Bread, Graham Bread, Hot Corn Bread, French Rolls, Boston Crackers, Soda Biscuit, Butter Crackers, Plain Toast, Dipped Toast, Butter Toast.

Hours for Meals--Breakfast 6 1/2 to 9 1/2; Dinner at 1; Tea, 6 to 7; Supper 8 to 10.

The Delectable Fig-Fag

The term "faggot" was not used as a pejorative term for a gay person until 1914, and the shortened form "fag" was not used until 1921, according to this online etymology dictionary.

This ad is from the March 11, 1897 Ypsilantian. Therefore DD presumes that the word "fag" used here refers to the older meaning of "bundle of sticks." I'm guessing that this product came as a roll of crushed figs wrapped in paper. Ten cents please.

"The new Fruit Food" does not have a manufacturer's name appended to its description. DD finds this interesting. DD speculates whether Kief and Meanwell's got a great deal on ten crates of bruised figs in Detroit, toted it home, and set up a washtub and a potato masher in back of the store. Sprinkle in a little corn starch, roll out a glob on the table, wrap it in paper, et voila! The world will beat a path to Kief and Meanwell's door for "Fig-Fag"!

Sadly, "Fig-Fag" never caught on. Perhaps the closest we'll ever get to experiencing it is the mush inside Fig Newtons. This March 11 ad for "Fig-Fag" appears to be the only such "Fig-Fag" ad that ever appeared in the paper. It is absent from succeeding editions of the Ypsilantian.

Kief and Meanwell may have meant well, but one wonders if their assessment of what constitutes desirable edibles might have been a bit off. Kind readers may recall that this grocer's was the enterprise that previously brought us the dainty known, briefly, as "Breakfast Fish Balls."

Order of the Eastern Star 1923 Cookbook

Dusty D was tipped off to the existence of this cookbook by a posting on the YCVB's Facebook page. I found a copy online and read it with great interest. DD loves to cook and loves learning about culinary history. I definitely want to know what people were cooking and eating in 1923, the year this cookbook was published by the OES, the ladies' auxiliary to the local Masons.

Here are DD's observations about the food in the cookbook:

*What is most notable is the complete absence of any foreign cuisines. No Mexican, no Italian or French, nothing. There are only 5 dishes that are even vaguely foreign, and even those have been Americanized: chop suey, "American chop suey," chili con carne, Spanish rice, and something called "Indian salad," a fruit salad containing coconut.

*In line with that, another glaring lack in the cookbook is an absolute lack of French or Italian herbs. No oregano, no thyme, no basil, no bay leaves--nothing at all. The food sounds relatively bland compared to the kind of food I like to cook. Salt, pepper, cayenne, and paprika are the only spices I see.

*The section that could be copied and placed in a modern cookbook is "Cookies."

*The section that is most different from a modern cookbook is "Meats." We are used to eating tacos, nachos, stir-fries, and other everyday meat dishes borrowed from other cuisines. Every dish in this section is strictly old-time American. There are a lot of veal recipes and a couple of oyster ones too...though the era of oysters was in decline by this time.

*There are a lot of escalloped dishes, which take some time to bake. Just a small reminder that most women spent all day at home and could afford the time.

*Vegetable preparation sounds pretty bland, and most of them are boiled or baked.

*The ONLY processed foods mentioned in the whole book are canned vegetables, cream cheese, Worchester sauce and gelatin (in my casual survey). Every cake in the extensive cake section is made from scratch.

*Doughnuts were made at home.

*The oldest recipe in the book is for the medieval recipe for mincemeat pie, which in this book is called "pork cake" in 2 separate recipes and "mincemeat in a third.

*There's a section for conserves/jams and for confectionery.

*There is NO pasta--except spaghetti noodles and macaroni. No others.

*There is NO pizza. My husband (mid-40s) remarked that he had once overheard people of his parents' generation (late 70s) discussing pizza as if it had been a novel and wild new thing in the 1960s.

*There's a section for "Invalid Cooking." In the first recipe, the minced beef is simmered "until the strength is quite extracted from the beef."

Pretty interesting! Thank you, OES ladies!

Turkey Poem from the Farm Journal

--Reprinted in the November 20, 1891 Ypsilanti Commercial

Lost Ypsilanti: Vanished Cross Street Building

From the November 20, 1896 Ypsilanti Commercial comes this tidbit about a onetime building that used to stand on the southeast side of the Cross Street and Huron Street intersection, built by one Dr. John P. Fryer. More info on Fryer:

"Rev. John P. Fryer was born near Brantford, Ontario, November 14, 1854. He was graduated from the Middlesex Seminary in 1873, and from the Commercial College in London in 1876. He was married in 1878 to Elizabeth S. Walker of Glencoe and entered the Methodist ministry the same year. He was ordained at Ridgeton in 1882, and held pastorates in Wheatly, Ridgelon and Dresden in Ontario, and after coming to Michigan, preached in Rochester, Saginaw, Lapeer and Flint. In 1893, he united with the Congregationalists and did missionary work in Detroit. During that year he took a http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifcourse in the Michigan College Of Medicine and Surgery. lit 1895 he removed to Ypsilanti and engaged in the practice of Medicine. In 1886, he published a pamphlet entitled "Trials and Duties." He died of heart failure August 25, 189S, in his 44th year. A wife, two daughters and a son mourn his loss." --Minutes of the Michigan Congregational Association

Apparently one could practice medicine after one scant year of school. John purchased the lot from the onetime editor of the Ypsilanti Commercial, who lived near the same intersection. The building John was creating has vanished.

Ypsi's German-American Kitchen and a special Armistice Day

Here's a story themed to Veteran's Day about the onetime little German restaurant on Huron, the family behind it, U-M professors fired for being "pro-German," and a special ceremony that took place here in 1933.

Also, the debut of the Mystery Artifact in video format! Take a peek and then take a guess! Featuring an artifact from the Ypsilanti Historical Museum.

The 1888 Diary of Abba Owen

Newest chapter in an ongoing serialization of the 1888 diary of Abba Owen, daughter of Ypsilanti mineral water baron Tubal Cain Owen and Anna (Stowe Foote) Owen. The Owens lived in a now-vanished house near the current day Roosevelt School building on EMU, where Tubal also had his magical and very profitable well.

Friday Nov. 16: It froze water last night. Richard went down and took his violin lesson this morning and Prof. Luderer wanted his pupils to go to Ann Arbor to hear the Boston Symphony concert so Richard took the double carriage and Oop Wortley [?], Frank Smith and he went up and they did not get home until twelve o'clock but they had a nice time and they said it was splendid.

Saturday Nov. 17" This morning when I woke there was a little snow on the ground, and all of papa's celery froze he had about [a space was left here] heads.

Sunday Nov. 18th It has snowed heavy all day and the ground was white and in the evening it turned into rain. Mama, Eber and Mabel went to church this morning. We all went down to Grandma's to tea and had a lovely time.

Monday Nov. 19th: To-day has been quite cold. The third entertainment of the Normal Lecture and Music course was a lecture given this evening by Dr. James Hedly on the "Sunny Side of Life" and it was splendid. We liked him better than we did Col. Sanford.

Tuesday Nov. 20th It has been the coldest day we have had yet.Eber went down this afternoon and joined Prof. Haufer's German class in which we can learn to converse in five weeks. I shall go and join tomorrow.

Wensday Nov. 21: To-day has been quite cold. Ebe and I went down to the German class and I joined. When you go into the class he will not let you speak a word of English and he doesn't either and I can understand pretty nearly everything he says.

Thursday Nov. 22nd: We go to our German class every day at a quarter of five. Last night Mama, Aunt Kate, and I went down to a Ladies Library Social at Mrs. Daniel Putnam's. Prof. Luderman read a paper on [space left in diary] which was very good.

Friday Nov. 23rd: Mama went to a reception given by Prof. Sill to Gov. Luce last evening. Grandpa and Aunt Kate went also and they had a very nice time. It has been a very pleasant day.

Thanks for reading! Tune in next Tuesday for another week of Abba's diary!