While we often think of history as the big picture what brings it home to us is every day life of everyday people. When looking back through our things its notable what isn’t there: photos of our favorite things and of our daily life. So today, try to answer the list of questions below, or make your own questions that remind you of funny stories with the people and animals in the places we love. Take pictures. Yep. Its a feel-good exercise!
In the 1950s a woman named Marguerite Mollohan (1902-1980) owned, rented and managed several buildings in Wichita, Kansas. She asked two college students she knew if they would like to open a restaurant, explaining that an article she had seen about pizzarias and they agreed. Dan and Frank Carney borrowed $600 from their mother and opened the first Pizza Hut, so named because the words fit on the existing sign.
Was your family affected by the influenza pandemic that occurred a century ago? Chances are good that it was. The pandemic occurred in three waves. The first, from March through July 1918, was the mildest wave with a low number or deaths, but unusual in that it lasted through the early summer. The second wave began in August 1918 peaking in October and November before dying out in early spring of 1919, while the final wave extended from April 1919 through June 1920. While scientists believe the three waves were caused by the same virus, they have samples only from the second wave, which caused the greatest amount of death and social chaos. In genealogical terms this means that our ancestors may have died from the specific virus scientists call H1N1 that caused the two year pandemic, but the death certificate, newspaper notice or family memory may not include the facts.
The Sunflower Village Historic District was listed in the National Register in 2014 as a rare example of “temporary” war-time housing that was built by the federal government in 1943 and evolved into housing for veterans during the post-war housing shortages.