Life on the Prairie

Tayler

 

Dark clouds of war hang over Tayler’s head.

A misfired missile fills our hearts with dread.

Any part of the world could be the place

Where all lives are destroyed without a trace.

 Non-violence is the vow of Civil Rights.

Marchers and protesters join in the fight.

Bloodshed and assassinations abound.

The key to winning in Viet Nam can’t be found.

 Kind and friendly Tayler fights her way

Facing her uncertain future every day.

Defending friends and ideas is key.

Forging a path to life’s victory is she.

 

 This blog changes on the first and third weeks of each month.

 Contact us at

jcindy65@live.com

 
Please check out Judy Carroll's new blog Family, Laughter and Laundry at
www.judithcarroll.wordpress.com
 

Prairie Girls

 

 

Tayler

by Collette

This is the last time I will be writing to you. My friends and I went to the movies today and saw a film about the end of the world caused by the Cold War. Mother was angry when she found out we had gone to this movie instead of the showing of Snow White. She’s right; we should not have gone. I am afraid I will have a nightmare about it tonight.

We talk about the Cold War in social studies class, but I just don’t get it. How can a war be cold? Isn’t it supposed to be hot because of all the fighting and bombing that causes fires? I will have to count sheep tonight so I don’t think about the movie. Grandma says that works for her when she can’t sleep.

 

 

 

Study Hard

I was in grade school when the Russians successfully launched Sputnik. Not all of the families in my small school had a television or subscribed to a newspaper. Probably one or two of the households didn’t even listen to the radio news. My teacher, though, deemed the occasion worthy of telling the entire school. She told us in the future schools would place an emphasis on math and science classes; America needed to catch up with the Russians.

Never did I dream I would someday watch an American walk on the moon on a grainy, black and white television screen. We had caught up with the Russians.

John F. Kennedy Assassination

John F. Kennedy Assassination

                                                       by Collette
     
The 35^th President of the United States, John F. Kenney, was assassinated on Friday, November 22, 1963. He died at 12:30 p.m. (CST) after shots were fired on his motorcade in Dallas, Texas, near Dealey Plaza. Texas Governor John Connally was also injured in the shooting. Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as President on Air Force One during the flight bringing the President’s body back to Washington.

Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested at a Texas movie theater shortly after the shooting. He shot and killed Officer J.D. Tippit who accosted him on the way to the theater. As Oswald was being moved to a more secure area by sheriff’s officers, Jack Ruby, a local night club owner, shot and killed the assassin. Ruby later died in jail from cancer and never faced a trial.

Following a ten month investigation by the Warren Commission, it was found Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone shooter. Mysterious deaths of witnesses and the making of the movie JFK by Oliver Stone have led many Americans to believe there was a conspiracy to have Kennedy killed. A poll conducted in 2013 showed 60% of Americans believe a conspiracy took place. This assassination was the first of many during the 1970’s and1980’s including the following: Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy, Medgar Evers, Malcom X, and John Lennon.

These sites might be helpful for more information.

 

www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_John_F._Kennedy
www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/john-f-kennedy
www.archives.gov/research/jfk
www.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy_assassination_conspiracy_theories

 

 

 

 

 

Desserts for Baby Boomers

Desserts for Baby Boomers

                                                 by Collette

Delicious examples from this time period and similar to dishes my mother made.

Fresh Apple Cake
½ cup butter or margarine                                   ½ chopped pecans
2 cups sugar                                                         ¼ teaspoon allspice
2 ½ cups sifted all-purpose flour                         ½ teaspoon baking soda
½ cup raisins                                                        1 teaspoon salt
4 ½ cups chopped apples                                      1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 eggs                                                                   ½ teaspoon nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter with sugar until light and creamy. Add eggs, beating well after each one. Sift together all dry ingredients. Add alternately to creamed mixture with apples. Stir in raisins and nuts. Turn batter into greased and floured 13x9x2 inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until it tests done. Serves: 12-15.

Blueberry Tort

1 stick oleo, softened                                           1 cup sugar
24 soda crackers, crushed                                    1 teaspoon vinegar
½ cup nuts, chopped                                            1 teaspoon vanilla
4 eggs whites, beaten stiff                                    1 can blueberry pie filling

Blend first three ingredients and spread in 9x 12 inch pan. Beat egg whites until stiff. Gradually add sugar, vanilla and vinegar. Bake 12 minutes at 400 degrees or until golden brown. Let settle (it will sink), add 1 can blueberry pie filling. Cover with whipped cream of Cool Whip. (Cherry pie filling works well, too.) Serves: 12-15.

1,000 Days of Camelot

1000 Days of Camelot

                                               by Collette

 

Like most people who were alive when John F. Kennedy was assassinated, I vividly remember where I was and what I was doing. Students who went home for lunch that day brought back information they had heard over the noon hour. Like most, I thought it was just someone’s big story to get attention. When my principal came over the intercom during fifth hour English following lunch, the story became true. Whether one was a Democrat or Republican, the news was shocking and unbelievable. Sitting in the third seat by the blackboard, I wondered how could something like this happen in modern America.

Since it was an advanced English class, you know what she made us do. We had to write about it immediately. Then she made a poetry assignment due the following week. Eventually she published the writings for us, and it was astonishing how good the pieces were and how personally each student took the president’s death. School was released at the regular time, but we did stay home for the funeral. Everyone I knew saw the tragic passing of a President.

To say I became obsessed with the study of the events surrounding his death is an understatement. My dad is partly to blame because he gave me a book he read (and this was surprising because he did not read many books) about all of the people and witnesses who died following the assassination. It was an incredible number of people, and the Warren Commission did little to change my mind about what happened. Oliver Stone’s JFK added fuel to my quest for information. I have researched for myself, attended workshops about conspiracy theories, and shared ideas with my students.

Students’ interest in the assassination is still alive and well today. My classes conducted discussions, and usually there was at least one student who had researched the topic on his own. That whole era of the 1960’s, Civil Rights, Vietnam and especially the music fascinated them. When I reminded them that his presidency only lasted 1000 days, they were shocked how much impact he made.

At the close of the unit on the 1960’s, I always asked if there was ever an incident that marked their lives like Kennedy’s assassination did for me. Each student had one. For some it was the space shuttle exploding or when Princess Diana was killed, but all can tell you about 9/11 because most were sitting in a class just like I was.

Life Changes

 Life Changes

              by Judy

“The President has been shot….”  There was total silence in the room. I was in my high school chemistry class. I had loaned a pencil to the boy with whom I shared a lab table when the announcement came over the loud speaker. Soon the bell rang, and dazed, we students moved through the halls on our way to our next classes. Gradually we began to talk. How? Why? He couldn’t die, could he?

There was a second announcement. John F. Kennedy was dead, and once again the classrooms were filled with stunned silence.  All students were asked to bow their heads, and a school official, maybe the principal, prayed. A third announcement stated all the busses were in line, ready for students to board. School dismissed early that November day.

My parents had gone to town and were in a Montgomery Ward’s store when they heard other customers talk of a shooting and saw crowds gathered in the television department. After they learned of the President’s death, they went home and turned on our black and white set. Our family watched it continually until after the funeral.

Almost everyone alive that day knows exactly where they were and what they were doing the day the President was shot.  What we don’t know is what life in America would have been like if John F. Kennedy had lived. I don’t know whether I got my pencil back from my friend either.