On The Road Again

Between now and the 18th, I will be home for a grand total of five four days*, including weekends (three conferences and a dental clinic). If I were a good person, I would have prepared three weeks' worth of posts in advance.

I am not a good person.

(*Bang went Sunday).

Vintage Clipart- Patriotic Images

Happy Memorial Day (copyright-free clipart from Dover Publications).

Hard Tack Come Again No More

Let us close our game of poker, take our tin cups in our hand
As we all stand by the cook’s tent door
As dried mummies of hard crackers are handed to each man.
O, hard tack, come again no more

CHORUS:
‘Tis the song, the sigh of the hungry:
“Hard tack, hard tack, come again no more.”
Many days you have lingered upon our stomachs sore.
O, hard tack, come again no more!

Well into the 19th century, soldiers were expected to provide at least some of their daily rations by foraging, ie “living off the land.” The problem with even the most bountiful countryside, obviously, was that after a very short time it had been stripped bare. An army that did not keep moving, starved.

Improvements in transportation technology went some way towards solving this problem. However, then as now, soldiers fought on carbohydrates (or starches as they were then referred to). Armies needed bread and lots of it.

Not just any bread; bread that could withstand days (or weeks, or months) of transport were a necessity to an army. Hardtack was the answer; a bricklike confection of flour, salt and water that could probably have doubled as a weapon, were the need to arise.*

(*as a staff sergeant once remarked to me during a formal battalion dinner as I was urging him to try a pumpernickel roll, claiming that the Germans had conquered most of Europe on them, “How? By using it as ammunition?”)


‘Tis a hungry, thirsty soldier who wears his life away
In torn clothes—his better days are o’er.
And he’s sighing now for whiskey in a voice as dry as hay,
“O, hard tack, come again no more!

In it’s original form, hardtack was not edible unless you no regard for your teeth. Soldiers soaked it before adding it into a variety of dishes, most of them called by the unaffectionate nicknames of skillygallee or slumgullion (slum for short).


CHORUS
‘Tis the wail that is heard in camp both night and day,
‘Tis the murmur that’s mingled with each snore.
‘Tis the sighing of the soul for spring chickens far away,
“O, hard tack, come again no more!”

If the soldier was in a hurry, or had lost his mess-tin, he dunked his hardtack in hot coffee or soaked it in water and then in salt pork fat. It was then slapped onto the blade of a bayonet and toasted over an open fire.

The soaking in hot liquid also drove out the weevils and maggots with which hardtack was commonly infested. More on hardtack, weevils, rations, and other details of Billy Yank's life at Hardtack and Coffee.

Caturday!

see more crazy cat pics

What's In A Name?

There is a very nice middle-aged lady one county over whom I occasionally meet on a professional basis. For some reason her parents gave her a name that by rights should only belong to an ecdysiast. Think "Fifi LaFox" or something similar.

She's a pediatrician. I assume she did it to spite them.

(Seriously, I obviously can't give her real name, but if you saw it somewhere you would probably think she was headlining this week down at the Kit-Kat Club).

Quote of the Day

To sleep; perchance to dream. ~ W. Shakespeare

Schweet

One of the reasons I put so much old stuff on my blog is in hopes of seeing this.

The Online Bookshelf - The CurlyTops at Uncle Frank's Ranch

Admittedly not much of a book, but the cover's sweet. From 1918 and available on Project Gutenberg.

Edited to fix the link; thanks, Amanda, for pointing that out!

Patterns of the Past - Dresses and a Doll Wardrobe from 1955

From the November, 1955 Workbasket magazine, pretty fair examples of mail-order patterns of the time. I don't care much for the skirt to 9140 but I like that top.

The Usual Suspects

Twenty-four dollars and ninety-five cents, the new keyboard cost me. Wonder how long before she destroys it?

Sewing - A Vintage Stuffed Rocking Horse

Another project from Workbasket magazine, November 1955 (can you tell I recently got my hands on a bunch of old Workbaskets?) Pattern on my Flickr account.

Blogging Suspn

malfunctioning kboar.

Vintage Images - Sheet Music

For the dollhouse enthusiast, some miniature sheet music for your piano bench. From Dover Publications.

Unlikely Recipes Dep't

Jellied Goose

1 goose
2 large onions sliced
1 tablespoon mixed herbs or herb bouquet
1 sprig thyme, celery and bay leaf
2 tablespoons gelatin to each pint of stock
hard cooked eggs sliced
salt
pepper

Cook goose in just enough water to cover with the seasonings, onions and herbs. When done remove the meat from the bones; return the latter to saucepan and cook for another 15 minutes. Skim off the fat, strain liquid through a piece of muslin or cheese cloth. Mix soaked gelatin in stock. Set a little of the liquid at the bottom of a mold, arrange eggs on it, and cover with more stock. Let this set, then fill with the goose meat cut in even sized pieces, and pour stock over all of it. Turn out when set and serve. Good with cold applesauce.

(Workbasket magazine, January 1959. Submitted by Mrs. John Edwards).

Caturday!

Quote of the Day

All animals, except man, know that the principal business of life is to enjoy it.~ Samuel Butler

The Online Bookshelf - Dave Dawson in Casablanca

From 1944. This book is so awful it makes Clive Cussler's stuff look like literature.

At Project Gutenberg.

It's Nice To Know I Haven't Lost My Touch

During a tour of the National Guard Armory this afternoon, the ops sergeant major let me try their small arms training simulator. First round -- wild. Second round -- shoulder.

Third and fourth rounds right through his kidneys.

Patterns of the Past - A Simplicity Housecoat

Undated and in such bad shape that I'm afraid to take it out of the envelope, but from the hairstyles and font I'm guessing it dates from just before World War II. I wouldn't mind owning this.

Crochet - A Poodle Motif from 1949

To chase last Tuesday's cat, a crocheted poodle from Workbasket magazine, June 1949. Two pages of instructions on my Flickr account, along with an ad for a "Yuth-Bust" bra to give you a more alluring, youthful bustline (instantly).