ODDS AND ENDS

1. WEATHER

The first week of March in Maryland came roaring in like Mary's Little Lamb as the temperature rose from the 30's to the middle 70's yesterday.

The pleasant day allowed two of my beloved grandchildren to visit me on our side porch. 

Today it is supposed to be even hotter. But with the heat will come violent thunderstorms.  Strong March winds have also come to visit.  Gale force winds that spread patio furniture around the area. Thankfully, this morning's trash pickup has already taken place so just the empty garbage containers are sailing around and not the trash.

2.  "THE GOOD OLD DAYS"

Remember? Were you around in the 1940's and 1950's?  I was.  (I'm an old dude!)

SMOG! 

Almost everybody heated with coal.  Coal dust and ash particles floated through the air and combined with fog to create unlivable cities like London and Los Angeles.

CIGARETTE SMOKE!

Almost everybody smoked. I think that the only persons who seemed to know that smoking was bad for you were certain medical doctors, owners of cigarette making factories and the Mormons.

After the Sunday sermon at the First Baptist Church in New Bedford, all of the men would rush outside to suck on their cigs.

My mother smoked and I still remember the stink clinging to her clothes.

At the age of eleven my buddies and I would wrap catnip up in cigarette paper and try to smoke it.  This resulted in coughing spasms and violent stomach eruptions.

I once attended a museum showing actual parts of the insides of the human body.  One of the exhibits showed a nice clean-looking set of lungs of a non-smoker.  Next to it was the almost completely black set of lungs of a smoker.  Very impressive and eye-opening.

TOILET PAPER

I don't know when toilet paper arrived, but Sears Roebuck catalog pages served the purpose for the house I grew up in. Think about that.

Hygiene? Forget that. You will of course be taking a weekly wash in a bathtub.

Bidet?  A civilized apparatus, but found only in France.

There was a comic strip named Tillie The Toiler from 1929 to 1959. Created by cartoonist Russ Westover and helped by Bob Gustavson.  All of the kids I knew liked the strip and named it Tillie The Toilet.

3. GUMMY GEORGE

Our first President, George Washington lost all of his teeth by the age of 55.  Here is a picture of one set of George's false teeth.

"This pair of dentures is made of animal and human teeth as well as vegetable ivory - all fitted into a hinged lead base."  Quote from the Donald and Nancy de Laski Gallery of the Donald W. Reynolds Museum and Education Center, where the dentures are displayed.

Photograph by Harry Connolly.

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