We now have a new home (without wheels.) We have been working on getting the inside to feel like a home, like having furniture and such. We are told that spring is going to arrive someday. The Home Show was last weekend, and we decided to to go check out landscaping firms so we can be ready to improve our yard once spring shows up.
Plenty of landscaping exhibitors were at the show. A bit problem is that I liked all of them! How do you choose? We’ve pretty much picked out our favorite, and we are starting to put together plans for a gorgeous yard… but it’s all hypothetical at this point. We’ll keep you posted as things progress…
That afternoon was the Super Bowl. Those of you who know me know that means very little to me… except when Becky and Kevin invite us over to watch and eat fun food together!! We went over early to help make the fun food.
Below Becky is making pretzel bites. The dough gets rolled out, sliced into size, then placed in boiling magic pretzel-making water for 10 – 15 seconds. After that they get salted or covered with a parmesan cheese mixture… and soon after that they all disappear! They were great!
Becky also made this little mini-muffins, that were great even before they were covered with cinnamon and sugar!
Another hit was this football made of peanut butter mixed with other fun stuff, to make a great spread over crackers or chips. (I know what was in it, but if I told you, I’d have to… well, you know…)
So we had pizza and veggies and lots of fun snacks, and watched football. We had more fun than Kansas City did…
A couple of days later was a bigger event! Dayna was in a spelling bee! There were lots of kids, and I’ll admit I wondered if this would take three days to get through all of them! But the words got harder and harder, and more and more kids misspelled their word, and got eliminated… before long, it was down to Dayna and two others… Then one dropped out, and it was just two! The remaining boy misspelled his word, and the rules said if she misspelled it too, they’d each keep going to find out who won. But if she could spell the one he’d missed, she would win right then! And that’s what happened!! She won first place!
Later that same night, the snow started. By noon the next day, we had the most snow since we’ve lived here. I think it’s the most they’ve had here in a very long time, too! I got to know how big our driveway is!
Lincoln Lore
All the snow reminded me of something in Lincoln, and Nebraska’s, history.
The Great Blizzard of 1888.
This was a while before we moved here! I had hoped to drive to Ord, Nebraska, where this Historical Marker is placed, but it’s a couple hours’ drive from here, so I haven’t bothered yet. But the story is an amazing one.
There have been many famous storms in this area, but this was the most dramatic. The morning of January 12, 1888, was unseasonably warm. “Cattle were out in the fields. School children in some areas played outside during the noon recess. In some cases, men were reported to have worked out-of-doors in their shirt-sleeves. Then, the wind suddenly changed to the north, driving before it a great mass of thick, blinding snow. Men and animals alike were trapped in a freezing, white wasteland. The thermometer plummeted to 34 degrees below zero.”
The storm lasted up to 18 hours. Some reported that the wind was so strong, it litterally shook the house, even breaking the plaster on the second floor. Estimated loss of life in Nebraska was up to 100 people, and in the Dakota Territory it was even a bit higher.
Particularly hard hit were school children. With little or no fuel in the schoolhouses, they were stranded in the blizzard. One teacher attempted to take three little ones home. All three children perished, and she lost both her legs below the knees. There were several stories of brave young teachers in the storm, but the most famous is probably Minnie Freeman’s. She had 13 children in her schoolroom when the storm hit, ripping the roof off of the schoolhouse. “She tied them together, single file, with herself at the head of the line, and ably assisted by the older pupils managed to get them to the nearest farmhouse.”
You can read the marker below if my version didn’t give you enough info:
A song was written in commemoration of Minnie’s achievement: “Thirteen Were Saved, or Nebraska’s Fearless Maid.” Here’s the cover of the sheet music:
In case you can’t read this picture, the blurb says:
“Miss Minnie Freeman, school teacher and Heroine
Whose pluck and good judgment exhibited during the recent fearful blizzard in the Myra Valley district, Nebraska, saved the lives of thirteen helpless little children.”
One more point of interest, totally unrelated to any of the above story, is that this sheet music was published by Lyon & Healy, of Chicago. George Lyon and Patric Healy started selling sheet music in 1864, with a goal of becoming the largest music store in the world. (By the turn of the century they were indeed the largest music store in the world.) They survived the Great Fire of 1871 merely because they had purchased enough insurance to rebuild themselves (they had suffered another devastating fire just the year before). About that time, they became the sole distributors of Steinway & Sons Pianos for the Chicago area.
“A revolutionary instrument was introduced by the company in 1935. The depression was not yet over and incomes were smaller; the trend was to urban apartments and smaller homes. Piano manufacturers faced the problem of developing a good piano requiring less space, at a lower price. The solution was the “vertical” piano [what we now call an upright piano] and Lyon & Healy was the first retailer in the world to show, stock and sell this important instrument, which is credited with revitalizing the piano industry.”
But back to the 1880’s… Lyon and Healy had a load of harps continuously brought in for repairs and servicing. Healy decided to create “the finest harp the world had ever seen.” “Let us build a harp that will no longer worry its owner because of its liability to get out of order easily; let us build a harp that will go around the world without loosening a screw.” He spent years, and plenty of money, to design his “finest harp.” Finished in 1889, it went to the Morgan Park High School in Chicago. It was played daily there, till it was returned to Lyon & Healy in 1979. You can see it today at the Museo dell’Arpa Victor Salvi, in Piasco, Italy.
What prompted me to research all this about Lyon & Healy, is that they are still making fine harps today, in fact more than anyone else in the world. And they made the harp that our daughter and granddaughter play. You have seen it featured several times in this blog. And now you know… the REST of the story!