Ruth Tenzer Feldman's Blog, page 13

Keeping Cool a Century Ago

Summer heat wasn’t a problem in Blue Thread, which takes place in Portland, Oregon, from the end of September through the first week in November, 1912. July is generally the month with the highest temperatures in Portland. September and October temperatures would likely have reached a high in the 60s and 70s (Fahrenheit). Delightful. But imagine if summer temperatures had soared into the 90s or higher back then. What would the Josefsohn family have done?

Of course there’s the old-fashioned han...

Edna Kearns, A Century Later

What was Edna Kearns doing on June 27,1913?

Today I turn the blog over to the Suffrage Wagon News Channel and to the story of Edna Kearns, grandmother extraordinaire. Women have achieved voting rights in the United States, and in many–but not all–parts of the world. We humans have a ways to go in achieving dignity, sustenance, and equality of opportunity for all. Still, here’s to you, Edna.

Iced Coffee Recipe, 1909. Toothsome?

As promised in the last blog post, here is a recipe from The Good Housekeeping Woman’s Home Cook Book, published in 1909. The introduction to the cook book, as you see in the clip below, assures us that these recipes have been repeatedly tested, although there is no promise of deliciousness. In honor of summer, I bring you a vintage recipe for iced coffee, with something extra. Iced coffee fans, you’ll have to decide for yourselves.

The recipe comes from a Mrs. E. B. Jones. That’s not a name I...

Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval

A perfect ten! Nice job! Gold star!

I can think of at least a dozen ways to say that something works well or has met a standard of excellence. A phrase that was popular in the 1980s and seems to be on the rise again is “Good Housekeeping seal of approval.” According to the Google books ngramstatistics, the phrase first appeared in books about 1935. But wasn’t the seal older than that? Would Mrs. Jenkins, the housekeeper/cook in Blue Thread have heard it in 1912?

The short answer is yes. Good Ho...

Miriam, St. Mary’s, and Dragon Boats

It’s been over a century (101 years to be exact) since Miriam Josefsohn of Blue Thread fame attended her last class at St. Mary’s Academy in Portland. A lot has changed at the school since then, especially the extra-curricular activities. I’m sure that Miriam would have liked to join the Politics without Borders Club, and the SciFi/Fantasy Club, and the Human Rights Club. I suppose if her friend Florrie Steinbacher were still enrolled with her, the two might have considered SMA Cruisers. Here...

Let’s Help Millions of Women and Girls

I was on vacation on May 23rd, ten time zones away from home. I had no idea that the United Nations, after years of discussing and planning, had declared May 23, 2013, as the first-ever International Day to End Obstetric Fistula. Countries around the globe participated. Yes!

Here are the basics about a condition that has pretty much disappeared in the United States, but plagues many impoverished women and teen-age girls in poorer countries. A fistula is essentially an abnormal passageway betwe...

Remembering Emily’s Horserace

Horse racing was in the news this past weekend, when Palace Malice, who finished 12th in the Kentucky Derby, beat out favorites and won the Belmont Stakes. Almost exactly a century ago, suffragist Emily Wilding Davison attended Epsom Derby, the most prestigious race in Great Britain. Toward the end of the race, she stepped in front of the horse owned by King George V. In an instant, she was trampled by the horse and died of her injuries four days later on June 8, 1913.

What was Emily Davison d...

Meanwhile, in the Balkans…

As Miriam’s story opens in the fall of 1912, women in Portland were engaged in a determined campaign to get the right to vote. Blue Thread starts out in late September, when war was about to erupt half a world away.

The First Balkan War officially started on October 8, 1912. By then, Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Montenegro had formed the Balkan League to force Turkey to give up control of nearly all of its territory in Europe. The Ottoman Turks had captured Constantinople in 1453, renaming th...

Blue Thread Meets Bonnet

A couple of years back, Patricia Zanger was selling hats in Bonnet, her shop nine floors below my apartment, while I was writing Blue Thread. We were both working on revisions. I was polishing the story of Miriam and her involvement with the Osborne sisters, two milliners from Chicago who rented a tiny hat shop in northwest Portland in 1912. Downstairs in her real live shop, Patricia was taking a bolder step. Eager to provide her customers with hats they liked, Patrica decided to make her own...

Julius Josefsohn’s “Merry Oldsmobile”

Mike here, with another guest post.

“Your mama wishes for an outing to Washington Park in the Oldsmobile. I will indulge her until a quarter before two, when I go to the Club.” Papa grumbled about muddy roads and every-man-for-himself intersections, but Mama prevailed. I had no say in the matter.

[Blue Thread, Chapter 3]

What would Julius Josefsohn’s prized Oldsmobile have been like? Chances are, it would have looked like this beautifully-restored 1910 Limited model. Most cars at the time had co...