Ann S. Epstein Writer

The first New York City neighborhood settled by large numbers of Italian immigrants, most of them from Southern Italy and Sicily, was in East Harlem, which became known as Little Italy. Its population peaked in 1930. Italians also settled in or moved to the outer boroughs. In the early 1900s, Bensonhurst, considered the Little Italy of Brooklyn, was equally divided between Jews and Italians. Read more about a young Italian immigrant who first lived in Brooklyn 100 years ago in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).

(Posted on the 75th anniversary of D-Day) Those not serving in the Armed Forces during WWII supported the war on the home front. Most workers bought War Bonds using automatic payroll deductions. They were encouraged to invest at least 10% of their earnings. Factories were given a “Minuteman” flag if 100% of the workers joined the “Ten Percent Club.” Hollywood celebrities also appeared at War Bond drives, urging civilians to do their share. Read more about WWII and life on the home front in A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (see NOVELS).

(Posted on the 75th anniversary of D-Day) During WWII, the San Diego Naval Base converted, overhauled, maintained, and repaired more than 5,117 battle-damaged U.S. ships. Central to this work was the construction of 155 floating dry docks — some weighing as much as 3,000 tons — to deploy onsite or deliver to other bases. Read more San Diego and Navy history in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).

The U.S. Congress passed the 19th Amendment recognizing women’s right to vote 100 years ago today, June 4, 1919. At 56-25, it barely reached the two-thirds majority necessary. The Amendment was ratified on August 19, 1920. The battle for women’s suffrage actually began nearly a century earlier, when women played a prominent role in other reform groups including the abolitionist movement and temperance leagues. However, it was not until the Seneca Falls (New York) Convention of 1848 that women began to organize for the vote. The push for women’s suffrage took a back seat during the Civil War, and split when leading advocates for women’s rights opposed granting those same rights to blacks in the 15th Amendment. But the movement revived in the early 1900s, beginning at the state level and eventually gaining national momentum, aided by the role women played in WWI. Read more about the fight for women’s suffrage in On the Shore (see NOVELS).

In 1948, San Diego was the site of the Grant Hotel sit-in to protest racism. The rapid growth of blacks in San Diego during WW II paved way for an expanded NAACP branch. Humiliated and angered at being refused a snack at a downtown “greasy spoon,” the NAACP’s president, a dentist, recruited a group of black and white students at San Diego State College, rehearsed them to act as customers and witnesses, then targeted white-owned restaurants that discriminated. As the black students were denied service, already seated white students who were on their side observed and later testified in court. The NAACP filed and won 31 of its 32 lawsuits, usually with court awards to plaintiffs of $300 per case, which the students split with their attorney. The ultimate triumph was desegregation of the Grant Grill at the prestigious U.S. Grant Hotel in downtown San Diego. Read more San Diego and desegregation history in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).

As a real and deadly tornado hit Kansas yesterday (05/28/19), consider how the fake one in The Wizard of Oz was created. Jack Gillespie’s special effects team wrapped a 35-foot-long muslin stocking around a conical frame of chicken wire. The base of the tornado was fastened to a car, which traveled below the sound stage, propelled by a gantry crane rotated by a motor. Wind machines and dust completed the stormy picture. When the Weather Channel produced a miniseries about the 100 most memorable weather events in history, The Wizard of Oz tornado ranked #55. Read more about the making of the movie in A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (see NOVELS).

The “shirtwaist” manufactured at the Triangle Waist Company, site of the tragic 1911 fire that killed 146 workers, was a woman’s blouse with puffed sleeves and a tapered waist. The ready-made garment was the first fashion to cross class lines because it was affordable for working women. Worn with an ankle-length skirt, the shirtwaist was appropriate for work and play, and soon replaced less comfortable and impractical corsets and hoops. Read about the seamstresses who sewed the original Triangle shirtwaists in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).

Before Margaret Hamilton played Elvira Gulch and the Wicked Witch of the West in the 1939 Hollywood classic The Wizard of Oz, she was a kindergarten teacher and acted in children’s theater. She got the part when another actress refused to wear makeup that would cause her to appear ugly. Hamilton worried about the effect that her monstrous film role had on children because, in real life, she loved them and gave to charitable organizations benefitting them. Read more about the movie and Margaret Hamilton in A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (see NOVELS).

Pain management for women in labor became available in the late 1800s, first in hospitals and later to midwives. A combination of morphine and scopolamine called “twilight sleep,” it relieved pain and induced forgetfulness. Unfortunately, heavily medicated women had trouble pushing, increasing the need for forceps deliveries and C-sections. Babies were born sleepy, had trouble breathing, and often needed resuscitation. Read more about childbirth 100 years ago in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).

Aphorisms, pithy observations that contains a general truth, are a favorite form of literary utterance. Here are several I’ve used in my writing, some researched, others invented by me. Can you tell which is which? To undo a problem, you must unthink what caused it. // Morals are always better on a full belly. // You can’t ripen a watermelon in your armpit. // All sunshine makes a desert. // The learned live in the past; the learners in the future. // The key to happiness is a bad memory and a good drink. // Troublemakers are like farmers. They turn up the earth so something new can be planted. // Stubbornness comes from a weak will and a strong won’t. Read more real and invented aphorisms in A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (see NOVELS).