Ford Times, April 1978; Will the Kirtland's Warblers Return?

The April, 1978 issue of the Ford Times featured a cover by Charlie Harper, with more illustrations inside. The article asks, "Will the Kirtland's Warbler Return?" The Kirtland Warbler lives in one small area of the world, in Michigan's Jack Pine forest.

The Kirtland Warbler winters in the Bahamas and returns to Michigan, to a habitat of under 50 square miles. The birds nest in the sandy soil known as Grayling sand.

Author Jean Ducey notes that at the time of her writing, the entire world's population weighed 12 pounds, consisting of 200 breeding pairs.

The Jack Pine cones only open with fire. The article states that the U. S. Forest Service completed a 500-acre burn and rotates the cutting and planting of trees on a five-year cycle. 

Camp Grayling cut back on tank training, Mio and Grayling provided guides and daily tours to control visitors, and studies were being made to determine the if the use of pesticides, area resort development, and weather change were impacting the populaiton.

Today, with continual human intervention to protect their habitat, the warblers number around 2000.

The Kirtland's Warbler Audubon photo

This issue includes articles on olden times childhood pranks (like outhouse tipping), recipes for carp, and baseball's wonderful fans. 

The Car Buy's Digest highlighted the new Ford cars.

The Fairmont EPA fuel estimate was 33 mpg highway and 23 city. It had "space age technology" with "computer modeling."

My mother had a Fiesta. It got an amazing 46 mpg highway and 34 city. It was built in Germany.

The Mustang II came in the Cobra II, Mach I, and King Cobra models.MPG was 33 for higheay and 23 for city.

"A Thunderbird for a special occasion," created for the Thunderbird Diamond Jubilee, had many 'custom touches' and rated 22 mpg highway.

The Pinto was a small, thrifty car. 35 mpg highway and 25 city.

Also included are the LTD, LTD II, Granada, and station wagons.

I am surprised by the decent gas mileage of these cars! Compare them to the 2020 models here.

Ford Times: Special Issue on Environment, July 1970

The July 1970 issue of the Ford Times cover art is by Charlie Harper for the article "The Bald Eagle: America's Vanishing Symbol."

"He's in trouble because a good idea backfired," wrote author Boyce Rensberger.

I remember summer of 1963 listening to the radio and hearing a man discuss the eagle as endangered. This article discusses food chains, which Harper illustrated below, and how DDT in the food chain affected wildlife.

"In the Great Lakes states, where DDT level are high, only four percent of the nesting pairs are still able to reproduce," the author warns.

Luckily, DDT was banned and today in Michigan eagles are frequently seen. Just this week my brother, camping in the Upper Peninsula, caught this eagle in the middle of the road!

A

n article noted that in 1913 Henry Ford supported the migratory bird act, along with Theodore Roosevelt, Gifford Pinchot, and Thomas Edison. 

Ford's River Rouge complex was featured in an article on Ford's "battle against air pollution." By the 1960s, smog was affecting Dearborn neighborhoods. Ford spent $66 million to clean the air, but technology was limited. "300 engineers work full-time on the challenge," Frank Grady wrote. Ford only spent $50 million to develop the Mustang. 

"Everybody Loves Smokey the Bear" informs that Smokey getting 5,000 letters a week from fans.

Some of the letters are included. One reads,  "I would like to baby sit for Smokey. I am nine years old and I am not afraid of bears. your friend, Rhonda G."

Some of us Boomers remember the early 1970s and The Population Bomb scare that humanity was reproducing to levels that would cause mass destruction. "We're Running Out of Elbow Room!" is filled with warnings. First, the author claims that crime increases with population density because of psychological stress. The article concludes without answers, but says that one planner suggests better city planning.

"The Silent '70 Ford" had a muffler "improved with the addition of an asbestos wrapper."

 I noted the use of a black model in the article.

"Ford's Campaign to Control Auto Emissions" begins, "it would take three 1970 Ford cars to emit as much hydro-carbons and carbon monoxide" as was released by one 1960 model. Non-lead gas was "on the way" and research into alternatives to the internal combustion engine was noted to have been going on since 1952.

"National Parks are for People" included photographs by Bill Schmidt.

Cars + Parks = Camping.

"Camping....Why Do It?" is a humorous look at camping. Jean Riss writes,

"Sanitary facilities" Criminy! The simple problem of constructing a latrine in the wilderness tells more in half an hour about a man--his patience and ingenuity, his grasp of engineering principles, psychology, esthetics and the prevailing winds--that you could hope to learn on a world cruise."

 The issue ends with a Torino ad.

Ford Motor Company began publishing The Ford Times in 1908. The last issue came out in 1993. I was given a collection of copies from the 1960s and 1970s.

COVID-19 Life: TBR, Quilts, News

I finished my embroidered cat quilt by machine quilting it on my new Bernina 570 QE! I am working on some surprise projects next.

Meanwhile, I am waiting for batting to arrive so I can hand quilt my Great Gatsby quilt.

Almost all the fabrics have arrived for my Mountain Mist Water Lily quilt. I saw this image online and it's my color inspiration.

I have read 88 books this year!

New books on my TBR shelf include two Goodreads wins:

• The Great Indoors: The Surprising Science of How Buildings Shape Our Behavior, Health, and Happiness by Emily Anthes
• The Restaurant by Pamela M. Kelley, woman's fiction about sisters in Nantucket

And from NetGalley:

• Once Upon a Time I Lived on Mars by Kate Greene about her experience in a Martian-like environment
• Nick in which Michael Farris Smith imagines Nick Carraway's war experience before going to NY and meeting Gatsby
• His Truth is Marching On by Jon Meacham about John Lewis

I had to share some great photos from family members.

Below is our grandpuppy Sunny in her backyard paradise. Melissa is using her furlough to spiff up the landscaping. 

Our niece's son's Bar Mitzvah was all virtual and shared online.

Our dear friend Shirley Williams passed away last week. Here she is as a young woman with her husband. She often told me about their meeting.

During WWII, Shirley was engaged when she went to a local dance and saw a dashing young pilot. She removed her engagement ring and announced, that is the man I am going to marry. He taught her how to fly and she also had a pilot's licence.

We will dearly miss Shirley.

The Clawson library staff is back from furlough and we are working on restarting the book club as a virtual meeting!

My brother is camping on Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula on Lake Superior, on the Sunset side, and has been sharing awesome photos!

We went to the local garden center. Everyone was wearing masks, even outside. We bought some basil and pots to repot some indoor plants and some gifts.

Otherwise, we are walking in the neighborhood early in the day and staying home.

Stay safe!

The Splendid and the Vile by Eric Larson

I have enjoyed Erik Larson's books ever since reading The Devil in the White City. I previously read and reviewed Dead Wake and also have read Isaac's Storm. (I have In The Garden of Beasts on Kindle.)

The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz is his best book ever! And the timing is perfect. The world needs to be reminded of what true leadership is and the importance of cohesive single-minded resistance in facing catastrophe.

Larson presents the cold, hard numbers of losses but concentrates on the human side of Churchill's personal family and closest aides and the experience of the common people of England.

Citizens trudged through the rubble to work after sleepless nights in air raid shelters. They planted gardens and kept farm animals to grow their own food. The volunteered their service. They lost everything and carried on.

Churchill was idiosyncratic, the Nazis delighting in making fun of his penchant for pink silk underwear and habitual clenching of a cigar between his teeth. Arriving in Washington, D.C. and staying in the White House, the president opened the door to a naked Prime Minister who quipped, I have nothing to hide, and went on to converse clad in a towel.

Churchill was fearless, watching the Blitz from rooftops, touring the devastated cities in an open car, never concerned for his personal safety. His example and his words inspired the people to find courage.

Churchill showed compassion and sorrow, he truly felt for the people he represented.

Churchill knew that Britain could not win a war against Germany. He kept up morale while desperately working to secure the American assistance that would save his country.

Drawing from her diary, Larson includes the personal life and romantic interests of the prime minister's daughter Mary Churchill. And we read of the doomed marriage of Randolph Churchill, a gambling addict and womanizer, his wife Pamela falling for the American Averell Harriman who was negotiating the Lend-Lease program.

Readers also follow Nazi leaders, whose idiosyncrasies outpaced even Churchill's. Goring liked to dress in costumes and makeup and amassed a huge collection of stolen art. Hesse traveled with a collection of pills on his clandestine flight to Britain, hoping to forge a peace agreement.

The book is everything you have heard it is.

I received an ARC from the publisher through Goodreads. My review is fair and unbiased.

from the publisher

The Splendid and the Vile takes readers out of today’s political dysfunction and back to a time of true leadership, when–in the face of unrelenting horror–Churchill’s eloquence, strategic brilliance, and perseverance bound a country, and a family, together.

The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz
by Erik Larson
Crown
ISBN-10: 0385348711
ISBN-13: 978-0385348713

Ford Times: July, 1961

Ford Motor Company began publishing The Ford Times in 1908. The last issue came out in 1993.

My brother was given a friend's parent's collection of Ford Times from the 60s and 70s. My brother gave me the duplicates. It's fun to look at the car and travel culture of my childhood.

The 5" x 7" magazine included wonderful artwork by artists including Charlie Harper. Harper's art appeared in over 120 issues of Ford Times! You can more read about it here.

Ford Times with cover by Charlie Harper

The July, 1961 edition included articles on "How to Visit a College," "Down the Canyon on a Mule," "Do Women Lack the Packing Knack?," "They Hunt for Relics of Rogers' Rangers," "Wagon Train East," "Piggyback on Penobscot Bay," "Land of a Million Years Ago" about Montana's badlands, and more. There is even an article about an early San Francisco Ford dealer!

"Wagon Train East" by Charlie Harper, and illustrated by him, is about a wagon train that went into the Cherokee National Forest

 "Piggyback on Penobscot Bay" illustrations

There was an article by Jo Copeland about how to dress to "Look as Smart as Your Car."

 Copeland talks about what she saw at turnpike restaurants as "the most bizarre outfits this side of a beatnik coffee house." Appalled, she offers suggestions on how to travel in style.

Copland calls the coat illustrated above a 'topcoat,' but I grew up calling them 'car coats.'

"When I am at the wheel, I like to wear short cotton gloves, the kind that wash and dry easily, because my hands stay cooler and cleaner. Bare hands perspire and stick uncomfortably," Copeland wrote.

I know Jo Copeland's name from collecting vintage designer handkerchiefs. I have several in my collection.

Jo Copeland handkerchief

Jo Copeland handkerchief

Learn more about Copeland at Living in Fifties Fashion and at  here

"Seeing Detroit" is about the Ford Rotunda's 25th year. The building was built for the 1934 Chicago Century of Progress Exposition. It was dismantled and relocated to Dearborn, MI.

 In November, 1962 a fire destroyed the building!

The article "How to Beat the Heat" promoted air conditioned cars but also suggested parking in the shade, the use of tinted glass, woven upholstery, opening the vent windows, and the wearing of skirts for women.

"Digger in Velvet" by Franklin M. Reck, illustrated by Charles Culver, was about moles. "He 'hears' with his snout and his tail rather than his ears. He can neither walk nor run," Reck informs. "Next time you catch one of these unrelieved nuisances, pause to admire the world's most efficient sapper with the silk fur and one-track mind."

"The Ford Times Dictionary of Automotive Terms" included expected terms like 'air cleaner' and 'additive.' Then there is 'A-bomb', a hot rod term for a Model A Ford, and 'balloon-foot,' an overly cautious driver. 'Beach buggy' was a car with oversized tires that could drive on the sand, and 'brain box' was slang for a crash helmet.

Of course, there had to be an article on a Ford car. The Falcon achieved over 32 miles per gallon in an Economy Run! Shell Oil reported that a 'skilled driver' with a 'specialized car' could get 168 miles per gallon! 

Another travel destination highlighted was Guilford, CT.

 The illustrations were by Sasha Maurer

"Comforts of Home...Outdoors" touted the latest camping gear.

Travelers would want to know the best places to eat so every issue included "Favorite Recipes of Famous Taverns." This issue included The Red Barn in Fort Scott, KS and its Heavenly Hash and Santa Cruz's Shadow-Brook's Sauce Philippe.

Heavenly Hash
1 can fruit cocktail drained
one or two sliced bananas
2 tablespoons sugar
1 cup miniature marshmallows
1/2 cup halved seedless grapes
1/2 cup whipped cream
lettuce
Combine fruit, sugar, and marshmallows. Fold whipped cream into mixture and keep chilled. Serve on lettuce.
The Henry Ford includes digital copies of Ford Times found here.