Young HIstorians Stew/1936

In February 1936, Vermont had a “dirty” snow fall. Because of the lack of rain, the mid western part of the country had major dust storms. Dirt from the “dust bowl” mixed with the snow and resulted in brown snow.

On March 3, we made stew for the school to taste on Thursday March 4.

Gloria Leven told us how her mother would provide food to the men who would come to the kitchen door begging for food. Her husband said his mother always kept a pot of stew on the stove to give to the men.

Our stew used beef from the Ting’s farm in Cavendish. We figured out the recipe as we make it, using potatoes, onions, carrots, celery, canned tomatoes and spices. Most stews would have started with these basics. Some people would add left over table scraps.

In the 1930’s the stoves had places where you could put a pot on to “stew” all day. Now we use crock pots in the same way.

Our timeline is up to 1936. This is the year General Mills introduced "Betty Crocker, who we can see today on cake mixes. Electric guitars also became very popular in 1936

1936 History Timeline

Songs: Face the Music and Dance: Bing Crosby; Goodnight Irene by Leadbelly; Just the Way You Look Tonight, Fred Astaire

Books: Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell; Double Indemnity by James M. Cain; Drums Along the Mowhawk by Walter D. Edmonds; How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie; The Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer

Films: Mr. Deeds Goes to Town; My Man Godfrey; The Oregon Trail

January
• The first building to be completely covered in glass is completed in Toledo, Ohio for the Owens Illinois Glass Company
• The Baseball Hall of Fame is established at Cooperstown New York
• Billboard Magazine publishes its first music hit parade
• Edward VIII is crowned King of England

February
• The 1936 Winter Olympic Games opens in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany

March
• The first stock care race takes place in Daytona Florida

April
• Orson Welles directs all black cast in Macbeth for Negro People's Theatre, part of the Federal Theatre Project

May
• Eleanor Roosevelt hosts White House garden party for black female students of Washington's National Industrial School. School principal praises Roosevelt while Southern newspapers denounce her
• Margaret Mitchell publishes “Gone with the Wind.”

June
• The airship Hindenburg arrives at Lakehurst, N.J., the first scheduled transatlantic dirigible flight

July
• Mary McLeod Bethune named director of Negro affairs in the National Youth Administration. She is the first black woman to receive a major federal appointment
• Walsh-Healet Public Contracts Act sets minimum wages, 8 hr days, 40 hr weeks, no child labor for companies with Government contracts

August
• Spanish Civil War begins when insurgents led by General Francisco Franco revolt against Spain's weak government in Madrid.

September
• US announces it will not interfere in Spanish Civil War
• Summer Olympics, Berlin, American Jesse Owens wins fours gold medals in track and field
• Benny Goodman becomes first bandleader to integrate his band racially
• Boulder (Hoover) Dam on Colorado River completed creating Lake Mead, largest reservoir in US

October
• Hitler and Mussolini sign the Rome-Berlin axis accord

November
• President Roosevelt re elected president by a landslide vote
• Life Magazine publishes their first issue

December
• King Edward VIII of England gives up his throne to marry American divorcee, Wallis Warfield Simpson
• United Auto Workers begin sit-down strike at GM plant in Flint, Michigan; ends Feb 1937

To learn more about 1936, go to http://xroads.virginia.edu/~1930s2/Time/1936/mot_12_31_36r.mov