Last Sunday’s, March 16th, 2008 Sunday Carroll Eagle column was:Palm Sunday 1942 was a time of high snow and higher anxiety
03/16/08 by Kevin Dayhoff EAGLE ARCHIVE (806 words)
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Many people have been commenting about how early Easter is this year. In fact, the last time Easter was as early as March 23 was 1913.
(I think they had wooden jelly beans back then.)
But a later Easter doesn't ensure good weather for Holy Week. I wonder how many readers remember the Palm Sunday blizzard of 1942. It was the fifth worse snowstorm in Carroll County history, as folks were greeted by 22 inches of snow on March 29, 1942.
It also included an important "first," as noted in a newspaper article: "Our municipal authorities, for the first time, saw fit to clear the greater portion of Main Street, and some of the important cross streets.
"Whatever the cost, we would say it certainly was an important step. ... The work was done by Thomas, Bennett and Hunter, road contractors, using their large road graders. The removal was rapid and proved to be a most successful method."
That Sunday, just months after America entered World War II, was a time a great anxiety.
One newspaper editorial explained: "1942 will enter in the midst of the (most) destructive war the world has ever known. The picture is a dark one, filled with doubts, uncertainties, a year that will test the mettle of our citizens, our men in service, but there is no doubt that all will stand the test and unite in the defense of our country, our flag and our president."
During that Palm Sunday of 1942, peace on Earth was, unfortunately, not in the minds of all. One fear on the minds of local folks was, "What to do in the event of an air raid?"
At the end of 1941, the "Air Raid Warden for Carroll County," W. Warfield Babylon, published a full newspaper page with detailed instructions as to what to do if the enemy were to launch an air raid on Carroll County.
It was a different time and a different era.
How many of us can remember the "Civil Defense Shelters" scattered through the county? How many had air raid shelters in the basement of their homes?
The air raid instructions began with advice that, alas, could be useful even today:
"Above all, keep cool.
Don't lose your head.
Do not crowd the streets, avoid chaos, prevent disorder and havoc.
You can fool the enemy.
If planes come over, stay where you are.
Don't phone unnecessarily.
The chance you will be hit is small."
Of course, the anxieties of the 1940s have been replaced by the anxieties of 2008, including rapidly increasing prices for essentials, taxes and concerns about the economy.
Yet one challenge Carroll did not have in 1942 was debt. An historical reference to a Jan. 2, 1942 article in The Sun touted that the Board of County Commissioners "paid off $25,000 to make Carroll County debt-free.
"Carroll County was probably the only county in Maryland in 1942 that could claim such a distinction. With a tax rate of 90 cents on $100, Carroll had the lowest tax in the state with the exception of Queen Anne's County. Two-thirds of tax money collected from county residents went to fund schools."
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Today, Palm Sunday is here and many of us can't wait for spring.
Christians celebrate today as "Passion Sunday" -- the day that Jesus entered Jerusalem to a path covered with palm branches. The crowds that greeted him also waved palm branches. (One can read all about it in Matthew 21:1-11; Mark 11:1-11; Luke 19:28-44; and John 12:12-19.)
Palm Sunday can appear anywhere on the calendar from March 15 to April 18. If you're like me, you wonder why the dates vary from year to year.
It's because Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the "Paschal Full Moon." To make it even more a mystery, the Paschal Full Moon is not an astronomical event, but a date calculated by folks with a huge Excel spreadsheet in 325 AD.
Really.
Of course, I don't bother remembering when Palm Sunday and Easter occur on the calendar -- I just ask my wife. Women have mysterious powers that allow them to know these things.
Hope springs eternal
Heading back to 1942 again, Bob Hope hosted the 14th Academy Awards at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles. Best picture was, "How Green Was My Valley."
OK, movie buffs, for this week's Sunday Carroll Eagle coffee mug, what was the other famous movie from 1941, often heralded as perhaps the best film ever made -- yet it did not win the Academy Award for best picture? Here's a hint: In the spirit of spring, think of the word, "Rosebud."
Think you know? Send me an e-mail at kdayhoff@carr.org and we'll draw one winner from the magic hat.
Heck, I'll even fill the mug with jelly beans. (Not the wooden kind.)
When he's not dreaming of spring, Kevin Dayhoff writes from Westminster. E-mail him at kdayhoff AT carr.org.
Kevin Dayhoff writes from Westminster Maryland USA.
www.kevindayhoff.net http://www.youtube.com/kevindayhoff http://www.livejournal.com/
E-mail him at: kdayhoff AT carr.org or kevindayhoff AT gmail.com
His columns and articles appear in The Tentacle - www.thetentacle.com; Westminster Eagle Opinion; www.thewestminstereagle.com, Winchester Report and The Sunday Carroll Eagle – in the Sunday Carroll County section of the Baltimore Sun. Get Westminster Eagle RSS Feed
“When I stop working the rest of the day is posthumous. I'm only really alive when I'm writing.” Tennessee Williams
NBH
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The Sunday Carroll Eagle: October 28, 2007 - On October 28th, 2007 the publication for which I write, The Westminster Eagle and The Eldersburg Eagle, (which is published by Patuxent Newspapers and owned by Baltimore Sun); took over the Carroll County section of the Baltimore Sun.
“The Sunday Carroll Eagle ” is inserted into the newspaper for distribution in Carroll County. For more information, please contact:
Mr. Jim Joyner, Editor, The Westminster Eagle
121 East Main Street
Westminster, MD 21157
(410) 386-0334 ext. 5004
Jjoyner AT Patuxent DOT com
For more posts on “Soundtrack” click on: Sunday Carroll Eagle
http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/search/label/Sunday%20Carroll%20Eagle
20071028 The Sunday Carroll Eagle introduction
http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/2007/10/20071028-sunday-carroll-eagle.html
Also see: Monday, October 22, 2007: 20071021 Baltimore Sun: “To our readers”
http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/2007/10/20071021-baltimore-sun-to-our-readers.html
I'm thinking of the sacred public places as described in a 1981 book by Dr. Ira Zepp [pictured here in a 1996 file photo] and Marty Lanham, "Sacred Spaces of Westminster."
