Intro to Japan

Did you know that The Outhouse used to be a legendary, hardcore punk venue? Today, The Outhouse is a strip joint (as opposed to a strip club. There is a difference.)  When it was originally built, however, this was not its purpose. Actually, until the late 90s, it kept its mythical (in the eyes of punk rockers) reputation as a punk venue. It was not converted into a strip joint until 1998, in fact. You may be surprised to read some of the names of bands who have played there. Bands such as Nirvana, Greenday, Anti-Flag, Bad Brains, Circle Jerks, The Urge, The Vandals, NOFX and GWAR played to packed houses (as well as SEVERAL other famous bands).

Some of these bands may be familiar to all of you (Nirvana, Greenday, The Urge), some of them may need some explaination to understand just how legendary the Outhouse used to be to the hardcore scene. The Bad Brains are a very influential band hailing from L.A. Starting in 1980, they are from the same neighborhood as The Beastie Boys. It is rumored that the Beastie Boys were such fans of Bad Brains that they used the alliteration in their own name as a tribute to this amazing punk band. If you mention The Outhouse to anyone around Lawrence who remembers it as a hardcore venue, they will probably tell you about GWAR, who had one of the most (if not the absolute most) remembered shows. It is rumored that The Outhouse was the first location they ever used the blood-splattering excitement which became their staple.

Eric DeVault

Sources: http://www.lawrence.com/news/2003/feb/19/inside_the/

as well as punk folklore I have heard around town since I was 10.

The reading this week in “Rooted in the Dust, Surviving Drought in Southwestern Kansas” touched on the idea of canning kitchens and the benefactors.  Throughout the Great Depression people unified to help each other and survive the drought.  Some may think that it was only women who added to these efforts but indeed men also took a large part.  These canning kitchens, as the one in the photo below, were run by the KERC (Kansas Emergency Relief Committee).  It aimed to relieve residents in Kansas of the hardships they faced not only because of the Great Depression but also the impending drought.  Canning kitchens were found not only in factories but also within homes.  In a bulletin signed by John G. Stutz (see below), who was the executive director of KERC, he encouraged home canning.  It explains that to make everyones food stretch farther and to offer relief to poor residents a woman named Conie Foote would come and show housewives the way.  Conie Foote specialized in home economics and was brought in by the Kansas Emergency Relief Committee to demonstrate to housewives the most sufficient way to stretch your food and make it last longer.

The Kansas Emergency Relief Committee also worked along with the Agricultural Adjustment Administration.  Through their joint efforts they came up with a program that would hopefully benefit the farmers, whose cattle were starving, and the citizens of Kansas who were starving themselves.  In 1934 they created a program where they would purchase the emaciated cattle, those that would probably not be purchased, and then they distributed the meat to the poorer families in Kansas.

The Kansas Emergency Relief Committee was interesting to me because of the committee’s drive to help their fellow Kansan citizens.  Their approach to do well with emaciated cattle that would not have sold, and the drive to give housewives power in a time that seemed out of control was

by Keil Ahlbrandt

proactive.

Across the plains of Central Kansas, Indigenous Peoples of North America used to scout and hunt bison. One of the places they used to scout the bison is now called Pawnee Rock.* Pawnee Rock is the highest point in the area, which is generally very flat. Being very flat, anyone standing on top of the Pawnee Rock can see for a couple miles.  Pawnee Rock is also located very close to the Arkansas River. These attributes  made Pawnee Rock a great place for scouting “bison herds and approaching wagon trains.”** The original Pawnee Rock was also used as a marker for the Sante Fe Trail. The rock signified the half way point for those traveling on the Sante Fe Trail.

Today, the original Pawnee Rock has a historical marker on it, and also has a man-made stone structure that elevates visitors to an even higher view of the surrounding area. The historical marker reads, “In honor of the brave men and women who passing over the old Sante Fe Trail, endured the hardships of frontier life and blazed the path of civilization for posterity.” Now Pawnee Rock is just a tourist site where visitors illegally carve their names into the original rock just for fun.

Pawnee Rock symbolizes a place where people used to utilize the land to gain an advantage. Whether its a site to spot animals for the hunt and on coming people or a travel marker to let people know they are half way to their destination, people utilized Pawnee Rock for multiple reasons.

Todd Maneth

***

*http://www.kshs.org/places/pawneerock/

**Ibid

***http://www.kshs.org/places/pawneerock/exhibits.htm

I am a bit upset about how I can’t seem to find any good information about my Digital Narrative project on the 1966 Topeka tornado. The only way is from watching one T.V. special and a DVD from KTWU detailing the actual events and eyewitness accounts. So I am going to give you a bit of information that I caught off of this video about Burnett’s Mound and the tornado. Burnett was a Potawatomie Chief that resided in Topeka a long time ago. He has been left to believe among the resident of Topeka that his mound is a sacred place that would protect the city form tornadoes. The rumor is believed that if a tornado was to approach the mound, to mound would mysteriously desegregate the tornado. The city of Topeka built a water tower on the hill. This had the residents upset, mostly fearing that the veil of protection had been tampered with. A few years later on June 6, 1966, a EF5 tornado slammed through the city killing very few, damaging building after building, and leaving the capital city shaken. Now some could say that this may have some spiritual connection with the mound but I think that this is a bunch of crap, why? You can’t possibly tell me that tornadoes haven’t hit Topeka before this date, come on, this is Kansas. The 3^rd national ranked state in the U.S. for tornadoes. I find this hard to believe and I want to know how you think of this event. Do you believe that building the water tower on the hill evoked this disaster or that the water tower or the myth had nothing to do with this?

When we look at the major events that took place in and around Lawrence, Kansas during the 1930’s, we mostly focus on the dust storms. Despite the devastation that the region was experiencing, new businesses were still being developed during that time. One of these businesses was the Lawrence Municipal Airport.

The Lawrence Municipal Airport was first dedicated on October 12^th, 1929, just over eighty years ago. When first established, the airport had four grass runways that were eventually “paved” with cinder blocks in 1936. Many locals do not know of the significant role the airport played in the training of military pilots in preparation for World War II. In 1939, the Civil Aeronautics Authority established a flight training program at the Lawrence Municipal Airport where approximately 400 men were trained for WWII. This program contributed to major interest in the Lawrence Airport.

Despite the airport’s growing success, it experienced a set back during the flood of 1951 when its runways were submerged under eight feet of water. By the year 1958 vast improvements were made to the property when a new, paved runway was built that included runway lights. Expansions like this have continued throughout the years, and the airport continues to grow and get new contracts with different businesses.

I am interested in this topic and want to share the information with you not only because it has provided a lot of resources and income to Lawrence residents, but also because my father Rod Mohr began working at the Lawrence Municipal Airport in 1983 as the Vice-President. Also in 1983, he started his own business Lawrence Flight Services through the airport where he was a flight instructor until he sold the business in 2001. It is important to understand the significance the airport has had regarding the success of our community, and it’s an awesome place to visit!

Fagan, Mark. “Major Events, People and Projects in Lawrence Municipal Airport’s First 80

Years.”  Lawrence Journal World. 14 May, 2009. http://www2.ljworld.com/

news/2009/may/14/major-events-people-and-projects-lawrence-municipa/.

November 11^th, 2009.

Kismet, Kansas
Nov. 3, 1937

Dear Mrs. Rosevelt:

I am 13 years old and will be 14 the 27 of this month. I am a victim of a shut in. I have been sick ever since the 12 of July. And have a very lonely place to stay. My parence’s are very poor people. I cant even go to school yet with the other kids. And doubt if I can this year. I have nothing I can do but set around and I get so lonely I don’t know what to do. And if you want to cheer me up and make me one of the happies boys in the world just send me some money to get a cheap raido. Ihave got proof by the neighbors that I am sick and have nothing to do. My parence names is Mr. + Mrs. A. J. M. My name is F. M. I live at Kismet. Many, many thanks if you would cheer me up that way I wouldn’t spend it for nothing but a radio. It would pass my lonely time a way so much faster. I only ask for a cheep one.

F. M.
Kismet, Kansas

P.S. If I had any thing to do I wouldent ask you of it. It will be highly appreached.

I am in the dust bowl. We didn’t raise any crop this year. And we have to live off of the releif and theres no injoyment out of that. But were thankful for it. My mother is sick and under the doctor’s care most of the time and my Grandma that lives with me is very poorly. And that keeps my heart broken all the time. And nothing to amuse myself with.

thanks alot

http://newdeal.feri.org/eleanor/fm1137.htm

It is sometimes hard for us to remember that there were children who lived through the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. For some of us, it was our grandmothers and grandfathers who lived through these trying times. The attached picture and the above letter to Mrs. Roosevelt show that these children (our grandparents) were well aware of the trials that their parents faced. They listened to their parents talk about losing crops and jobs. They knew that the family was suffering and many worried, along side their parents, where and when the next meal would come and how much farther they could fall from their previous station in life. Children of the Great Depression and Dust Bowl also had their own challenges, they had to go to schools that were no better insulated against the dust than their homes and many times they had to walk to and from school in the middle of dust storms. Children were especially susceptible to illness and their lungs were not as developed as their parents even though they were breathing in the same dust. Many children who lived through these hard times and sometimes developed habits that stayed with them for the rest of their lives. My grandmother was a girl during the Great Depression and even now she will only drink half a glass of tea, milk, or water; this was a habit that she picked up as a child. If we look at everything that our great-grandparents and our grandparents lived through and how hard they worked to keep everything together, it is a humbling thought. Could our generation do it?

~Shelley Stroh

Resources:

http://www.kansasmemory.org/item/217991 (photo)

http://newdeal.feri.org/eleanor/fm1137.htm (letter)

Grandma Marie Musgrove

The Black Blizzard, History Channel

Pamela Riney-Kehrberg, Rooted In Dust: Surviving Drought and Depression in Southwestern Kansas

http://www.kansasmemory.org/item/217991

Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Sameul Howe, Theodore Parker, Franklin Benjamin Sanborn, Gerrit Smith and George Luther Stearns. These were the men of the “Secret Six” who secretly funded John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry, V.A. All six men were previously involved in the abolitionist crusade before they ever met John Brown and were all convinced that slavery would not die a peaceful death.

It is not clear whether or not the six men knew about John Brown’s ultimate goal of raiding a United States armory and stealing the weapons to give to the slaves, but what is clear is that they did not necessarily believe that the use of violence was a way to bring about the destruction of slavery. Maybe they were just big softies and couldn’t stand to do the dirty work themselves so they paid John Brown to do it.

After John Brown’s failure at Harper’s Ferry, the “Secret Six” disbanded. On Nov. 7th, 1859, Gerrit Smith had himself confined to an insane asylum and denied that he was ever supporting John Brown. Samuel Howe, George Luther Stearns and Franklin Benjamin Sanborn all fled to Canada to escape prosecution. Theodore Parker was in Europe and was dying of tuberculosis anyway, so he just stayed put. There was one man in the secret six who publicly admitted that he had helped John Brown. That man was Thomas Wentworth Higginson. Of course, Higginson was in Massachusetts during this time, a staunchly pro-abolitionist area, so he was relatively safe from marauding Missourians.

Eric DeVault

Sources:

Kansasmemory.org

Earle, Jonathan. John Brown’s Raid on Harper’s Ferry: A Brief History with Documents. 2008

One of the largest floods to occur in Kansas happened in 1951.  Some of the most flooded, most damaged, areas were right here in our backyard. Lawrence, Manhattan,Topeka and Kansas City were ravaged by the floodwaters which claimed the lives of 19 people and injured some 1,100(although some of them were in Missouri. Do we really need to count those?) according to the American Red Cross. The waters flooded about two million acres of land and 45,000 homes were destroyed or damaged. Trains tried to hold down bridges to keep them from being washed away, but even that couldn’t keep the flood from taking 17 major bridges in Kansas. The affect of the flood was so great that it even damaged 33 water supplies and sewage systems in the area. The reason for such an enormous flood was a storm of unusual size, as well as an abnormal amount of rainfall during that year.

Even though the flood of ‘51 was so massive, there was an even greater flood in Kansas along the Kaw River in 1844. The flood did not cause as much damage, however, because Kansas was not as well populated and the infrastructure, obviously, was not what it was in 1951. In other words, we had more stuff to destroy in 1951 than we did in 1844.

Eric DeVault

Source:

Reading the reading for the class on the growing railroad expansion in Kansas opened me to what progress and what potential statehood that we lost with the buffalo that left the grassy plains. I am not mainly saying that the railroad was a bad idea. Some good things that came out of it were many jobs were issued and cities sprouted up overnight like Parsons. Kansas also began a boom in population, stores, and other economic support. But there were many things that would deem the railroad construction very taxing and unjust. the planning for the layout was very confusing and demanding due to the indian territories and the large animals such as the buffalo that made this process hard. The designers had in mind a railway system that went north-south and east-west throughout the entire state.  The land the designers  found out was very unforgiving and the conditions were unbearable, in July the temperature would be as high as 114 degrees. The workers had to lay out a mile a day in the sweltering heat. As they would finish up, they would be tanned and blackened up form the work. Time went on and the quick population was becoming too hard to handle for some towns in Kansas. Food prices were down, the land was being more scarce due to land development, and people and animals found out soon enough that Kansas was getting way to developed to live in so animals migrated to other states and people moved away form the development for a better lifestyle. To finish this out, how would you give your input on this and how dose this affect you in a personal sense if this happened to you back in this time period?

“Why We Grow”  is an article I found on Kansas History.com.  It details the creation of “The Farmer’s Wife” which was a newspaper that ran from 1891 to 1894 it was published in Topeka and Shawnee.  Published by two women; Ira and Emma Pack it was a sort of discussion board for women it brought about important topics and gave advice to women living in the plains.  What I found the most interesting was that it was a frontrunner in the fight against legislation that served to provide the wealthy with more money and continue to make the poor poorer.  As a newspaper they largely supported the Populist movement, as did many other midwestern farming communities.  The Populist Party was a political party that took a stance against the gold standard of the 19th century.  The Populist Party opposed the gold standard because it would help balance out the deflation happening within agricultural goods in the 1880s.  They also opposed the monopoly the railroad was creating over their rates on land building, track laying, and delivery of goods.  The populist party believed the railroad should be government run.  They largely supported silver’s unlimited coinage believing it would be in the best interest for their harvests.  The stance of the Populist party was popular among the farming communities of the great plains because they fought for the rights of the smaller communities and attempted to take on the governments apparent advantage on monopoly of industry.  In the article it depicts how the voices of Ira and Emma Pack influenced the women of these communities or, “The Farmer’s Wife”.  To a section of the country that did not feel like they had any power these the Pack’s gave them a voice and greatly influenced the power of the Populist Movement.

-Keil Ahlbrandt