Kansas City With The Russian Accent

From The Mind of One Russian Jewish American

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  • Old Photos: Churchill’s Iron Curtain Speech

    Just like many other great speeches, Churchill’s Sinews of Peace address delivered on March 5, 1946 at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri was reduced to a few soundbites that everyone recognizes but can’t necessarily put in a context. In this case there is probably not a person alive who haven’t heard about the Iron Curtain, a Cold War reference to the division between the Soviet- and Western-influenced zones in Europe. For almost half a century, the Iron Curtain dominated the international relations, as well as lives of hundreds of millions of people. Today, its legacy is still haunting the world and, on a smaller scale, provides inspiration to a large section of this blog.

    From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia, all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and, in some cases, increasing measure of control from Moscow.

    httpvh://youtu.be/P8_wQ-5uxV4

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  • Old Ads: Drug Store

    Things you could find in a drug store…

    ….on your trip to pick up some Colgate Dental Cream.

    httpvh://youtu.be/-Q7cf0z0fG8

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  • We Comin’ Rougher

    Today this country celebrates 20 years of having me around.

    Few years ago I wrote about our one-way trip here and I don’t have much to add to that story.

    Instead, you’ll get this song from another guy from my neck of the woods. I didn’t work in a sweatshop but in my early years here I did my share of pizza delivery and washing dishes.

    httpvh://youtu.be/zKoQgODwveE

    Another 20? I ain’t going anywhere…

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  • Old Photos: Kansas Sorority Girls From 1939

    The article “Kansas Girls: It’s Fun for Them At State University” was published in the Life Magazine in the December 1939 issue.

    The girls who go to the University of Kansas are as different in their looks and backgrounds as the buildings in which they live. The buildings are sometimes classic, sometimes Tudor, sometimes Georgian. Some of the girls are dull and some bright, some pretty and some plain, some grinds and some “jivers.” In a typical freshman class of 700, about 110 will be farmers’ daughters, 75 merchants’ daughters, 40 teachers’ daughters, 25 bankers’ daughters.

    Their State University is at Lawrence, perched on the highest hill in eastern Kansas. It is a surprising town to find in the most middle of the Midwestern States. Settled by New Englanders, it is very much like New England except that the wind blows all the time. The streets are lined with spreading elms and some of the houses have captain’s walks.

    In regular session, 1,500 girls attend the University, which is co-educational. For the most part they have a very good time at college, often living better than they do at home. A fourth of them occupy sorority houses; less than a third, dormitories. The rest board out around town. Their college life is heartier, more social and much more frankly concerned with boys than it is at an Eastern women’s college. Almost all the girls are Kansans who settle down in Kansas after graduation. As alumnae, they are the most closely knit group of people in the State, binding all Kansas together from town to town to town by friendships made in Lawrence. The way they learn to live, to dress, to behave, to look at life and culture, affects their future and the future of their State in a hundred small and subtle ways.

    Most people in these photos are in their 90’s now, but if you recognize someone you know, please don’t hesitate to comment or write to me. One of my previous postings turned into a real life story and helped some family members reunite.

    Kappa Alpha Theta House boasts classic pillars © Time Inc. Alfred Eisenstaedt.
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  • Old Photos: Sowing The Seeds Of Financial Success

    This is an interesting set of photos depicting stock salesmen from Bache & CO. selling their wares to Kansas farmers on location.

    Life Magazine published these photos on Dec 8, 1958 in the article Grass Root Gold for Wall Street.


    Stock talk engrosses Mrs. Alice Watson, Salina, Kan. antiques dealer and Harry Nickelson of Bache
    Wall Street goes West, in persons of four salesmen from Bache & Co Salina, Kan office. Nattily standing in a winter wheat field are (from left) Bob Muir, Kelly Slaughter, Lyle Fackler, Harry Nichelson. They serve a growing list of farmer-investor, do not always dress so dudishly.

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