Red, White, and Blue Week Starts Tonight

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It’s a festive occasion, as Red, White, and Blue week kicks off tonight at North Star at 7 p.m. Things were quiet there last week, so it could be a great opportunity to get a win. On to Sidecar at 9:30 p.m.

As for the quiz itself, it will have a few questions about ‘Murica and Old Glory and 1776 and all of that, but there will also be questions on the colors red, white, and blue. And probably at least a question or two on Chuck Norris. There will only be one quiz this week. Hope to see ya tonight!

5 Quick Questions with “Philadelphia: The World War I Years” Author Pete Williams

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One cool thing about quizzo is that a lot of our quizzers are working on really creative and cool projects. One of them is Pete Williams. Pete, who has played intermittently over the years with the Jams, is a huge history buff, and he recently took his fascination with World War I to the next level, writing a book about Philadelphia during the war for Arcadia Press. Furthermore, he has one of the most interesting pages on Facebook for Philadelphia history buffs: it follows the news of the city 100 years ago today. Really, really cool.

With the 100th year anniversary of the assassination of Franz Ferdinand just a few days ago, I thought I’d talk to him about his fascination with WWI, how the War impacted Philly, and what he learned while working on this project. This is a really neat interview. Enjoy.

JGT: What inspired you to write about Philadelphia during World War I?

PETE: I’ve always been a bit of a history buff. I’ll read anything on historical events that I come across. But World War I has always been something that fascinates me. I think that probably comes from my maternal grandmother. I would sit at her kitchen table and she would tell me stories about what life was like “in the old days” while she was cooking. She also had a big scrapbook that she made during WWI with picture and newspaper clippings in it. She would sit with me and leaf through each page, talking about the newspaper story and about what was going on in her and her family’s life then. Those stories really made that time period come alive for me and that has always stayed with me.

JGT:  The book is about Philadelphia about 100 years ago. What things about Philly are the same, and what things are drastically different than they were then?

blwlitho_tPETE: What is drastically different is the disappearance of the industrial base of the city and the great shipbuilding yards. All of that is gone now. At the time of WWI, Philadelphia was nicknamed “The Workshop of the World” and it really lived up to that name. Those industries and textile mills, like Baldwin Locomotive (above right), E.G. Budd Company, Stetson Hat, Jacob Reed and Ford Motor Company produced millions of tons of supplies, weapons, ammunition, artillery shells and other material that helped win the war.

What still exists are many of the buildings that played a role in the relief and the charitable organizations set up to send aid to Belgium and France when the war began and then helped our soldiers, sailors and their families after America joined the war. Most of these were private homes, many on Walnut and Chestnut Streets. Of course they aren’t private homes anymore. They are apartments houses or businesses but the facades are still there. When I pass those buildings I try to imagine the men and women, some in uniform and some in their civilian clothes of the time, going about their work and lives.

JGT: What was something you learned while you were researching the book that you hadn’t known before and were really fascinated by?

PETE: I guess it would be how much of an immigrant city Philadelphia was then. In 1914 Philadelphia’s population was about 1.5 million. 60% of those were either foreign born or the children of foreign born persons. Philadelphia had the reputation as an old, staid, WASP city but in reality it was much more culturally diverse. There was an enormous Irish immigrant community, most of whom came over in the 1840s and 1850s. Of course, there was also a large German community. But in the last decade of the 19th Century and the early years of the 20th new waves of immigrants began arriving. They came from Italy, Poland, Lithuania and Russia.These people settled in the river wards with the Italians living mostly in South Philadelphia. By 1914 South Philadelphia was the most congested area of the city with 200 people per square acre. So then, much like now, Philadelphia’s population was made up mostly of recently arrived immigrants.

JGT: Of course, when the soldiers returned, the Spanish flu came with them, wreaking havoc on American cities. How hard was Philadelphia hit? 

spit warning dockPETE: The “Spanish influenza” was the most devastating pandemic since the Black Death in the  Middle Ages. Worldwide, 50 million died from the flu. In America over 675,000 people were killed by the disease. Of all American cities and for that matter all of North America, Philadelphia was the worst hit city. A couple of factors came into play causing this. First, city officials, including those in the Bureau of Health, knew the flu was present in the city in July. It was already reported at the Navy Yard where it probably first arrived with sailors from Boston. But even knowing this, the city went ahead with plans for a Liberty Loan Parade on September 28, 1918. Two hundred thousand people lined the streets and cheered on those marching including contingents of sailors and marines from theNavy Yard. It was a perfect breeding ground to spread the disease. The flu spread like wildfire. Half a million Philadelphians became infected. Its spread and the devastation it caused was also facilitated by the fact that over 2/3 of the city’s doctors, nurses and other medical professionals were away serving in the war. The city was practically defenseless. Eventually dead bodies overwhelmed the one city morgue. Four temporary ones were opened. In some sections of the city bodies were left on street corners or left outside the gates of cemeteries. There are reports of Catholic priests and Protestant ministers taking wagons through their parishes actually calling for people to bring out their dead.

A conservative estimate is that 16,000 people died in Philadelphia from the flu in about a five week period. Infections began to subside towards the end of October. By the Armistice on November 11, 1918, it was practically over. I believe the joy people experienced from the ending of the war helped them put out of their minds the terror they experienced during those 3 months.

JGT: How did World War I change the city of Philadelphia?

PETE: From what I learned, Philadelphia prior to the war was an incredibly socially stratified city. This stratification was first and foremost along economic class. But of course also on ethnic lines. The wealthy and upper middle class families were Anglo-Saxon Protestant and they just did not socially interact with the Irish, Italian, Polish, Eastern European Jewish and other immigrant groups, let alone with the African American community.

3732The war changed that. Men from all classes were either drafted or enlisted and had to associate with each other as equals. But this mingling was even more pronounced among women. Women of all classes joined charitable and relief organizations to support the war effort. In doing so they began working side by side with women they would otherwise never share a meal with or talk with about their children or their lives or even the weather. The wealthiest women in the city were spending long hours with working class and poor women sewing sweaters and socks for men overseas, making bandages, packing comfort kits, visiting the families of soldiers wounded or killed, and working on Liberty Loan campaigns. They learned about each other’s lives, struggles, fears, and joys.

I think that environment helped to change attitudes about class that existed before the war. I don’t mean to imply it went away entirely. It certainly did not. But I think after the war there was less of it. Members of the old established Philadelphia families and the children of the immigrant families saw themselves differently and each group I think after the war saw the other as just as much Philadelphians as they were.

You can buy Pete’s book here.

PREVIOUS INTERVIEWS:

Rock legend Kenn Kweder

JFK Conspiracy theorist Sherman

105-year old restaurant owner Mama Teshima. 

Boxing champ Bernard Hopkins.

Scores and Pics from This Week

NORTH STAR

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First Place: O’Trivia Newton Johns 84

2nd Place: Stillmaniacs 77

3rd Place: Inkspot 52

SIDECAR

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First Place: Sidecardigans 114

2nd Place: Blue Samurai 110

3rd Place: Sholar Powered 101

O’NEALS

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First Place: Hooter and Chuff 117

2nd Place: Savage Ear 100

3rd Place: Gin Romney 99

CITY TAP HOUSE

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First Place: New Team 99

2nd Place: Jesters of Tortuga 97

3rd Place: Underground Bard 96

LOCUST RENDEZVOUS

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First Place: #1 Government Team Competitor 120

2nd Place: The Champs 111

3rd Place: Honeybadgers 88

BLACK SHEEP

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First Place: Blazing Sea Nuggets 97

2nd Place: Oven Nook 96

2nd Place: Jitney Spears 96

INDUSTRY

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First Place: Why Can’t Us 96

2nd Place: Exhausted Nihilists 95

3rd Place: No One Peed Themselves in My Library 89

BARDS

First Place: Jesters of Tortuga 115

2nd Place: Serbian Donkey Cheese 113

3rd Place: Ruby Tuesday 104

Week 2 of the JGTSI Wraps Up Tonight

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Two weeks of our 9-week season are gonna be in the books at the conclusion of tonight’s quiz, so if your team doesn’t have any points yet, you’ll want to make your way out to quizzo tonight. We start at Industry at 6:30 p.m. Yes, the NBA draft will be on so we can commiserate when the Sixers take either a 7-footer who will be injured his whole career or an Aussie who looks good playing against the New Zealand 17-and-under All-Stars but who will be completely overmatched in the NBA.

Where were we? Oh yes, we’ll be moving to Bards at 9 p.m. $3 craft beer at Industry and $3 Lagers at Bards. And your first chance to check out my bitchin’ new sound system. And candy and fries to give away. Let’s do the damn thing!

Philly Sports Quiz On Sunday!

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I’ll be hosting a Philly Sports quiz this Sunday at Field House (1150 Filbert). The majority of the quiz will be on the Sixers, Eagles, Flyers, and Phillies, but there will be a few Big 5, Philadelphia Stars, and Philadelphia A’s questions mixed in for good measure. We’ll have some great prizes from Shibe Sports and from the Field House to give away, as well as terrific drink and food specials. Action starts at 5:30 p.m. Hope to see you there.

Quizzo Tonight

Week Two of the JGTSI begins tonight at North Star at 7 p.m. On to Sidecar at 9:30. Things were a little quiet there last week, so I think it’s anybody’s ballgame. Could be a good way to earn 5 points. General quiz this week. And I’ll have pics of last week’s winners posted tomorrow. Lost a few too many brain cells while celebrating our Grand Opening over the weekend to get it done today.

So What the Hell is a Chinese Auction?

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As I’ve been talking to people about our big weekend coming up, the first question that people keep asking is a good one: what the hell is a Chinese auction? Truth be told, I just found out what it was this week. Here’s how it will work at our event:

When you arrive at Milkboy on Sunday at 5, you’ll be given several raffle tickets (you can earn more tickets by buying shirts, hats, etc). There will be several shirts, hats, etc. from our store to bid on. But you’ll be bidding on things that might happen in the soccer match. For instance, you can drop your ticket in front of a bowl that reads “US scores first” (and maybe the prize is a US soccer shirt). Another bowl will read “0-0 tie at half”,with an A’s hat as the prize, etc. You’ll decide what to put your tickets on, and then if those things happen, we draw a ticket to see who wins. Should add a little bit of extra excitement to what is already gonna be an exciting match. We’ll be watching on a 10′ big screen, and playing Lee Greenwood every time the Americans score. Oh right, and $5 sangria and $3 pounders of Narragansett and Miller High Life. Hope you can join us!

French Fry Thursday

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Week One of theJGTSI keeps on rockin’ and rolling tonight. Once again, rounds are inspired by the World Cup, but you won’t need to know a whole heck of a lot about soccer. Action starts at Industry at 6:30 p.m. Great burgers and a new $3 craft beer special every week. On to Bards at 9 p.m., where Michael, who just got a ton of love in this Serious Eats piece, is behind the bar. Frenc Fry Face-off and Name That Tune both on tap for tonight.