All Purls. No Swine.
Barely five miles down the back roads from me is "Joe Walker Elementary School," named after hometown hero Joe Walker, who was the first person to fly an airplane to space. Joe was born in Washington, Pennsylvania on February 20, 1921, and graduated from Washington and Jefferson College with a BA in Physics in 1942. … Continue reading July 19, 1963–Joe Walker Reaches Space
So here we are on February 22, 2025, all set to observe George Washington's 293rd birthday. Right? Not so fast. It's true that, for years, February 22 was a national holiday in the United States. Banks were closed. Schools were closed. No mail was delivered. Department stores nationwide celebrated the end of the "white sales"… Continue reading Happy Belated Birthday, George Washington!
Today, September 9, 2023 is the two-hundred-thirty-second anniversary of the naming of a new city, built on federal land, as the capital of the still-very-young United States of America. The city was named after the country's first President, and the District was named "Columbia," a name still occasionally used at that time for the country… Continue reading Washington Pennsylvania, the First City Named For the First President
It’s hard for me to think of a particular place as my hometown: I was born in Birmingham, England, one fall night in 1954. I was raised in Northern Nigeria, and Kaduna, Kano and Sokoto are dear to my heart. I lived in Boston for a year when my family came to the States. I… Continue reading Washington, PA, the First City Named For the First President