National Animal Cracker Day!

Journalist Rocky the Squirrel here –

Keeping his paws on the nuts of the world.

April 18th. is National Animal Cracker Day.  Isn’t this fantastic!!  Elephants, lions, tigers, bears and monkeys oh my.  These are small little sweet cookies shaped like zoo animals.  They were first brought to the United States during the 1800’s.  The demand for these wonderful little cookies skyrocketed and demand was over the roof!

Stauffer’s Biscuit Company was the first company to produce animal crackers in 1871 in York, Pennsylvania.  Other local bakeries came together under the National Biscuit Company or “Nabisco Brands”.  In 1902, the famous Barnum’s Animals circus theme box came out.  Bacon’s mom says that she remembers her parents bringing her these little boxes as a treat.

Did you know that since their start in 1903, there have been 37 different animals included in the Barnum’s Animal Crackers?  Today, more than 40 million packages of animal crackers are sold each year around the world.

I think Bacon does his share in the intake!  They are one of his biggest treats that his mom has to get him in the economy size!  I can’t tell you how many of these huge buckets that he has gone through in his day.  In fact, this one is what the Easter bunny brought him and it’s almost gone.  Time to reload.

So on this National Animal Cracker Day – enjoy a box OR TWO of these sweet delectable bits.  Just remember though, if you are going to eat in front of the pig, you have to share!

 

Boo! Winchester House

Today, I’m focusing on the Winchester Mystery House.  Have you heard about this mansion that is located in San Jose, California?  Have you been there?  It’s claimed that some people are there and they have never left.  The Winchester Mystery House is just that – a mystery.  It was the residence of Sarah Winchester.

In 1862, she  married William Winchester – who came from the family that created the famous Winchester guns.  Everything seemed like it was grand and wonderful …for a while.

In 1866, the Winchester’s infant daughter, Annie, passed away from a childhood disease called marasmus.  (Marasmus is a form of severe malnutrition and causes a child to look emaciated.)  Losing her child caused Mrs. Winchester to fall into a deep depression.

In 1881, Mrs. Winchester’s husband, William, passed away from tuberculosis.  Can you imagine watching two of your very close loved ones pass away so early in life?  Mrs. Winchester was beside herself and sought help from a spiritualist.  Through consulting with the spiritualist, Mrs. Winchester believed her family and her fortune were haunted by the ghosts of the people who had fallen victim to the family Winchester rifles.  She was advised that the only way she could appease the ghosts was to move west and build them a house.  Not just a house but to continuous build them a house.

In 1884, Mrs. Winchester moved west to San Jose, California and bought an unfinished farmhouse .  Work began immediately.  Mrs. Winchester  would hold nightly seances to speak with the spirits to help guide her in how the house would be worked on the following date.  In the morning, she would meet with her construction workers and give them the plans.  Did the plans make sense?  You decide.

• There are roughly 160 rooms, including 40 bedrooms;
• 2 ballrooms (one completed and one unfinished);
• 47 fireplaces;
• Over 10,000 panes of glass;
• 17 chimneys (with evidence of two others);
• 2 basements with three elevators.
• It has gold and silver chandeliers and hand-inlaid parquet floors and trim;
• There are doors and stairways that lead nowhere and a vast array of colors and materials.
• The home’s conveniences were rare at the time of its construction. These included steam and forced-air heating, modern indoor toilets and plumbing, push-button gas lights and Mrs. Winchester’s personal (and only) hot shower from indoor plumbing.
• The number 13 is repeated frequently in the home – whether in stairs, candles, wall hooks, stained glass windows or even 13 holes in the drain covers.  Also every Friday the 13th, the large bell on the property is rung 13 times at 1300 hours in tribute to Winchester.   Mrs. Winchester even signed her will 13 times leaving everything to a niece and personal secretary.

Construction continued every day around the clock until Mrs. Winchester died on September 5, 1922.  Upon her death, all hammering ceased.  When they looked in Mrs. Winchester’s safe they found the things that meant the most to her.  Not money.  Not diamonds.  Not riches.  It was two pieces of hair – one from her husband and one from her daughter.

And until this day, it is said that you can still hear the construction work taking place, that you can see the workers inside and outside of the home.  And, people still say that Mrs. Winchester herself is still in the home.

 

National Animal Cracker Day!

Journalist Rocky the Squirrel here –

Keeping his paws on the nuts of the world

.

April 18th is National Animal Cracker Day.  Isn’t this fantastic!!  Elephants, lions, tigers, bears and monkeys oh my.  These are small little sweet cookies shaped like zoo animals.  They were first brought to the United States during the 1800’s.  The demand for these wonderful little cookies skyrocketed and demand was over the roof!

Stauffer’s Biscuit Company was the first company to produce animal crackers in 1871 in York, Pennsylvania.  Other local bakeries came together under the National Biscuit Company or “Nabisco Brands”.  In 1902, the famous Barnum’s Animals circus theme box came out.  Bacon’s mom says that she remembers her parents bringing her these little boxes as a treat.

Did you know that since their start in 1903, there have been 37 different animals included in the Barnum’s Animal Crackers?  Today, more than 40 million packages of animal crackers are sold each year around the world.

I think Bacon does his share in the intake!  They are one of his biggest treats that his mom has to get him in the economy size!  I can’t tell you how many of these huge buckets that he has gone through in his day.  In fact, this one is what the Easter bunny brought him and it’s almost gone.  Time to reload.

So on this National Animal Cracker Day – enjoy a box OR TWO of these sweet delectable bits.  Just remember though, if you are going to eat in front of the pig, you have to share!

 

Bacon’s Show and Tell

Welcome my friends to my Bacon’s Show and Tell.  Today we are discussing embarrassing moments from childhood.  Trust me.  I have a good one to share today.  I thought long and hard and have to tell you about my daddy.  Snorts – yep poor dad. Are you ready for this?  Here we go.

When dad was a small boy – I’m going to say around 6-7 years young, his mom took him shopping with her at a local store.  This store had big tall windows all across the front of the store.  Daddy and his mom was in the store shopping for a long time and finally got to the front registers overlooking the windows.  Daddy told his mom that he needed to go to the bathroom and he was jumping all around – you know like some little boys do.  So his mom told him to go out front and wait for her there.  You know back in the day when you could actually do that with no worries that someone might take your child.

So there daddy was in front of the store and his mom was waiting patiently in line to buy her items.  That’s when it happened.  What do you ask.  Well there were snickers, then rolls of laughter and then came the pointing outside the front window.  You see, there was the cute little boy that was standing outside peeing.  Not just peeing straight into a puddle.  Oh no, that wouldn’t be my daddy.  My daddy was outside peeing on the front windows and making designs with his pee.  Shaking my piggy head.  Yep, his mother was so proud.

His mom quickly paid for her purchases, stomped outside and without missing a beat picked daddy up under her arms and continued to the car.  All the time…. daddy was continuing to pee freely in the air.  Well, he did tell her that he needed to go to the bathroom, right?

 

Bacon’s Show and Tell – Reminder

Hello friends – are you having fun with my Bacon’s Show and Tell?  This month let’s talk about embarrassing moments.  I know that humans had them all of the time when growing up.  I hear stories from mom/dad and trust me – some of them are juicy!

So this month we are highlighting embarrassing moments from childhood. Tell everyone about something that happened that was so life shattering embarrassing in childhood but now you can look back and laugh about.

❤

Mark your calendars – Bacon’s Show and Tell is scheduled for:

Wednesday, September 28, 2016 

 

Bacon’s Show and Tell

Hello friends – are you having fun with my Bacon’s Show and Tell?  This month let’s talk about embarrassing moments.  I know that humans had them all of the time when growing up.  I hear stories from mom/dad and trust me – some of them are juicy!

So this month we are highlighting embarrassing moments from childhood. Tell everyone about something that happened that was so life shattering embarrassing in childhood but now you can look back and laugh about.

❤

Mark your calendars – Bacon’s Show and Tell is scheduled for:

Wednesday, September 28, 2016 

 

Mommy Lost Her Mind

We had great plans here at the Hotel Thompson this past weekend.  They required lots of rest and relaxation and most of all being couch potatoes while watching endless mind wandering television shows.  You know shows that are not to mind provoking or where you have to figure out who did it.  Television shows that you just watch and laugh carefree without having to use that mind… endless mind shows is what we call them.  Things went well Saturday.  

Then Sunday the humans get up and turn on the television in the living room.  They hear a big BANG.  Mom looked over and the small cable box had popped and was smoking.  She immediately went over and pulled all of the cables out of the wall and television.  Okay, so maybe they watched too much television the day before?  Snorts with piggy laughter.

Mom gets on the phone to inquire about our cable store to see where and when they are opened today.  Guess what?  They were closed on Sunday.  What the cream cheese?  Really.   So Sunday was long, no television.  Do you know how old school that was.  I’m not sure who it killed more – mom/dad or us anipals.  I mean hey I can admit it.  I love my television.  So Sunday we did what we ‘use’ to do before television.  We talked.  We cooked.  We played games.  We rested together.  It was kind of awesome.

Then Monday, mom took the cable box to the store and explained what happened to it.  They said it had happened to others and they were doing away with that type of box.  What?  Are you serious?  Something like this has happened before and you didn’t recall these types of boxes?  What if mom/dad had not been home?  What if was just us anipals and this happened?  Amazing customer service to boot huh?

So mom gets a new box (see picture) and was told all you have to do is plug everything in and there you go it works.  Mom of course rolled her eyes and said sure.  That’s when the great customer service told her, “Well we can come out to do it but it will be $75.00 for the service call”.  Really?!  That’s highway robbery.  Mom took the box mumbling some choice pirate words on the way out of the store under her breath.

Mom gets home and opens the box.  How cute.  The box says, ‘”Let’s get started”.  Of course mom did what no man has ever done.  She read the 3 page instructions first.  Then, mom had to move the giant television out and pull bookshelf/table out from the wall.  This in itself about blew mom’s inner strength.  Huffing and puffing, she gets everything pulled out so she can get behind the television.  Now, I’m on the couch minding my own business and watching the circus start.  Hemi then jumps behind the television to check things out.  Houdini tries to get in on the action.  All the time, mom is brushing them out from behind her war zone.

Mom follows the 3 easy steps.  Plug in cable box in from cable line – √.  Plug in cable from cable box to television – √.  Plug in cord from cable box to wall outlet – √.  Simple right?  Then the final step.  Turn on the television and you should have cable.  Easy peasy.  Mom felt great.  She turned on the television.  Nothing.  Mom dropped the F word – fudgescicles.  Oh boy.  This is not good.  Mom doesn’t use that word.

That’s when dad made his first mistake.  “Is it plugged in?”  Insert more use of the F word.  Then dad made his second mistake.  “Is it plugged into the right holes?”  Insert more use of the F word.

Mom gets the house phone and calls the cable company for tech support.  She puts them on speaker so she can have hands free for doing whatever they tell her to do.  Now this is where America has went wrong.  She gets a customer service rep who is clearly outsourced somewhere other than the states.  She can barely understand him through his heavy accent but clearly him ask, “Is it plugged in?”  Really?  Now mom asks him in a very nice way could she talk to someone else who doesn’t have such a heavy accent.  Nothing wrong in that.  If you can’t understand someone, you are not going to get the help you need.  And, she wasn’t being mean.  Can you believe he was not so nice and
said a few words she couldn’t understand before transferring her.  What happened to customer service these days?

Phone gets transferred and picked up by another who immediately throws mom on hold.  Finally after 12 minutes, it is picked up again by another person with an accent .  But this time, mom can understand them more.  And of course the first thing they say, “Is it plugged in?”  Really?  Mom counted to 10 and said, “Yes.  I’m literate I can read instructions”.  Of course, the guy laughed so that eased mom down some.  Through the course of about 25 minutes, every thing was attempted.  Pings were sent to the box.  Programming was changed. New remote was set up.  Mom climbed behind the television.  She pulled lines.  She took everything out.  She put everything back the way it was.   She stood on one foot.  She touched her nose.  She prayed to the cable Gods.

After an hour of customer service (which I might add that this person was cool), we had cable.  Eureka!  Clearer and better sound quality cable.  Clearer and better sound quality than we ever had.  Of course mom lost her mommy mind but through an adult drink later in a sippy cup she found it.

Now, I know mom is not the only one that hates dealing with these things.  What about your mom?  If dad could, she would have so thrown it in his lap and said deal with it.  But we know she couldn’t.  And I guess this is better than waiting for the cable guy who never gets there on time and yes it saved us money because she did it… but, to what extent do you deal with things like this?  Do tell my friends to cheer mom up.

 

National Animal Cracker Day!

Journalist Rocky the Squirrel here –

Keeping his paws on the nuts of the world

.

April 18th is National Animal Cracker Day.  Isn’t this fantastic!!  Elephants, lions, tigers, bears and monkeys oh my.  These are small little sweet cookies shaped like zoo animals.  They were first brought to the United States during the 1800’s.  The demand for these wonderful little cookies skyrocketed and demand was over the roof!

Stauffer’s Biscuit Company was the first company to produce animal crackers in 1871 in York, Pennsylvania.  Other local bakeries came together under the National Biscuit Company or “Nabisco Brands”.  In 1902, the famous Barnum’s Animals circus theme box came out.  Bacon’s mom says that she remembers her parents bringing her these little boxes as a treat.

Did you know that since their start in 1903, there have been 37 different animals included in the Barnum’s Animal Crackers?  Today, more than 40 million packages of animal crackers are sold each year around the world.

I think Bacon does his share in the intake!  They are one of his biggest treats that his mom has to get him in the economy size!  I can’t tell you how many of these huge buckets that he has gone through in his day.  In fact, this one is what the Easter bunny brought him and it’s almost gone.  Time to reload.

So on this National Animal Cracker Day – enjoy a box OR TWO of these sweet delectable bits.  Just remember though, if you are going to eat in front of the pig, you have to share!

 

Bacon’s Show and Tell

Welcome my friends to this months Bacon’s Show and Tell.  We are highlighting a picture from your childhood.  Something that you have fond memories about and/or a story behind.

My dad when he was younger had a love for cowboy things – hats, boots, etc.  He wore them all of the time and would hardly take things off.  He even told his mother when he was younger, he wanted to wear this attire for his yearly Christmas picture.  So off they went.  Him in his cowboy hat, boots and winter coat.

He climbed up on Santa’s lap and told him what he wanted for Christmas.  Of course, more action figures, toys and you guessed it – more cowboy stuff.  You can see from Santa’s face how enthralled he was at the information and for dad’s details of exactly what kind of everything he wanted.  Looking at the picture, daddy’s mom *almost* felt sorry for Santa… almost.

 .

And this is mommy.  She is all decked out in a handmade shawl and hat that I believe was what her grandmother made.  She was a happy baby and excited for most picture days.   I think this picture was actually taken around Easter one year.

And hey look at those chubby cheeks – you want to pinch them don’t you?  I hope you had fun my friends with this month’s Bacon’s Show and Tell.  See you next month!

 

Bacon’s Show and Tell – Reminder

 

This month for Bacon’s Show and Tell  we are highlighting a picture from your childhood.  Something that you have fond memories about and/or a story behind.

Share it with us on Bacon’s Show and Tell scheduled for Monday, August 31st.  Remember to link your blogs to this one so we can all share. Mark your calendars and I hope to see you here my friends – oinks.