history’s stories
APRIL FOOL'S DAY By Ralph “Tuffy” Hicks *Starting on April 1 st Front Porch will begin daily delivery to your door free of charge.
April Fools’ Day is a yearly observance on the first of April at which time silly behavior and all sorts of pranks occur. Simple practical jokes normally played on co-workers, family and of course your best friends take place. You would think that the origin of April Fools’ Day would be clear, however, even today it is obscure. Back as far as 1708 the British papers were asking, “Whence proceeds the custom of making April Fools?” The predominant theory is that in 1582, the French adopted the Geogorian Calendar, which switched the beginning of the year from the end of March to January. The French had for centuries started the new year on Easter Day. This was their main reason that the change was made in the calendar to use January first as it did away with the conflict of the new year starting with the Easter events. Many people it is said continued to ring in the New Year on April first and were made the point of jokes and pranks or as the French called them “April Fish” because of their actions. Pranksters would attach paper fish to victums backs. This date became an annual celebration that spread in Europe and came to America as it was settled. The British observed New Year’s Day on March 25, and when the calendar was changed a British Magazine in 1766 stated that “people making fools of one another upon the first of April.” Almost every culture in the world has festival in the first months of the year to celebrate the return of spring after a long cold winter. These renewal festivals often have celebrations where pranks and good times prevail, people playing jokes on friends and strangers, where normal behavior is replaced by lying, deception and playing pranks is acceptable. It is said that this activity is only allowed until noon on the first of April. Historians always go back to the times of the Romans, where they had a winter festival called Saturnalia near the end of December. That festival involved general merrymaking, with dancing and drinking of all the wines. The exchanging of gifts among of the citizens took place and many of the traditions were the same as the observance of Christmas. Over the years there have been many pranks played, in the April 2 edition of the Dawk’s News Letter (British Newspaper) reported that on April first many people went to the Tower Ditch to see the Lions washed, a joke was carried on for many years. Many Christians think the custom came from when Noah sent out the Dove before the floodwaters subsided, thereby sending the Dove on a fool’s mission. In 1976, April first of course the British astronomer Patrick Moore announced over the BBC that Pluto and Juniper would align at exactly 9:47AM during which time the earth would be without gravity and everyone would be weightless. Many people believed that this event did occur. In 1996 Taco Bell ran a full page in the New York Times stating that they had purchased the Liberty Bell and would rename it “Taco Liberty Bell”. Today that would probably have more belief. In 1998 Burger King Handed Whopper, thousands of customers requested it to be announced the Left-H disappointed that it would remain left or right. Many theories exist about the orgin of April Fool’s day, none of them seem very compelling so you be the judge. Remember on April 1st to check yourself out that the buttons or buttoned and the zippers are zipped. * That first sentence is a prank, read FP monthly.
DEDICATED TO BUDDY SHACKLERFORD, SUE BAGGETT FENWICK, ANNE H. TATE AND PHILLIP COLEMAN
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April 2018
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OUR HERITAGE
What’s in a Neighborhood?
A look at the Central Rappahannock Heritage Center collection
fairview
April Showers
By jon gerlach
By Judy Chaimson A 16th Century English poem includes the line "April showers Al Jolson bring May flowers". popularized that sentiment in a 1920's tune, "April Showers". The Heritage Center collections do not include either the poem or the song, but if one is interested in the amount of precipitation brought to Fredericksburg by April showers during the last four decades of the 20th Century, the Center can supply that information. Allen Green, original proprietor of the Copper Shop and inventor of the Fredericksburg Lamp, kept journals in which he recorded high and low temperatures, barometric pressure, precipitation, and wind direction for every day from 1957 to 2003. Precipitation for most Aprils was light - showers, in fact. Fredericksburg's gardens depend on April showers. Flower gardens have been important to local residents for as long as anyone can remember, and are celebrated each April during Historic Garden Week. The Heritage Center has dozens of letters mentioning beautiful flowering trees and plants in the spring, and several garden clubs have entrusted their records and scrapbooks to the Center. The scrapbooks contain hundreds of photographs of gardens and flower arrangements. Easter is April's most important celebration of new life, new beginnings, rebirth. In addition to the Heritage Center's serious historic documents are collections of greeting cards, and some of the most appealing of them are the cards sent for Easter. Some of them were exchanged by the six Stearns sisters. Emeline sent a card to a sister with this verse: "You can bet your Easter Bonnet . .. This brings love and kisses on it!" The card is undated but was probably sent in the late 1940's after the movie and song "Easter Parade" became popular. The illustration is cute and cartoonish, typical of that decade. Another one sent in 1925 - "May Easter day be bright and sunny. So you can wear your "glad rags", honey." - somewhat similar message, but obviously, from the illustration, a very different decade. Earlier in the 20th Century, the custom was to send postcard greetings. The cards in the Heritage Center collections are beautifully illustrated with chicks and happy children and colorful eggs. And, of course, most cards for children star the famous Easter Bunny for which we can thank German immigrants who brought that Easter
tradition to America in the 18th Century. A typical card, no matter which decade, will include an indication of the season - daffodils, tulips, lilies, and green grass. And that brings us back to the importance of April showers. "So if it's raining, have no regrets . . ." and come on in to the Heritage Center while you're waiting for the shower to pass. By the way, National Volunteer Week is April 15 - 21 so while at the Center you can thank a member of our allvolunteer staff for bringing the past to life through journals, greeting cards, garden club photos and many, many other historic items.
Fairview Fredericksburg's neighborhood is a wonderful familyoriented community. Musicians Pete and Laurie Mealy entertain at the annual Charlotte Street Block Party, often accompanied by other fine musicians such as Bruce Middle and David Nichols. It's like a mini-fair. Friends and family congregate on front porches, where neighbors gather to share food, wine and conversation, while children and dogs pass by on a first name basis. Generations of Fredericksburgers have raised their families in Fairview. The block party is reminiscent of a time before the Civil War, when this was a 10 acre field known as Mercer Square, the site of the old Agricultural Fairgrounds. A good account of the fairgrounds is found in Noel Harrison's book, Fredericksburg Civil War Sites. Here, people enjoyed the best pies, cakes and crafts of the region, the latest agricultural machinery was on display, and local farmers learned about the best practices of the day. When the circus came to town, acrobats, clowns and fantastic
beasts arrived, along with hawkers of remedies for any conceivable ailment. A young man destined for the annals of history was Frank Collins. He lived just a stone's throw away, where the Sunken Road joins Hanover Street. It's easy to imagine spotting Frank, over six feet tall, standing in the audience at the popular “Tournament of Knights” during the 1858 fair. Six years later, Frank Collins would perish aboard the famous Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley along with the rest of his crew, in waters off Charleston, SC, during the first successful
submarine mission in history to sink an enemy warship. At the First Battle of Fredericksburg, the fairgrounds became ground zero for some of the fiercest fighting American soldiers have ever endured. On December 13, 1862, successive Union assaults entered the fairgrounds before being crushed in front of the Stone Wall. A slight change in elevation called "The Swale" bisected the old fairgrounds. Standing today in the 800 block of Wolfe, Charlotte and Mercer Streets, the incline is barely perceptible, but according to soldier-penned accounts in Francis O'Reilly's book The Fredericksburg Campaign, the Swale provided cover and concealment for thousands of men who went to ground here, under fire, unable to advance or retreat. Anything large enough to stop a bullet was used for cover, even dead bodies. Union troops were pinned down in the Swale for two full days. The fighting in and around Mercer Square cost the Union army dearly: some 6,300 wounded and 900 dead. Hastily buried in shallow trench graves under a flag of truce, most of the bodies were reinterred in the National Cemetery atop Marye's Heights after the war.
Today, GIS analysis by Peter Glyer and archaeological work by Jon Gerlach are starting to uncover the secrets of the Fairview neighborhood. Evidence compiled from the distribution of fired bullets and artillery shrapnel found in and around the fairgrounds, taken together with bullet trajectory analyses based on the topography of Mercer Square, support the eye-witness accounts that the Swale was a place of relative safety. One more striking thing happened here: on the second night of the soldiers' ordeal, the Northern Lights illuminated the sky. Rarely seen this far south, science attributes the phenomenon to a solar event known as a Corneal Mass Ejection. At the time, however, the lightshow was explained by Confederates as a sign from God, pleased by the overwhelming victory. To Northerners simply trying to survive another night in the Swale, it was a sign of hope that they might be reunited with loved ones some day. So what's in a neighborhood? You might be surprised.
Jon Gerlach chairs the Architectural Review Board. He is an attorney and retired archaeologist.
Judy Chaimson is a CRHC Volunteer
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