Top July Posts

We had a geographically diverse month. Texas, Morton Grove, Bathgate, Fargo, Seattle and Montana all figured in the mix on our blog. We even got into some doings in the states of Michigan, Florida, North Carolina and Maryland in the blog post from March that crept into position number ten. We, at Along the Gradient, salute our readers, and make a quick journey back to take a look at July's top ten most viewed posts.

Mom and Dad pulling a pig.

1. Bathgate Meets Morton Grove features a mid 1960s snapshot of mom and dad pulling a pig down Dempster Street during the annual Morton Grove Days parade.  In the background, a 6-pack of Michelob is advertised for sale in the Sun Drugs window for $1.49 (Richard M. Nixon severed the link between gold and the dollar in 1971, helping to fuel the inflationary mess we've experienced since). In the foreground, mom and dad are pulling Son of Rilley, in preparation for the greased pig contest scheduled for later that night.

2. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) recently published online a series of maps showing how various locales were built out at different points through time. In Morton Grove Mapped Through Time we walk through four USGS maps starting in 1900 to see how Morton Grove grew and developed. Morton Grove's history is a story of farms, followed by greenhouses and roadhouses, bisection by an expressway, and then suburban and industrial development. It shows.

United States Geological Survey, 1929 topographical and constructed feature map, before Edens Expressway and development of the west side..

3. She who must be obeyed (thanks to CBS's and the Golf Channel's David Feherty for the wifely description) flew down to Texas for the funeral of a close friend, a fellow who was in the newspaper business, before going on to manage a TV news operation and following the corporate route. He wound up his career in academia. His name was Kuyk Logan. We were pleased to publish a tribute to Kuyk (Kuyk Logan RIP) which presents some of his earliest work, and to share that with his friends and family via the wonder of the internet.

The boys pose in front as The Dells burns to the ground,
October 7, 1934.

4. One early June post, Morton Grove Before the Baby Boom: The Complete Story of the Dells, ran way popular into July.  Food, music, dancing, drinking and gambling were only some of the attractions, because this Morton Grove roadhouse was a mob (as in Al Capone) operated enterprise. Mix in a little murder, kidnapping, mayhem and arson, and you will get the full story of the Dells, as told in this post.

5. Seattle World's Fair or Bust takes a nostalgic look at the Montana part of our family road trip to the Seattle World's Fair in 1964. After we did a Mount Rushmore drive by in South Dakota, we passed through Billings, motored across the state to spend a night in Helena, and continued on through the Bitterroot valley, past Missoula, and on to Idaho, spying Burma Shave signs all the way. This was pre-interstate expressways in Montana, meaning we got a peak into every small town along the way. 

6. Lone Star Legacy: Introducing Joseph Holick, Musician, Band Leader and Boot Maker expands our inquiry into family history to the other side of my kids' ancestry. My wife's great grandfather custom made the treasured Aggie Senior boots, worn exclusively by members of Texas A&M's cadet corps. He also started the Fightin' Texas Aggie Band. Not bad for Czech immigrant who was "a small boy and couldn't do lumbering work."

The Aggie band in 1896. Joseph Holick is in the center with broad mustache and his signature clarinet across his lap, wearing a dark suit.

7. We got out our green thumb this spring and started a garden plot. Watching a Garden Grow describes the process and reports on the early results.

The Missus and our little one target shooting with a 30 round clip.

8. Fishing, shooting, knocking off a copperhead and all around getting down and dirty, that's what A Little Red Necking Down in Texas is all about.

9. Majority control of the United States Senate is hanging in the balance. So what have the all knowing Democrats in Montana done? Why, they put forward a candidate whose campaign and promise is based on honor and duty, and who is an acknowledged plagiarist, earning his masters degree at the U.S. War college thusly. Read all about it in John Walsh -- Democratic Senator from Montana and Plagiarist. Democrats are standing strongly behind Walsh, because, well, because he is a Democrat. 

John Walsh campaign ad entitled, "Honor." The man is a sick joke.

There are 1,000,000 gators, including this behemoth taken last September.

10. The climate change fascists not only attribute everything that's goes wrong to global warming, they make up things that aren't going wrong at all to cater to their lunatic fringe and scare the somnolent into submission. Not enough snow for wolverines? Gators disappearing? Please! Climate Change Loonies Are at it Again documents the National Wildlife Federation's maddening March lies. Species they claim are threatened, are not only not in danger, but have made rip roaring come backs.