by Ruth Myers | Oct 16, 2018 | History
In Uncivil Defense, the latest book in my mystery series featuring 1940s private eye Maggie Sullivan, a woman wears a snood. It prompted one early reader to ask, “What’s a snood?” My first impulse was to say it’s sort of like a fancy hairnet. Half a second’s...
by Ruth Myers | Feb 8, 2018 | History
by M. Ruth Myers Mothers working in factories to support America’s war effort while their children roamed the streets at night provides a minor plot thread and a stroke of historical color in Dames Fight Harder, the sixth Maggie Sullivan mystery. It’s grounded firmly...
by Ruth Myers | Jun 26, 2017 | History, Personal Stories
The Pledge of Allegiance we recite today is different than the one recited by the characters who populate the Maggie Sullivan mysteries, and by America’s real-life citizens throughout the 1940s. Do you know how it differs? It’s a matter of only two words. Those...
by Ruth Myers | Jun 2, 2017 | History
Stories of ordinary families are what bring history to life. In this second of two guest posts, retired Dayton, Ohio, police sergeant Stephen C. Grismer tells how his family’s automobile business survived World War II when cars — and tires — were rationed. Steve...
by Ruth Myers | Dec 21, 2016 | History
Imagine how hard it must have been for American families and communities to maintain any semblance of Christmas spirit in 1941. The Dec. 7 attack on Pearl Harbor had just thrust the previously divided country into World War II. Yet in Dayton, Ohio, two civic events...