Betsy J. Green

WAY BACK WHEN - 100 Years Ago Today - On July 22, 1918, the "Flying A" film studio released their latest film Impossible Susan. This comedy-drama stars Margarita Fisher who plays a tomboy "with pleasing grace," according to one reviewer. Margarita, a poor orphan, ends up living with her aunt who is the housekeeper in a mansion inhabited by two brothers. The two brothers alternately fall in and out of love with Margarite, and she alternately likes one brother, and then the other.
Since three-way relationships were not acceptable 100 years ago, Margarita ends up settling for one of the brothers. He proposes, and they lived happily ever after.

WAY BACK WHEN - 100 Years Ago Today - The other breakfast cereal company had an ad in the local paper on July 20, 1918. An ad in the local paper reminded me of the breakfast cereal king who used to live in Santa Barbara. No, not Kellogg, the other one — Charles W. Post. Remember Post Toasties or Postum? And how about Grape Nuts?

Post lived at 2102 Bath Street toward the end of his life when his health was failing. Despondent over his ill health, he committed suicide here in 1914. (The home is now longer here.)

WAY BACK WHEN - 100 Years Ago Today - On July 7, 1918, women rolled up their sleeves & pitched in. As more and more young men left for the battlefields, young women stepped up to take their places -- in the fields, in the theaters, in the telegraph offices, and in the hotels. "Girls Ready to Enter Bean Fields," wrote the local paper on July 7, 1918. "Clad in overalls and straw sombreros, nine well-known Santa Barbara girls will invade the Carpinteria apricot orchards … The job undertaken by the girls is a man-sized one. … The girls will not only pit, but they will pick and dry the fruit as well, practically unassisted by male employees. … Appearance will be a secondary matter, so a little dirt upon their faces and hands is to be expected." 

WAY BACK WHEN - 100 Years Ago Today - On July 2, 1918, the order came from on high — i.e., the United States War Office, and was printed in the SB paper. “Work or Fight! … Every man who is within the draft must fight for the government or work for it. … Not only men within the draft age, but most of the younger and older men are complying with the government’s wishes and are now engaged in useful pursuits. The majority of them have gone to the farms and ranches or entered into some of the other pursuits … classed as essential.” (Image: Aces and Kings: Cartoons from the Des Moines Register, Jay N. Darling, 1918) Read More