Tag: History

All Hallows Eve

October 31, 2025

In 1971 I was the Feature Editor for the Hilcrest Herald my high school newspaper. Something I tried was writing stories about historical facts about each holiday. Some were published on page three with other features. Others were editorials and published on page two and one or two made it to the front page.

I do not remember where the one with this title appeared before Halloween. This column is not an exact duplication of it because over the years my files of these published stories have been lost. As any good author is always willing to do, this is a rewrite from my original idea.

All Hallows Eve is a pagan festival that celebrated the dead and the spirit world. Part of that celebration was to dress as the dead and walk around in public on the 31st of October. There were other times when it was part of the feasts for children to go door to door pulling pranks as the spirits were believed to do. Residents would set out treats to discourage the spirits and the children would accept these for payment.

This was how trick or treating began. Decorations representing the spirit world would be hung from trees and placed on buildings. They also posted many items that were thought to serve as talisman or good luck charms to keep evil away. What we call Halloween was a celebration of the spirit world of the pagans.

That is what I remember from my original article. Today, I will elaborate on things I have learned in the last fifty-plus years. Many Christians have opposed the celebration of this holiday for over three decades. Fall or holiday festivals are rampant at churches.

Trunk or treat celebrations are also popular now. The interesting modern developments to me are the number of businesses and not for profits that provide treats for children and how many young adults dress up and have parties. While some Christians want to tone down the spookiness others are spooking it up.

Remember to stay safe tonight when you are out with your children or grandchildren. Have parties without alcohol or drugs and stay off the roads if you have imbibed. We don’t need any tragedies while families are having fun.

©Copyright 2025 by Charles Kensinger

Boomers go bust

April 3, 2025

As the years and the decades increase in your life span, you will notice that references that younger people do not recognize are readily caught by you and your contemporaries. My contemporaries are the kids of the baby boom. There is a lot of misinformation about this generation.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau this group was born between 1946 and 1964. We are 79 to 61 years old. If you refer to those younger or older than this as boomers, you are making an error. 

Just to let you know, we are not older than dirt. Our parents were familiar with dirt when they were children. They told us thousands of stories about getting in trouble when they were kids for getting themselves or the house they lived in dirty. Some of us even remember our grandparents talking about dirt before our folks were born.

We do not remember World War I or II, the civil war, or the Roman Empire. We are not as old as God or Jesus. Both have existed for all eternity. We know that you are not as intelligent as we are. Don’t prove to us how stupid younger people are. We try to give you the benefit of the doubt.

Keep in mind that whatever you say to your children about us will come back to bite you in the backside. The generations after you will repeat these fallacies and may someday refer to you as boomers, old fogies, or the ancient of days. We remember using these same phrases on our parents and grandparents.

I look forward to hearing my grandchildren insult their parents the way they criticized us. I remember when I was fourteen and thought that I was smarter than my dad because the highest he went to school was the eighth grade. I hope all of them will get their B.A. as I and their mothers did.

Master’s or doctorates would be even better. I won’t tell them they are stupid if they do not know who or what the Mercury Seven were as long as they don’t roll their eyes when I question who all the current movie stars, TV and music performers are. Even I can identify Lady Gaga. Your children will agree with us that she was just some weirdo.

We hate it that there are a lot of commercials for medications for our ailments, adult diapers, and supplements that are recommended for older people. Keep in mind that in five years the next generation will need to sign up for Medicare and they already can join AARP.

The only way any of you can keep from getting as old as we are, is to die. When President John Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, we were told “only the good die young.” We know that was not true because we see bad people die in their twenties, thirties and forties. It is tragic, but it happens.

I wish you what parents have hoped for their children and grandchildren for centuries. To live long and prosper. We know where this quotation came from. Do you?

Copyright 2025 by Charles (Chuck) Kensinger

Jimmy Carter’s Faith

January 10, 2025

With the announcement of the death of thirty-ninth President Jimmy Carter, we are hearing about the man who failed to be re-elected when Ronald Reagan defeated him. He passed away on the twenty-ninth of December 2024 at the age of one hundred.

I remember when this former governor of Georgia first announced that he was going to run. The question was, “Jimmy who?”. Gerald Ford was then President. He had been appointed as Vice President by Richard Nixon after Spiro Agnew resigned in disgrace.

As a sitting President, Ford was a shoo-in for the Republican nomination. I’m not a Republican or a Democrat. I have always been nonpartisan. I look at each candidate and decide which I think will be the most effective as our chief executive. I did not vote for either Ford or Carter.

I did vote for Ronald Reagan when he defeated President Carter. It was not because I thought that we needed a Republican. When Reagan was nominated, I decided he was the better candidate of those that would be on the ballot. Most citizens agreed with me.

It wasn’t until after he became a private citizen again that I saw the kind of man that Jimmy was. I read his book, “Keeping Faith” and remembered the man who put Southern Baptists into the spotlight. As a lifelong Holmanite myself I appreciated his spiritual outlook.

Most importantly is the fact that he emphasized his relationship with Jesus more than the fact that he was referred to as a Christian. Christianity is only a religion to some. To President Carter Jesus was his savior and his life. This is why he taught Bible studies every Sunday in church.

The Greek word that we translate as church is ecclesia. It means a gathering of people. Paul and other writers of the New Testament believed that followers of The Way, what would later be called little Christs or Christians, should meet regularly. These are the followers of Jesus.

One of the things that Jimmie always taught was that there were no grandchildren of God. He was a loving grandfather, but he wanted to be sure that all his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren knew Jesus personally. He would not see them in Heaven unless they had a personal relationship with his Lord and Savior.

I ask you to consider if your faith is like that of James Earl Carter, Jr. Have you accepted Jesus as shown in the Bible? Do you have a relationship with Him? Don’t rely on family history or what you mark on a questionnaire to get you into the presence of the Creator God.

©Copyright 2025 by Charles Kensinger

On Route 66

August 11, 2022

Here in Springfield, Missouri, we hear about this road that was named here and began construction in 1926. That’s correct. In four years, we will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the mother road. We have a birthplace of Route 66 festival that begins today, the eleventh of August here in the queen city of the Ozarks.

As with most other events, it has not taken place during the pandemic. If you have never attended, now is the time to plan to be at the parade Friday evening or some of the concerts. You can just go to check out the displays and vendors during the weekend. Do not miss this opportunity. Almost all of us like music, cars, or motorcycles.

My wife and I have gone to the parade for many years. We usually sit on St. Louis Street. Many of the automobiles that are in the parade return each year. Some of the owners bring their cars from other states.

Springfield has become a destination for car enthusiasts from all over the world. Driving the original path of Route 66 is a tradition for many. According to Bobby Troup’s song “Get Your Kicks on Route 66,” runs from Chicago to L.A. and is more than two thousand miles. This song came out in 1946 and was recorded originally by Nat King Cole.

The cities mentioned in the song are Chicago, St. Louis, Joplin, Oklahoma City, Amarillo, Gallop, Flagstaff, Winona, Kingman, Barstow, San Bernardino, and Los Angeles. Springfield is not mentioned. Troup and his wife were driving from Pennsylvania to California. They began on Route 40. In Chicago, they changed to 66, and the song was renamed, and the lyrics spoke of the last half of the trip.

Bobby’s first song was “Baby, Baby, All the Time” recorded by Nat King Cole in 1946, the same year “Route 66” came out. Some of his other songs were “Feeling of Jazz” by Duke Ellington, “It happened once before” by The Four Freshmen, “Lonely Girl”, “Meaning of the Blues”, and “Now You Know.”

One of my favorite facts about Bobby Troup is the TV series “Emergency” that he and his then-wife Julie London starred in. This show was filmed and set in Los Angeles. I think it is fun to watch these episodes now and think of how his career began with this song that he wrote shortly after traveling through my hometown.

The TV show Route 66 was first aired in 1960. Martin Milner and George Maharis play two friends who are driving a Corvette. Not all the episodes feature the highway known as Route 66. Milner went on to star in “Adam-12” which was produced by the same people who brought us “Emergency.”

Springfield is considered the birthplace of the mother road because the suggestion of the designation for the US highway that would travel from Chicago to California and travel through Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and end in California was suggested by businessmen in the Springfield area. The first notification came via telegram to them at the Colonial Hotel in downtown Springfield, Missouri.

I hope this background helps you while you enjoy the festival. Get your kicks on Route 66 as you share the things that you like whether it is music, cars, or motorcycles. Stop by the museums and read up on the history. Just because you haven’t lived here all your life doesn’t mean you can’t learn something new.  

©Copyright 2022 by Charles Kensinger