Title

URL

Summary

Small-town
museum steps up
to the plate to
support
Smithsonian
exhibit
Maryland grassroots effort exhibits
hometown pride in
its own sports
heroes

http://www.storiesfrom
mainstreet2.org/items/sh
ow/617

KENTUCKY
FRONTIER
FAMILY
FARM:
BROWNIE MY FRIEND

http://www.storiesfr
ommainstreet2.org/i
tems/show/611

TATER TOT
CASSEROLE

http://www.storiesfr
ommainstreet2.org/i
tems/show/607

GRACE
OSHITA

http://www.storiesfr
ommainstreet2.org/i
tems/show/589

MONTICELL
OS
HISPANIC
PIONEERS

http://www.storiesfr
ommainstreet2.org/it
ems/show/587

When the Smithsonian exhibit Hometown Teams: How Sports Shape America
came to Federalsburg, Maryland for seven weeks during April and May, the local
historical societys heritage museum took it as an opportunity to promote its own
sports history. To take advantage of the opportunity, we wanted to build our own
historical exhibit promoting our local sports teams and events. Through word of
mouth and from discussions at historical society meetings and with the help of
other town clubs, we were able to put the word out that we needed memorabilia.
Dickie Wheatley, co-chair of the project and a longtime youth sports coach.
Altogether, the donations of the townspeople filled both rooms of the old service
station garage turned museum, and complemented the general perspective offere
by the Smithsonians Hometown Teams.
In late 1959 or the early 1960s I was a young boy about thirteen years of age. I
enjoyed my time at my Papaws Kentucky frontier farm. One cow would be
described as orange, brown and white; the other was all brown. The brown cow
was named Brownie. Daily I would walk to the back of the farm while calling for
Brownies attention. Knowing that Brownie would soon be fed, it was easy to call fo
her to come to the barn. Often when Brownie, was in a persnickety mood, she
would detour just after crossing the creek, to an area that was surrounded by a
barbed wire. The barbed wire was just high enough from the ground that she could
pass under freely. I always thought Brownie, had a mind of her own and that she
knew just what she was doing.
In my family, tater tot casserole is a dish that is best served every month. We
enjoyed this dish every time it was made because it is a very easily made dinner
and it never costed much to make. We used to have it a lot due to us being a
single-income family, but I never got sick of it. I used to ask my mom almost daily i
we could have it and of course the usual disappointment that came with a no.
Many people enjoy this dish but none more-so than I.
Shortly after the United States declared war on Japan following the 1941 bombing
of Pearl Harbor, Grace Oshitas father was picked up by the FBI and detained as a
suspected enemy alien. Only a few months later, Oshita herself, along with the res
of her family, was removed from her San Francisco home, her neighborhood, and
her high school, and sent to live at Californias Tanforan racetrack. But the
racetrack was really just a temporary stop for the Oshita family. Their final home fo
the next few years would be Utahs Topaz Internment Camp. After the war, Oshita
moved to Salt Lake City to be with her parents who earlier had been released from
Topaz to find work
n 1899, Ramon Gonzalez, his wife Guadalupe, and his children Romana and
Prudencio, left their home in Dixon, New Mexico, to settle in Monticello, Utah. A
wagon carried all their household possessions, while a few head of livestock
followed on the hoof. When the family reached Durango, Colorado, Ramon caugh
wind of a severe drought around Monticello and decided to winter in the Colorado
town. Unfortunately, Ramon died two short years after his arrival in the Monticello
area, and was buried in the non-Mormon section of the cemetery. But his
experiences, and those of other early Hispanic pioneers, opened the way for new
waves of Spanish-speaking migration into areas around San Juan County
including Spring Creek, Carlisle, and La Vega. What is more, Monticello had
become the gateway for the migration of many more Hispanics into other areas of
Utah.