Cannons are blasting! Bullets are flying! Wounded soldiers are everywhere! Stosh has time-traveled to 1863, right into the middle of the Civil War. In possibly his most exciting and definitely his most dangerous trip yet, Stosh has decided to answer the question for all time: did Abner Doubleday, a Civil War general, really invent the game of baseball? It's all here: big laughs, dramatic action, fast baseball games in the middle of a battlefield. You'll be blown away by this sixth amazing baseball card adventure!
In the 1930s radio stations filled the airwaves with programs and musical performances about rural Americans—farmers and small-town residents struggling through the Great Depression. One of the most popular of these shows was Lum and Abner, the brainchild of Chester "Chet" Lauck and Norris "Tuffy" Goff, two young businessmen from Arkansas. Beginning in 1931 and lasting for more than two decades, the show revolved around the lives of ordinary people in the fictional community of Pine Ridge, based on the hamlet of Waters, Arkansas. The title characters, who are farmers, local officials, and the keepers of the Jot 'Em Down Store, manage to entangle themselves in a variety of hilarious dilemmas. The program's gentle humor and often complex characters had wide appeal both to rural southerners, who were accustomed to being the butt of jokes in the national media, and to urban listeners who were fascinated by descriptions of life in the American countryside. Lum and Abner was characterized by the snappy, verbal comedic dueling that became popular on radio programs of the 1930s. Using this format, Lauck and Goff allowed their characters to subvert traditional authority and to poke fun at common misconceptions about rural life. The show also featured hillbilly and other popular music, an innovation that drew a bigger audience. As a result, Arkansas experienced a boom in tourism, and southern listeners began to immerse themselves in a new national popular culture. In Lum and Abner: Rural America and the Golden Age of Radio, historian Randal L. Hall explains the history and importance of the program, its creators, and its national audience. He also presents a treasure trove of twenty-nine previously unavailable scripts from the show's earliest period, scripts that reveal much about the Great Depression, rural life, hillbilly stereotypes, and a seminal period of American radio.
With the comforts of their Bavarian homes far behind them, ten year-old Abner and his friends are among the Brethren refugees challenged once again to trust God. They must wait on the eastern banks of the Susquehanna River until Thomas Penn signs a treaty with the Susquehannock Indians. This treaty will allow them to safely go forward to their promised lands in York County, Pennsylvania. Daily Abner's family and friends anticipate the signal to move on, yet almost a year passes. As they continue to hold on to their dreams, Abner's father struggles to provide for his family, and Abner learns the value of hard work. Widow Schneider continues to harass Abner with her mean ways while Abner learns the value of forgiveness and keeping his mouth shut. Fear of poverty, sickness, war, Indians, and the possible cruelty of bound servitude hound them as they wait. The joys and sorrows of life and death flow one day after another as lives are challenged with the blessings and struggles of surviving in the New World. The Proverb, "He who does not work does not eat," applies to life in this land of opportunity. The land is beautiful but demanding, and all sojourners are expected to give their all when faced with the pressures of this new life. Yet, hope and dreams fill their hearts for their future since they are believing that God will never leave nor forsake them.
ABNER TATE is a Civil War veteran who journeys to Colorado Territory after the war to find his family. He learns quickly in struggles with other men and the forces of nature to fend for himself. Battered by a tornado he takes refuge in a gulch which will become his home. AMOS JUDSON is an aging mountainman who adopts a Ute Indian boy and settles down to operate a ferry boat. As he changes from wild to civilized he is reminded that a man must remember how to protect himself when the villainous cousins of a competitor attempt to rob him.
