Tuesday's This and That:

Happy Tuesday!

It's fair week here in Allentown!  I wish I could go because I used to like to visit Agricultural Hall and check out the 4-H exhibits and the sewing!

Turn of the century postcard.

Interestingly enough, Barbara Brackman did a post on quilts that were exhibited at our fairs.  She focused on the fact that so many quilts had names unfamiliar to us.  You can read it here.

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Some of you may have learned to sew at 4-H.  A few years ago, Beth taught sewing to 4-H students and I thought that was really neat.  Beth has a gift for kids and teaching sewing.

Were you a member of 4-H?  Did you make a 4-H quilt?

A really cool post on 4-H quilts is here at Slice of Pi quilts.  The post includes a photograph of the 4-H quilt that the writer's mother made in the 1970s!

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Fair time is synonymous with harvest time.  My husband had heard our local peach crop had failed due to the drought but we are still checking around to see if we can find any affordable peaches.  My husband loves peach pies and I usually freeze some peach pie filling for the winter.   This is the best lead in to the other story I want to share with you today.  

Whenever I cut up a peach, I am reminded of World War I.

Most of you know that during World War 1, chemical warfare was introduced.  As many as 30,000 soldiers died from the use of chemical weapons (2,000 of them were U.S. soldiers) and hundreds of thousands more were infirmed for life.    If soldiers were lucky, they had a gas mask to help them get them through the ordeal.

By the time, the U.S. entered the war, a more effective filter for gas masks were needed.  Enter the peach pit.  It turned out that the charcoal from peach pits was the most effective filter for the gas masks.  Although other fruit stones and nut shells could be used, peach pits were quite the best.  

The country rallied and soon, all kinds of groups collected peach pits to help save the troops:

I don't know who the genius was that discovered that peach pit charcoal provided a better filter for the gas masks!   Although some newspapers abroad and in Canada reported about the peach pit drive, I am not aware of any other countries using the humble peach pit for their filters.  That's a lot of peaches:

Have a safe and happy day!