Sybil Bruncheon's "ON THIS DATE... 1917"...

Boys and Girls, did you know that long before Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, or even Annette Funicello became Mouseteers, Walt Disney had created his special club for children. Sadly, it was in response to the horrors of World War I, and the club was invented with the Top Secret US Army Special Operations Forces. Here we see Clive Turnbyl and Phelicity Jabb (both 12) behind French battle lines, fully equipped with their state-of-the-art "Hear-It-All-Telescopic-Mustard-Gas-Detectors" ready to post alerts to the troops should the Germans begin another round of their fiendish warfare. When spotted in their bunkers by the Germans, it was assumed the children were doing musical morale shows for the troops. Interestingly, Disney didn't name his mouse characters Mickey and Minnie until ten years after the war concluded... prior to that, American military agents knew them only as Jedediah and Gretchen-Patrice Rattinski. It was George Marshall who told his pal Disney that "the names stink! Think of something happier!... with an M... for Marshall!"... And that was on this very date. Back in 1917!

[Want to read other fun and funny stories here on SybilSez.com? Just enter any topic that pops into your head in the "search" window on the upper right! Who knows what might come up?...and feel free to share them with your friends!]

Sybil Bruncheon's "ON THIS DATE... 1877"...

Boys and Girls, did you know that a long time ago, your Mother didn't buy milk at a store? NO! A nice man would come to your house with a small metal rack holding glass bottles of milk with rubber stoppers in them!... Sometimes they might be stolen if you lived in a poor part of town and other mothers talked like pirates, or had an eye-patch, or BOTH! Sometimes the glass bottles might break when they were dropped or thrown, or even freeze in cold weather and explode if they were left out on your fire escape or back porch. But bottles were considered a big improvement over what came before... you see the very first delivery of milk to a home happened when Mr. Enoch Hamhacken actually drove his entire herd of Guernseys into Brooklyn, and left one on each doorstep of his clients for them to milk themselves. Then he would pick the cows up again that afternoon.

You can imagine how difficult that might have been on everyone. Some people were too busy to sit down and milk a cow. Some people were too squeamish or afraid. Some cows might be grumpy on a certain day, and either moo loudly, or even step on the poor customer. And what about nice Mr. Hamhacken? He got tired of carrying his cows up flights of stairs and trying to make them stay outside the Spinnelli's apartment and not walk over to the Lefkowitz's. And then there was the time when he had twenty customers in one tenement building, and the twenty cows he left formed a crazed stampede shortly before lunch and trampled thirteen people to death... all on the fourth floor! That story was on the front page of the Brooklyn World-Watcher Times... complete with horrifying photographs of the victims, squished beyond recognition and surrounded by now-placid cows munching happily on houseplants... And that was on this very date. Back in 1877!

[Want to read other fun and funny stories here on SybilSez.com? Just enter any topic that pops into your head in the "search" window on the upper right! Who knows what might come up?...and feel free to share them with your friends!]