What Would Jimmy Do?

I guess this maybe falls into the “it’s a small world” category, but I was reading something the other day that reminded me of one of our experiences years ago. I won’t go into all the detail that finally led me to the thing that sparked my memory, but while looking for something else, I ran across an old article from March of 2020 that said the Singapore Zoo had announced that Suzie the Nile hippopotamus had died at the age of 44. The article indicated that this age was well past a hippo’s prime, as hippos in the wild typically live up to 40 years. Susie arrived at the Singapore Zoo in 1976 — four hears after the zoo opened. 

We visited the Singapore Zoo in 1974 — although the zoo “opened” in 1972, it didn’t actually start operating until 1973. So the zoo had only been open about a year before we visited, but it already had quite a reputation. It seems that in an effort to make the zoo environment as “natural” as possible, the designers/builders over-achieved. Many of the animals were constantly “escaping” — even those in in areas with “bars.” They initially set the bars so far apart that animals like lions and tigers could just walk out between the bars. 

One of the more famous “escapes” was Congo, a hippo that gained fame for hiding out in the local reservoir for 52 days. We were in Singapore during those 52 days. Every day or so, there’d be an article in the local newspaper about Congo being sighted in the reservoir. The hippo was the “talk of the town” there for a while. 

The Singapore Zoo was first conceptualized in 1969. The Public Utilities Board decided to develop the land around Singapore’s reservoirs to public spaces. The land around the Upper Seletar Reservoir was set aside as land for a zoo. The zoo’s opening day was June 27, 1973. The Prime Minister when we were there, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, was concerned about the hippopotamus polluting the water, but at the time he seemed to be just about the only one concerned about that — everyone else was just following Congo’s adventures. When we left Singapore, Congo was still having a good time in the reservoir. I remember reading later that zookeepers finally lured Congo into a crate with bananas and sweet potatoes.
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Halloween is just around the corner and with that comes Trick or Treating — even though, as we’ve discussed in the past, Trick or Treat ain’t what it used to be. I’ve mentioned that when I was a kid, one of the “have-to-do” tricks on Halloween was to turn over people’s outhouses. 

Of course today, most people don’t even know what an outhouse is…. so, I though it might be interesting to talk about this icon that holds an important place in the history of civilization. 

Prehistoric man didn’t have much need for privacy, so bodily functions were simply relieved behind a tree or shrub, or sometimes they dug a hole in the ground and then covered it. 
Actually, this practice is described in the Bible, specifically the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 23:12-13.) “Designate a place outside the camp where you can go to relieve yourself. As part of your encampment, have something to dig with, and when you relieve yourself, dig a hole and cover your excrement.”

Later, when communities began to form, it brought about the need for greater privacy. Many years, probably centuries, passed without significant improvement in methods for dealing with human excrement. My extensive research discovered that the flush toilet was invented in 1596 by Sir John Harrington, but it turned out to be an idea before its time and didn’t catch on. I was never really able to come up with where, when, and whose idea the first “outhouse” turned out to be. The American colonists, especially the wealthy ones, had their “necessaries” — another name for an outhouse. Outhouses remained in use in cities, as well as the country well into the 20th century.

You’ve probably noticed that when you see a picture of an outhouse, they almost all have holes cut in the doors — often in the shape of a moon. One theory is that the holes in the door were designed to let light from a lantern shine out at night. This would alert everyone that the outhouse was occupied. Another explanation is that the doors were commonly marked with either a crescent shaped moon or a circle-star design — the shape denoted the intended users. The crescent moon, symbol for the Roman moon goddess, Luna, indicated a ladies’ outhouse. The circle or star was symbolic of the sun and the Greeks’ male sun god, Apollo. A more popular belief is that the crescent shape was simply a way to open and close the door from the inside, because using expensive latching hardware would be a waste on such a humble structure… but even later, when latches were added, the crescent Moon tradition lived on. I don’t think there were ever any specifications, or building codes, for outhouses but they were usually 3 to 4 feet square by 7 feet high with no window or heat. A well-built outhouse had a vent along the roof to vent out the chamber and a pipe from the box through the ceiling to vent out the gasses. To avoid the odor reaching the home, most outhouses were built between 50 and 150 feet from the main house, often facing away from the house. They had either one or two chamber holes inside — one for the adults and a smaller one for the children.

During the Roosevelt administration, the President was noted for the Works Progress Administration — the WPA — a program that employed millions of out-of-work men. Many of these men worked on teams that built a lot, if not most, of the outhouses in rural areas. The WPA was not without controversy — its critics complained of wasteful government spending. But some praised the outhouse building program for helping to create better standards of hygiene in the rural areas.

In the 1880s, outhouses were built discretely behind homes. An old joke said that outhouses were “too close in the summer, too far in the winter.” Sears and Roebuck and Montgomery Ward catalogs did double duty in the outhouse — serving as both reading material and toilet paper. (Toilet paper was not commonly used until the 1920s, and it was first sold in packs of sheets, rather than on rolls.) A lot of colloquial terms for outhouse became popular: the throne, head, office, library, loo, privy, latrine, WC, shithouse, reading room, can, john, crapper, lavatory, toilet, pisser, potty, jakes, tollhouse.

Most two-hole outhouses were built with a smaller hole for children. A major phobia of children in the 1900s was fear of falling into the dark hole, which probably seemed like a portal to horror to them. In fact, over the years, outhouses sometimes did conceal horrific secrets — murder weapons, bottles of poison, axes, guns, knives, and sometimes even victims themselves.

Throughout the 1800s, new toilet technologies were being developed, but even in 1900, a bowl, pitcher, and chamber pot kept in a cabinet called a “commode,” were still standard in most homes. 

Near the end of the 1800s, cholera, typhoid fever, and bacteria began to be associated with unsanitary conditions and women’s magazines like House Beautiful and Better Homes and Gardens began promoting indoor toilets and plumbing, not only for convenience but for health reasons. By 1910, most new house plans included an indoor bathroom and plumbing. But — indoor plumbing didn’t become commonly retrofitted in existing city homes until the 1920s. Rural areas lagged way behind, and didn’t get indoor toilets until the 1930s and some as late as the 1950s or 1960s. My grandparents didn’t get an indoor bathroom until the mid-1950s.

Once indoor plumbing began to become popular, many outhouses remained in back yards until they fell apart, were damaged by pranksters, or were removed. 

If you’ve kept up with this blog, you know that I talk, whine, complain every year about the porta-potty our neighbors sit in front of their house for their annual July 4th party. So you only have to come here around the 4th of July to see a modern day version of this age old amenity — of course this one is made of plastic and it resides in the front — not “out back.”
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A couple of days ago I talked about the popular candy names when I was growing up. One candy that I didn’t mention was M&Ms. Since I was born in 1938 and M&Ms were released in 1941, you might find that a little strange. It may have occurred to you that Maysville, Oklahoma was probably just a little behind the times and it took them a while to find out about M&Ms. While that may be partially true, that’s not the whole story. 

The first M&M that I ever saw was when I was in junior high. A friend had bought a tube (they were originally sold in cardboard tubes) at a place called the “Shack” — a little store that exclusively sold candy and snacks. It was located next to Maysville High School and only operated during school hours. 

Mars was granted a patent for manufacturing M&Ms in March of 1941, but the candy was exclusively sold to the military, enabling the heat-resistant, and easy to transport, chocolate to be included in American soldiers’ rations. So not only were M&Ms not available in Maysville, they weren’t available anywhere — except to the military. 

Actually, M&Ms have a pretty long and interesting history…. it pretty much started in 1932 when Forrest Mars of the Mars candy company had a falling out with his father and business partner and moved to England, where he began manufacturing Mars bars for troops. As the story goes, it was during the Spanish Civil War that Mars encountered British volunteers eating small chocolate beads encased in a hard sugar shell, that prevented melting. Because there was no air conditioning in those days, sales of chocolate typically dropped off during summer months. Mars was excited at the prospect of developing a product that would be able to resist melting in high temperatures. 

When Mars returned to the United States, he proposed a new business venture to Bruce Murrie, the son of Hershey executive William Murrie. Mars was looking for a partnership that would ensure a steady supply of resources needed to produce his idea for a new candy. Murrie received a 20 percent stake in the M&M product, which was named “Mars” and “Murrie.” (This led to the first M&Ms being made with Hershey chocolate!)

As I mentioned earlier, Mars was granted a patent in 1941 and began production in Newark, New Jersey.

After the war ended, M&Ms were made available to the general public. Forrest Mars bought out Murrie’s shares in the company and took sole ownership of the M&M brand. The cardboard tube packaging went away when the brown bag package was introduced in 1948. In 1950 each M&M was imprinted with a black “m.” That was changed to a white “m” in 1954.

Originally, M&M were produced with a brown, red, orange, yellow, green or violet coating, but between 1976 and 1987, there were no red M&Ms. In the early 1970s, a Russian study was released linking FD&C Red Dye No. 2 — then the most widely used commercial food dye in America, to cancer and fetal death. The Food and Drug Administration banned its use in 1976. Due to public demand, red M&Ms were re-introduced in 1987 — by which time Red Dye No. 2 was proven not to be carcinogenic, after all.

If all this isn’t enough, the same qualities that made M&Ms durable wartime rations made them perfect for space travel. They were requested by the crew aboard NASA’s first space shuttle, Columbia, and became the first candy in space.

So whether you eat them by the handful, or sort them by colors before eating, like Emily…. they still melt in you mouth, not in your hand.
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Claire bought some Halloween candy for the trick or treaters a couple of days ago — it was an assortment of various candies, all made by the same company, I’m sure. But as I looked at the bag, I realized that only a couple of names stuck out that I remember from my childhood. 

When I was growing up, my grandad, my uncle and my dad all owned grocery stores at some time during my childhood. (When I was little, there were no supermarkets or food stores — if the store sold food, it was a grocery store.)

But all the grocery stores had a “candy counter,” and that’s where all the candy was… it wasn’t located throughout the store like it is today and there was no candy at the checkout counters, because there weren’t any checkout counters. People just strolled around the store and piled their items on long counters. 

But back to the candy — I was just thinking about the candy that was popular, at least in Maysville, when I was growing up. There was always Hershey bars, Milky Way, Mars bars, Oh Henry, Mounds, Almond Joy, Clark, Nestle, Butterfinger, Heath, Baby Ruth, PayDay, Snickers, Mallo Cup, Krackel and Bazooka and Fleers bubble Gum. 

A candy bar that was always in the candy counter was Forever Yours — I don’t know if they still make them… it was a “vanilla” Milky Way. And the 3 Musketeers was scored in 3 pieces and each section was a different color inside — they all tasted the same, but were different colors.

The big candy company when I was a kid — other than Hershey and Mars — was Curtis, that made Butterfinger, Baby Ruth and a number of other popular names. One staple in the candy department was always gum… I only remember Wrigley’s (Spearmint, Doublemint, and Juicy Fruit, mostly) and Dentine. But there was always bubble gum — the only two I remember is Bazooka and Fleers. Fleers came wrapped with a small comic strip in each piece. 

Another “staple” on the candy counter was candy cigarettes. Back then, no one ever though about cigarettes being dangerous — most adults smoked and kids enjoyed candy cigarettes. They were very popular. 

One other thing that was always on the candy counter, especially in my grandad’s store was peanuts. I remember small bags of Planter’s peanuts with “Mr.. Peanut” on the label, but there was another very popular peanut item — I don’t remember the name. For those of you old enough to remember when cameras used film, these peanuts came in a short round tube just about the size of a 35mm film canister. The attractive thing about these peanuts was that if you were lucky, you might find money in the container. Some of the containers contained coins — usually a penny, dime or nickel, but if you were very lucky you might find a quarter! Obviously, such packaging wouldn’t be allowed today.

Anyhow, I think candy was more of a treat 80 years ago than it is today. If you got a candy bar, it was special. 
So on Halloween night, the trick or treaters won’t realize how lucky they are…. they’ll certainly get more candy here in Deerfield Village than we got in an entire year.
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A couple of days ago while running errands, we stopped at my favorite Mexican restaurant for a late lunch. When the waiter, which we knew, sat the food down, he said, “careful — hot plate.” The fact is he always says that. Actually I don’t remember eating in any Mexican restaurant and not being told that the pate was hot.

Well, I got to thinking about that…. I don’t remember ever being told to be careful of the hot plate in any other kind of a restaurant. Apparently there is a science behind why some food is placed on a hot plate while other plates are room temperature or even cooled. The temperature of the plate can make a major difference in the food’s quality.

A number of Mexican dishes should be served on plates near the temperature of the meal that is being placed on the plate. If the plate is colder than the food, the food will begin to cool down quicker. We’ve taken food that we didn’t finish home from Mexican restaurants and it’s never as good as it was in the restaurant. A cold burrito or enchilada are not nearly as tasty as they are when they are warm. Cold rice or beans are also not very good. 

(Good) Mexican restaurant cooks quickly transfer the food onto a warm plate for the server to take to the customer. At busy times, the plates with the food are placed under a heating lamp to keep it hot and fresh. Sometimes the plate and meal are placed in a broiler or oven — usually when cheese needs to be melted as part of the meal.

Some years ago, we frequented a good steakhouse that heated the plates to keep the steak nice and warm — but I was never warned that the plate might be “hot.”

Of course if I wanted to take the negative view, I’d say that the food was already prepared and quickly rewarmed. I doubt that this practice is seldom, if ever, the case in a quality restaurant — I just choose to believe that they make the effort to heat the plate as part of providing quality food.

But I do like Mexican food —Ive heard it said that you should live everyday like it’s Taco Tuesday. Seems like good advice….
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A few days ago, the subject was witches, so I figure being an equal opportunity blog, we should talk about Vampires today….

In popular legend and lore, Dracula-like vampires are undead villains who live in coffins by day and turn into neck-biting, bloodsucking bats by night. They are pale-faced creatures with protruding incisor teeth who cast no shadows and produce no reflection in mirrors. Worst of all, these agitated souls can only be put to their final rest by driving stakes through their hearts.

Although modern science has silenced the vampire “fears” of the past, people who call themselves vampires do exist. They’re normal(?) seeming people who drink small amounts of blood in an effort to stay healthy. Communities of self-identified vampires can be found on the Internet and in cities and towns around the world. To avoid rekindling vampire superstitions, most modern vampires keep to themselves and typically conduct their ‘feeding” rituals (which include drinking the blood of willing donors) in private.

My extensive research has determined that nearly every culture has its own type of vampire myth and it’s hard to find the exact time the idea of a vampire was created. But it appears that the origin of the modern vampire legend goes back to 15th-century Romania to Viad Dracula, also known as Vlad the Impaler. Vlad was a killer, but he wasn’t a vampire. However, he did inspire author Bram Stoker to name his now-famous vampire character “Count Dracula” in his book Dracula, in 1897.

Throughout the centuries there have been a number of “vampire scares,” usually or often tied to widespread disease like the European plague or misunderstood physical deformities. People’s belief in vampires helped them define things they didn’t understand and couldn’t explain, like death and disease.

Modern science can explain some of the more prevalent vampire myths… the fear from long ago that the dead could still harm the living was only intensified when dead bodies were exhumed and appeared to have blood coming out of their mouths. Without an understanding of how the body decomposes and what’s know as “purge fluid,” it’s easy to see how people could assume that their loved ones had come back from the dead and were drinking people’s blood. A lot of early skeletons from the Medieval times have been found with bricks or rocks filling their mouths or sickles around their necks — all supposedly to prevent these dead folks from rising up and attacking. 

Some theories suggest that vampires were really just people who suffered from Porphyria, a condition that makes a person sensitive to sunlight. People with this disease must stay indoors because exposure to light can lead to disfiguring blisters — and — daily blood transfusions are sometimes needed as well. 

Vampires seem to be just as popular, or maybe more, as they ever were as time passes. Blue Bloods was a vampire book series — before it was a TV show. Even cereals, like Count Chocula and Franken Berry have cashed in on vampire popularity. Vampires have created a booming tourist industry in places like Romania and Forks, Washington. Even Sesame Street has “The Count.” And how about the TV series like the Munsters and Dark Shadows.

There are a number of people out there who actually consume human and animal blood. A condition of craving blood for energy is real and known as Haematomania. The people drink blood from willing donors — they don’t want to be confused with the scary portrayals of vampires. Supposedly, these “real vampires” are just average people with unusual tastes. Some choose to live in like-minded communities and are fairly private about their taste for blood for fear of being confronted by people with wooden stakes, garlic, silver bullets, or fire. 

So real vampires aren’t the contemptible characters we know from folklore and fiction. They claim to be normal mortals who sleep in beds, wear suits and ties to work and eat cereal for breakfast. I wonder of they prefer Count Chocula…..
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What was the world’s most famous navigational error? I’m not sure, but I think it might have been made by Christopher Columbus. About 529 years ago today, Columbus was trying to reach Asia, when he accidentally discovered the Bahamas. The accidental discovery reshaped the world, kicking off the European colonization of the Americas.

We’ve been celebrating his navigational error ever since. In early colonial America, Christopher Columbus was a symbol of American nationalism. His name was transformed into Columbia and used as a way to differentiate the new world from the old. The District of Columbia, the site of the nation’s capital, is named after the explorer.

When I was young, I remember hearing that Columbus proved that the Earth was round. He supposedly proved it by sailing west from Spain to reach Asia. But actually, the shape of the planet was well-known by Columbus’ time — and had been, for hundreds of years. I read an article some time back that believed that the common myth that Columbus defied the flat-Earth believers to make his voyage, comes from the (inaccurate) 1828 biography “The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus,” written by Washington Irving, the author of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.”

Columbus’ first voyage was made with three ships — the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa Maria. The Santa Maria ran aground and sank during Columbus’ first voyage. The Pinta returned home, but nobody knows what happened to it after that. The Niña continued to sail for years after its most famous voyage, but history lost track of the ship after a 1501 trading voyage.

Spain made Columbus the governor of the island of Hispaniola. He and his brothers, Bartolomeo and Diego, shared the rule of the fledgling Spanish colonists there for seven years — but their rule didn’t go particularly well. The brothers killed and enslaved many of the natives and hanged Spanish colonists who questioned their authority and rule. Columbus and his brothers were arrested and shipped back to Spain.… all were eventually released. 

Spain originally promised Columbus 10% of all the riches found as a result of his discovery, but after his arrest, and his death in 1506, the government failed to honor the agreement. Columbus’ son, Diego, sued — saying his family not only deserved the money, but the right to govern all of America, not just the island Christopher Columbus discovered. This all led to lots of lawsuits over the years, and finally the family was granted lands and titles in Jamaica and Hispaniola and the government made an annual payment of 10,000 ducats to Columbus’ heirs.

Columbus’ burial location is unknown — He was buried and re-buried around the world several times, including Spain and Haiti.

Even though Columbus’ accomplishments have been celebrated for centuries, it didn’t become a federal holiday in the United States until 1934, under President Franklin Roosevelt. The first state to recognize Columbus Day as an official holiday was Colorado in 1905. Even though it’s a federal holiday, some states and cities choose not to formally observe the day — due to Columbus’ checkered past. Columbus, Ohio does not recognize Columbus Day as a city holiday. Many states and cities have replaced Columbus Day with Indigenous People’s Day.

Even though this holiday is one of those that we’ve chosen to celebrate on a Monday (or Friday) due to our obsession with three-day weekends, today is the actual day — you can celebrate it any way you wish…. no matter what you think, Columbus Day/Indigenous People Day should cover most of the bases.
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Both faithful readers know that we celebrate Ten-Ten Day every year. Most of our friends don’t understand why, but they just accept that we celebrate it. (If you don’t know, and want to know why we celebrate it, check past years entries for October 10.) 

Ten-Ten Day, or Double Ten Day is celebrated in Taiwan as a national holiday. But — it may be one of the most hard-to-understand days to explain to anyone not very well-versed in Chinese history. It’s also the one day that provokes the most rage and debate.

Double Ten Day is observed on October 10 every year….
Is October 10 Taiwan’s birthday? No. Republic of China’s birthday? No. Chinese Nationalist Party’s birthday? Yes.

But —Double Ten Day is not a celebration of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s birthday. It is the celebration of the start of the Wuchang Uprising which later led to the Xinhai revolution.
So it’s easy to see why the lack of understanding as to what Ten-Ten Day is all about and exactly what is being celebrated…. and why?

Ten-Ten Day is known as National Day in Taiwan. Usually a country’s “national day” is an opportunity for citizens to remember the past and reflect on the present in order to better chart the future. However, Taiwan’s Double Ten (National Day) celebration isn’t any of these.

The theme of this year’s National Day is “Proud of Taiwan.” The problem is that it has absolutely nothing to do with Taiwan —it commemorates the start of the Wuchang Uprising in China on October 10, 1911. As far as Taiwan history goes, what was happening in 1911? Not the Wuchang Uprising…. in 1911, Taiwan was smack dab in the middle of the Japanese occupation, that lasted from 1895 to 1945.

The Wuchang uprising marks the beginning of the end of the Chinese dynasties in China. While China was going through major changes from dynasty to republic, Taiwan was under the Japanese empire. Around October 10, 1911 a typhoon had just hit Taiwan so most of the news was about restoring the public infrastructure on the island. The effects of the revolution on Taiwan amounted to not much more than an international incident of a trading partner — most people just noticed that the prices for imported goods was rising. 

Thinking about it, tying the birth of a nation (Taiwan) to the Republic of China ignores Taiwan’s indigenous peoples who were already on the island for thousands of years…. this may sound kind of familiar to anyone that knows anything about American (Indian) history.

But nonetheless, today is Ten-Ten Day…. who celebrates it?
Nearly all Taiwanese have the day off from work. In mainland China, today is referred to as the Anniversary of the Wuchang Uprising and memorial celebrations are often held. Hong Kong usually holds small parades and celebrations… and here in Shepherdstown, the Williamson’s celebrate with Chinese food.
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The 19th hole, after our “golfing” outings, usually provides for some interesting conversations/disagreements and sometimes enlightening sessions about all sorts of topics. A couple of times we’ve talked about deception practices used by the military. 

One that almost everyone in the group knew about was the (fictitious) First U.S. Army Group (FUSAG) built up around General George S. Patton in England to mislead the Germans into believing the main Allied invasion of France would take place at the Pas de Calais rather than the beaches of Normandy. An entire fake army group under George Patton was set up, complete with fake airplanes, tanks and cannons. 

So the use of decoy airfields and other “make-believe” facilities during World War II is a reality — not a “legend” as one of our group insisted. During the war, both sides tried to fool each other — there is no doubt that the Germans built wooden airplanes and sometimes complete airfields to keep the allies away from their “real” airfields. They also painted bomb damage on existing airfields to make them look unusable and spare them from further bombing. 

A famous story that has never been completely verified — or — disproved, goes like this….
After Germany occupied Holland, they build an “airfield,” constructed with meticulous care and made almost entirely of wood. There were wood hangers, oil tanks, gun emplacements, trucks, and aircraft. Apparently, the Germans took so long to build their wooden decoy that Allied photo experts had more than enough time to observe and report it. Shortly after the “airfield” was finished, a British RAF plane crossed the English Channel, came in low, circled the field once, and dropped a large wooden bomb.

I first heard the story in a training course when I was in my mid-twenties. It’s never been proven or dis-proven. There’s been a lot of discussion and reasons given as to why it could have happened and why it isn’t likely that it did. One thing is true — high grade inflatable dummy aircraft are still deemed effective today and are being deployed to fool the enemy… this despite today’s excellent quality of satellite reconnaissance photography. I’d be a little more skeptical if I hadn’t been involved in a few projects that are more far-fetched, and funnier, than this one. But no matter what you believe, it’s still a great story.
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A number of years ago, we attended the wedding of a lady that worked in Claire’s office. Unlike most weddings, I was very excited to attend this one, because Claire told me that the lady was a witch (for real) and members of her coven would be at the wedding. 

Needless to say, I was disappointed in the wedding… I would have been ok with a regular boring wedding, but I figured the reception afterwards would at the very least produce some witchcraft like black magic or spells or rituals of some kind — but no, it was pretty much just a regular reception. 
I guess my idea of witches has never been the same since that day. 

Witches got a lot press the last few years — mostly in the form of the “spoiled child” cries of “witch hunt” from our former President. I even read a story recently about a Christian group that was praying to protect Trump from witches.

But if for some reason you may be thinking about becoming a witch, there are a few things you should know about witchcraft before you get too far down that road.

Witchcraft is a pagan religion. Pagan religions worship multiple deities rather than a single god. Paganism is one of the oldest religions and includes all religions that are not Christian, Muslim or Jewish. That means Paganism includes Hindu, buddhist, Taoist, Confucian and American Indian religions as well as all other nature-oriented religions. I found one article that indicated that Paganism accounts for 50 percent of all religions. 

Wicca is a (pagan) religion —popularized by the so-called Father of Wicca, Gerald Gardner, in the mid-1900s. Witches are normally thought of as women, but many Wiccans are men and worship both a god and goddess. 

The word “witch” is a combination of two Old English terms: wicce (“wise one”) and Wicca (“healer”.) In ancient times, witches were admired and respected for their wisdom and ability to heal with herbs. But in the early 1300s, witchcraft was declared heresy — by the Catholic Church. That resulted in a widespread fear of witches and led to the witch hunts that took place between the late 15th and 18th centuries. 

In 2011 a British census found that 11,766 people identified themselves as Wiccan and 1.276 described themselves as practicing witchcraft.

In the late 1960s, a number of women’s activist groups named themselves using the acronym WITCH. There were many variations of the acronym, such as “Women Inspired to Tell their Collective History” and “Women Incensed at Telephone Company Harassment.” These “witches” used their platform to fight for women’s rights. 

Today, more than one million Americans identify as Wiccans — a religion whose practitioners often identify as “witches,” and  claim to be a nature-based, peaceful, spiritual practice that has nothing to do with Satanism. According to some things that I’ve read, being a witch has become more mainstream, and in some circles, fashionable. 

So it turns out that you can’t become a witch by being mean, wearing black or riding a broomstick — it just doesn’t work that way.
Wicca, one of the major religions practicing witchcraft, is about the mind, body, and spirit, along with a code of ethics and a few principles that some witches share. Respect the earth, live in harmony with the seasons, find your own purpose, and create your own path. Poof! You’re a witch.
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