the gee-whiz! page: Animals, humans, extraterrestrials, and tools

By O. E. MacDougal Issue #154 • July/August, 2015 There was a time when it was thought that a defining difference between humans and animals was: we use tools, they don't. But, in the last few...

Declaration of Independence: The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

Action of Second Continental Congress, July 4, 1776 When in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume...

Habeeb Salloum — Poet, Traveler, Recipe Writer

Habeeb Salloum, 95, a poet, world traveler, linguist, and author of recipe books on Middle Eastern cuisine, has written recipe articles for Backwoods Home Magazine for 19 years. The son of Syrian immigrant farmers,...

Remembering what grandma used

By Marjorie Burris Issue #57 • May/June, 1999 My grandmother, Mary Etta Dillman Graham, was one of those frontier women who took life as it came; extremely practical, resourceful and inventive, she was always, always ready...

Fried chicken for breakfast

By Danny Fulks Issue #88 • July/August, 2004 Danny Fulks, 71, is one of those rare writers capable of painting a vivid picture of life back in another time. His stories focus on the 20s, 30s,...

Quilts — Masterpieces of the heart and windows into women’s history

By Marlene Parkin Issue #22 • July/August, 1993 Many of the quilts of yesterday took a lifetime to make. Perhaps the mystical part of quilts—the aspect that makes them almost human—is the countless hours of work...

Was the first government gun confiscation attempt foiled by an unsung colonial heroine?

By John Silveira Issue #119 • September/October, 2009 Gun control people don't seem to get just how deeply etched into the American psyche gun ownership goes and that the resistance to being disarmed by their own...

Presidents’ wives of the past Part 4 — Cunning, vindictive, and one may have...

By John Silveira Issue #35 • September/October, 1995 (This is a four-part series. Click the links to navigate to parts one, two, three, and four.) Do you think we'll ever have a woman as President?" I asked....

The vanishing outhouse

By Tom Kovach Issue #79 • January/February, 2003 A person recently wrote to a large Midwest newspapers' advice column asking for information about outdoor privies. It seems that this person's family inherited a log cabin from...

The time-travel ad

By John Silveira Issue #125 • September/October, 2010 It's become a minor Internet phenomenon. The ad reads: It's also been read by Jay Leno on his late night TV show, on National Public Radio more than once...

Emancipation Proclamation by Historical Document

By the President of the United States of America:   A PROCLAMATIONWhereas on the 22nd day of September, A.D. 1862, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the...

Feeling nostalgic? Now you’ll rave! Here’s the story of Burma Shave.

By Martin Waterman Issue #37 • January/February, 1996 I can remember taking a trip as a child and seeing my first Burma Shave signs. Technically speaking, after 1963 all the 7,000 or so sets of signs...

From Martha and Abigail to Dolley and Louisa, America’s earliest First Ladies were fascinating

By John Silveira Issue #29 • September/October, 1994 (This is a four-part series. Click the links to navigate to parts one, two, three, and four.) It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...wait...

Oregon Trail preparedness: What supplies did the settlers carry?

By Don Lewis Issue #176 • April/May/June, 2019 The year was 1834, a year that didn’t really stand out as all that particularly important in American history. But like any other year, it had its share...

Doesn’t anyone remember Tom Paine

By Robert L. Williams Issue #19 • January/February, 1993 Many years ago, before I came to my senses and left public education for good, I was teaching on a college campus when one of the administrators...

Gee-Whiz: Presidents

By O.E. MacDougal November/December 2016, Backwoods Home I could spend all day coming up with interesting trivia about the Presidents and those who surround them — wives, children, assassins, etc. I could literally fill this magazine...