DAYHOFF: All of Westminster got fired up over 'Defense Day' in 1924
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LABELS: COLLEGES MCDANIEL, DAYHOFF MEDIA EXPLORE CARROLL, HISTORY, HISTORY 1920S, HISTORY 1920S CARROLL CO, HISTORY 1920S WESTMINSTER, PEOPLE SCHROERS-RON, WESTMINSTER POLICE CHIEF SPAULDING
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By Kevin Dayhoff
Posted 9/12/10
On Sept. 12, 1924, Carroll County celebrated "Defense Day" in Westminster with singing, parades, a prettiest baby contest, speeches and a beauty contest, of which the prize was $25. (No one entered.)
Much of the day's festivities took place on the Hoffa football field at what was then Western Maryland College -- now McDaniel College .
And oh, by the way ... one of the highlights of the day featured shooting up the field with machine guns. (Maybe it was the machine guns that inhibited the county's most beautiful women from entering the beauty contest?)
More research is needed to understand what "Defense Day" was all about. We obviously no longer celebrate it.
On Aug. 4, 1924, a piece in Time magazine notes that: "The project of holding a National Defense Day on Sept. 12 has met considerable opposition from pacifist bodies. President (Calvin) Coolidge undertook last week to uphold the propriety of the proposed 'Day' in a letter to the National Council for the Prevention of War ..."
[...] http://www.explorecarroll.com/community/4714/all-westminster-got-fired-up-over-defense-day-1924/
Follow Kevin Dayhoff on Twitter https://twitter.com/kevindayhoff
LABELS: COLLEGES MCDANIEL, DAYHOFF MEDIA EXPLORE CARROLL, HISTORY, HISTORY 1920S, HISTORY 1920S CARROLL CO, HISTORY 1920S WESTMINSTER, PEOPLE SCHROERS-RON, WESTMINSTER POLICE CHIEF SPAULDING
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Westminster Maryland Online http://www.westminstermarylandonline.net/ http://kevindayhoffwestgov-net.blogspot.com/
Kevin Dayhoff Soundtrack: http://www.kevindayhoff.net/ Kevin Dayhoff Art: http://www.kevindayhoffart.com/
My http://www.explorecarroll.com/ columns appear in the copy of the Baltimore Sunday Sun that is distributed in Carroll County: https://subscribe.baltsun.com/Circulation/
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