It is “Those Places Thursday” and this blogging prompt allows me a chance to reminiscence about how and where their ancestors lived and to write about “those places” via stories or photos. Today, I’m reminiscent about what life was like for my Texas ancestors in 1940. What really got me thinking about this particular decade in our country’s history was the new Texas infographic I saw online last week at Ancestry.com’s Blog.
Check out the infographic below and tell me if you remember any, or all, of these 1940 events from Texas’ past!
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The 1940 Texas highlights according to this infographic were:
- ‘Corny” dogs arrive as Neil and Carl Fletcher serve their first at the Texas State Fair
- Tote’ms become 7-11s
- First beers sold with the Lone Star name
- 6,281,537 head of cattle means almost as many cows as people in Texas
- 1940 Population – 6, 414, 824
Even though this decade was ten years before my time, there were some events from this decade that carried over to the next that I’m very familiar with. The first one is the Tote’m, or U-Totem, convenience stores that later became 7-Elevens, and then Circle K stores before leaving the Houston area completely. I sure miss those Big Gulps, don’t you? And I may not have been around when corny dogs were introduced to everyone at the State Fair of Texas, but that’s a food item I’ve enjoyed as a kid and still enjoy today!
Infographics like this one and the one I posted last year (Online Family History Trends at Archives.com) are all the RAVE with the Internet community. I must admit I like them too and love sharing those relevant to genealogy with everyone via email, social media networks, and on this blog! Those of you wondering what are infographics, Wikipedia offers a great explanation:
Information graphics or infographics are graphic visual representations of information, data or knowledge. These graphics present complex information quickly and clearly such as in signs, maps, journalism, technical writing, and education.”
Once Ancestry.com completed indexing the 1940 Census, they created an infographic for every state highlighting what life was like in that state in 1940. Visit the Ancestry.com Blog to see all the interesting facts and images for each state. While you’re there you might as well download your state’s infographic and share it on your blog, website, or social media profile too!
Do you remember any life events in Texas during the 1940’s that this infographic didn’t capture? If you do, share that/those event(s) in the comment section below!
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