50 years ago in Expo history: A cow’s bladder, ‘virgin queen’ beeswax and buffalo stew were all part of a day’s work for one fair employee

Kathleen Sullivan was the head of supply for Expo ’74’s Folklife Festival, and if you think that job sounds mundane, you’re wrong.

Here are just a few of the things she had to procure:

• A cow’s bladder, to serve as a window in a log cabin.
• Enough buffalo meat to make stew for thousands.
• “Virgin queen” beeswax.
• “Wet birch branches” for use in the Scandinavian Midsommerfest celebration.

Sullivan admitted that she had become a good “scrounger” over the summer.

From 100 years ago: A “nervy girl” – Ethel Lee of Spokane – foiled an armed robber when he walked into the Rockaway Restaurant and said to her, “Open that cash register or I’ll shoot.”

Lee was staring down the barrel of what she called “a glittering gun.” But she refused to open her cash register.

He tried to open it himself but didn’t know how. So he said, “I’m warning you the last time. If you don’t open that quick, I’ll shoot you!”

“You can shoot me,” Lee coolly replied, “but I won’t open it.”

The restaurant proprietor came around a corner and flung a sauce bottle at the robber, who then fled. Police arrested him later in downtown Spokane.

Also on this day

(From onthisday.com)

1692: Last people hanged for witchcraft (8) in the US, 19 hanged overall, with six other deaths during Salem witch trials.

1980: Iraq invades Iran in an attempt to control the Shatt al-Arab waterway.