...Since Sliced Bread

For reasons soon to be revealed, I went looking for historical happenings on July 7, 1928, thinking something interesting must have happened. I found a few items of note, though significant might be too strong a word. In Wheeling, West Virginia, at Wheeling Park, the Madonna of the Trails was unveiled. It was the second of twelve identical monuments erected by the Daughters of the American Revolution to honor women pioneers. Also, U.S. long jumper Edward Hamm set a new record of 25'11". That was about it, except this nugget.

On July 7, 1928, 80 years ago today, machine-sliced-and-packaged bread made its commercial debut under the name Sliced Kleen Maid Bread. Inventor Otto Frederick Rohwedder had been working on a machine to slice and package bread since 1912. After years of tinkering, a devastating fire destroyed a factory set to make slicers and his blueprints. Rohwedder finally succeeded in 1928. He sold his first slicer to the Chillicothe Baking Company in Chillicothe, Missouri, and they distributed those first loaves of sliced bread.

Why all this interest in sliced bread? Well, my dad was born the very same day in Delaware into a world where Lindbergh was still a hero and the Great Depression was slouching towards Manhattan. Twenty-five years earlier, the Wright Brothers had taken their first flight. As a teenager, my dad spent much of his time dreaming of flying and spending time at the Millville, New Jersey, Airport, where Army Air Corps pilots were training in P-47 Thunderbolts. By the late '50s, my dad was flying airplanes for the air force.

Still, this bread thing intrigues me. See, my dad's father worked for the Huber Baking Company, first in Wilmington, later in Millville. One can assume the sliced bread invention had an effect on the fortunes of the Huber Baking Company and the Cowgill family. After all, it provided their, uh, bread and butter. Seems to me July 7, 1928, was quite the ausipicious day for the Cowgills, welcoming their first child into the world with the miracle of sliced bread on the horizon.

Yes, the miracle of sliced bread and all that has changed for good or ill in the last 80 years. I think about all my dad has seen so far in his life, and it overwhelms me: The Great Depression, The New Deal, World War II, jets, moon landings, the polio vaccine, the rise of the computer, on and on. Yet, some things haven't changed -- people still eat sliced bread, and people still celebrate birthdays.

In honor of Otto Frederic Rohwedder, I plan to eat some cinnamon toast. In honor of my dad, for now, I'll say happy birthday, Dad.