Bob The Vid Tech; Big City Adventure

This program is named night MDT to serve all of our diverse community and is made possible by the generous support of our members. Thank you. My name is Joe and I'm a detective and I live in the big city. It is my hole. That has tall buildings. Lots of people in great steam craft. A little messy. I thought I'd seen and know it all but I was wrong. Very wrong. Now I know what really happened. It's a whopper of a tale. No not that kind of tell us store. A story so incredible. I remember it like it was tomorrow. Far away like it was yesterday or was it last year. Whatever. Here. Next case

I'm checking out. Sold me this coffee. This is a story about a kid. A kid hit or is it a kid. Not that much older than I was at that age. His name is Bob. Bob the fish. Tank. What the heck kind of a name is Bob the tank. Potato farmer. Diaper delivery salesman. Video technician. Yet. God said. He's easy to find See. After all he wears a bright green jacket. Was his breath ye ye know where there's a big gizmo he can zap from place to place. Pretty cold. Sometimes he's seen talking to his pet fish said Sidney make him get out of his fish ball. You've got a juice box. Sure that's just plain weird. Anyway our

story begins at the beginning. In school Bob likes his classes say but one day he got hit with the biggest homework assignment of his wife. Tough school. His assignment was to write a report about the city my city. The people the history and how it all works. Say. It was due in one minute. Or. One day. Or wait one week. Something like that. Bob was nervous. He broke into a cold sweat. That. Could help him. When he asked the right questions like who what why where and when. And when is recess anyway hot. There. Mr. Bob the phytic has a date night date with the city. Big city adventure.

Comedy. Oh. That's nothing. Oh down by videophone. You're welcome. How come Bob get a logo. Bob. Big banks. Big city yet banks here. To make us belated pipe banks. But the city public schools. It was a day like any other day. The city was hot. I was hot. My cat was hot. And I had a bellyache the size of a triple fudge marshmallow ice cream cone with extra sprinkles.

Then. There was a knock at the door. Come in there he won the green jacket on. I bought the ball the detective agencies and all the world. He had no walk into mine so big Thank goodness sign and work days three weeks. He told me that he needed to learn all about the city and he needed help. Fragile stuff things like he went on and on until I told him to just clam up his big yap. Then I told him. The new people see good people people who could help. Cool thanks. Wow it's the Maryland Historical Society. Come on let's go. Safety first. Do you know.

One of our little town and this is. This is Baltimore town Baltimore town. Yes I mean it wasn't always a big city like this. No actually I had to grow over almost 300 years to become the city we know today that they tend to be boys being near water so important. Well 300 years ago they didn't have planes trains or automobiles. People would travel by ship so they would sail in and out of the city every day. So the water was kind of like their highway. Exactly. You drew you could. What made this spot so special. People were able to grow their crops because we had actually oil it would grow wheat and tobacco but also lots of fast moving streams and creeks that provided a lot of water power for crystals. That would process. Wheat. To follow. Also there are a lot of trees for burning for fuel as well as to build all their buildings their homes. Would that be the. Inner Harbor. Yes a rug. Deb. How did Baltimore town get its name in the first

place. Well most towns and cities in America got their names from places in Europe OK. Boston is named after a town in England. New York is named after the Duke of York. So Baltimore is named after the Duke of Baltimore obviously Mr. George Calver the man who founded the colony of Maryland but what does Calvert have to do with Baltimore where his title is Lord Baltimore and his estate was in Ireland and the Irish. It's called bail on Timor town of the big house. Bail on Timor. More town of the big house. Yes. Did it have the big windows big voice big bathrooms. So what other uses Did they have for the harbor. What trade was very very important to Baltimore. We would import and export goods to import something if we didn't have something here we would ask another country or another colony to bring it to us and to export means it goes out. We would ship it to them so we would ship tobacco and wheat out to other colonies or to other countries a few

hundred years ago tobacco was our most important cash crop. Now we know today that tobacco is not healthy that smoking is not a good thing to do. But a few hundred years ago people thought it was a healthy thing. So what would be some of the things that we import we would import. Sugar spices and coffee. Just kidding. And what happened next. Well more prospered more more people came here to live and to work. I 1797 is import brand as a city by 1900. It was the third largest city in the United States of America. But not everyone was happy. England was very angry at us. Why was that. They called us the nest of pirates. They are ready to be pirates to the ship. Let's go. I wanted to.

Show more quotable piled bodies into the hallway there peppercorn the pirate Welcome aboard. Do you know what a Pirates favorite letter is. Everybody said. I. Was sure they're really pirates and ball Tut indeed there were pirates involved for so many in fact that the English consider Baltimore a nest of pirates a very dangerous place to be. Among all of them were pirates per se. Many of them were privateers privateers What were those privateers a privately owned vessel that in times of war sent to attack other vessels take their goods and defend the country. The privateers are coated with a really famous privateer Captain Boyle Thomas boy he was so famous that after he left they named his ship the pride of Baltimore. What happened next. The War of 1812 happened next. But. You don't have to have a big mess of a lot of the reason to make it look pretty tough. Was.

Did the British ever attack Baltimore. Hi welcome to the English set fire to Washington D.C.. And burned to the ground. The British set their sights on Baltimore. You need to get all those fast clipper ships that were sailing against us. But first they had to get past Fort McHenry. Did the British ever get passed for the 10 day mate. After 25 hours of battle a large black goo above the fort and a young poet on a ship saw that flag. He wrote a poem called The Star-Spangled Banner. His name was Francis Scott Key. I was in my office See eat my pizza. When that weird kid in the chicken back in time my life I literally absolutely cool stuff it was so neat. And you know what I can't wait to rush back to his old I'm a clam up as big yapper again. He wasn't done yet. He still had so much to learn and frankly so did I.

Like why does pizza get cold so fast. At least Cold pizza is still tasty but I digress. I'm told there's Vitex. There was more Sea and off he went. Still Baltimore Musial a big mystery. Come on. Let's go out. I was. Right. This place is. Awesome. I wonder how long it's been here. Actually the museum has been here since 1981. But part of the building has been here since 1865 1865 that's why they after the Civil War Hi I'm got the big check my name's

John Green Bob welcome to the Museum of industry in this room. What exactly do you mean by industry. Industry simply means work. It means factories manufacturing is where people go to earn a living and do their jobs. Was there a lot of industry here in Baltimore all Baltimore was a very busy place it still is today but a long time ago we had lots of factories around here where everybody came to work. Close your eyes and imagine that it's 1883. There are no cars no TV no cell phones. And you know the video the ending. Wow. Bob this building was opened in 1865 as an oyster cannery. They would bring oysters up from the Chesapeake Bay and they would shock them and canned them. Wow Was this the only one. No in 1883 there were over 60 canneries. What kind of jobs were there in the cannery here in the cannery there were lots of jobs about 500 people would work here. There would be loaders who carried the oysters around Shuckers who

open the oysters can Boise carried cans around all day printers and label lawyers and ladies who put oysters in the can. Can you shuck an oyster. I can show you how to shuck an oyster. Now when an oyster comes in here that always tour is closed up really tight and you can't pull it open. So Schaeffer uses a knife like this. This is called the shocking knife. Then he finds an opening and he prise open that oyster. And inside here would be the meat of the oyster that he has to put into a bucket. And his pay is based on how many buckets he fills in the day. When do we John. What did they do with the oysters next. Well after they shuck them they have to can them and then cook them and they would use a machine like this. They would fill the can with oysters put them in these big baskets lowered them down in here close the lid and they introduced steam into here and it cooks things very quickly. Can Cook 500 candy corn. Time. So the adults are inside working the kids are outside playing. Oh no.

His all work. Everybody in the family had to work in order to buy the things the family needed. Kids as young as 3 years old actually worked sitting next to their mothers to do a job. Kids worked for 10 hours a day six days a week. Did you hear that Bill. I mean what other kinds of jobs did people have. Full of very important job that men did here in Baltimore was a blacksmith and he's called a blacksmith because he works with black metal. The blacksmith is a very skilled worker. He makes everything from the railroad spikes to different kinds of hooks things to hang your coats on and he makes some of his own tools. Now in the morning as my apprentice you were very busy starting when you were about 10 years old you would work here for about eight years to learn everything the blacksmith could teach you and you would get the fire going pumping air into the fire because we need a lot of oxygen to get that fire as hot as we need it because we can't bend metal when it's cold.

And he would pull it out of here and he brings it over to the anvil. Now if I hit it once you hit it once I hit it twice you hit it twice. If you hit me I'm going to hit you. John could a blacksmith make a lot of the same thing. No Bob that was called mass production. Plus a blacksmith works with hand tools and not machines. He can't make two things that are exactly the same. They were a mass produced something which means make a lot of things. You need a machine shop because the machines can be more exact here in Baltimore in 1904 we had a huge buyer one thousand five hundred buildings were destroyed. So fire companies came from all over to help us buy the fire they came from New York Philadelphia Wilmington Delaware even Washington DC. So with all the fire equipment why didn't they put out a fire. Well let's say you're a fireman from New York. OK and you're going to take your hose and you're going to connect it so you can help me fight the fire if it doesn't because it's not working exactly and the same thing happened in

1994 when those fire companies came here. Every city had a different size for its hoses and its hydrants. That was why the fire lasted so long. So let's say we want to make a thousand pieces like this can the blacksmith do that. Move on home or in the Bowen in. I don't think so no he can't because he's working with hand tools. We need a machine to do this and machines can cut this outside thread or this inside thread. Exactly the same way every time. Hey John you know why you find Bob how are you today. Wow where did you get all this food. Well every city needs a food industry. And Baltimore has a lot of things that were first for example the first ice cream factory in America was right here in Baltimore. Schmitz blue ribbon bread was made here in Baltimore and they've been around for a long time. Baltimore also had a lot of meat packing industries. S.K. meats that you can buy at the

ballpark McCormick's places the largest spice maker in the world. Domino's Sugar which still makes sweet moves today. HMS bakery makes all the bread from McDonald's company low priced stocks. It was not in tech. They need to bring home a dozen eggs a quarter milk and a loaf of bread. Whatever you want. We've got it all right here. Saying Bob that's a really nice jacket you have on why I thinks John you know I was wondering back then where did people get their clothes. Here in Baltimore the largest industry was making clothing one in every four people in Baltimore made clothing 42 regular nice fabric in 1846 a man in Massachusetts named Elias how to beat Elias how he invented a sewing machine. But we didn't have electricity so you had to pedal it. And that made the needle go up and down but it made selling faster

than doing it by hand. And then Baltimore got electricity in 1881. So in 1881 we were able to use electric sewing machines which were much much faster. Done. You wouldn't have anything here that could help me out. Well Bob we may have just what you're looking for right over here. What do you think. Well good job the Vitex tailor shop. Need a jacket. Lol. They made umbrellas too. Yes they did matter of fact in Baltimore the first umbrella factory in America opened in 1828 by the dealer company. There was another umbrella company called Gans brothers. And the motto for their company was that their own brand was were born in Baltimore and were raised everywhere. You know what my motto is sweats that keep me covered it's raining. Are these industry still here today. No most of them have gone because we don't have a manufacturing industries like we used to have. We have more of what's called the service industry.

We have tourism we have restaurants we have banking we have finance we have industries where people are helping people. The Baltimore Museum of industry is a service industry because we tell people about Baltimore. John thank you been a great host. I hope you learned a lot. I'm going to take it on now. When I heard the sad pain that run. That weird kid in that green jacket was back you got a lot of nerve coming back here after you did what you did see. What did I do. Oh wait that was someone else. Sorry. I know too many weird people. Goes with the job. We can't do it all in this half hour kid but I got a lot more cool info for you to learn. Are you ready. Yes sir Mr. Detective sir. Polloi. But we. Have. More now on right here in the middle of the

big city. When we. Come back. What. Was. The most. Obvious lie above the Big Ten I'm Karen Miller. Here and how many people live in Baltimore there are about six hundred and forty thousand people that live in Baltimore City. And 2.7 million in the metropolitan area next to a water knowing that some hogs in the area. The surrounding areas. House isn't done tumblin Bernie. OK I know there's so much going on here does it all happen on its own. Of course not it all starts right here in city hall. He couldn't go visit. Some outdoor. Concert he wanted. To come on let's go. Coming up Bob. On. The detective story.

So Karen Icona know who are the people that work here. They're people like you and I found the people and what do they do. They count money. They clean streets. They take care of the library for recreation and parks where you go out and have activities there they do all of that and you have thousands of streets here. Does the city take care of them. The problem Public Works takes care of them. They handle the water your garbage in your cycle both when you flush the toilet a little probably sick local public works and we do a lot of road construction method also public works. What is it like kids who go to school and who handles them at. The bottom so the public school system handles that. So how many kids go to school for. Any 3000 and how many schools. Two underscores believe it or not wow how many teachers 7000. Wow. Hey that sounds like a fire truck is there a fire department. There's a fire department. But you think I could meet a firefighter today. I think we can arrange that he would come this way. Yeah.

Excuse me do you work for the fire department. As a matter of fact I do. Hi I'm Bob Vitale time Chief Kevin caught right cheek All right. Why do peace cities need fire departments. It's important because with lots of people it's necessary to provide fire safety and emergency medical protection. To make certain that our citizens stay safe. We recommend having a smoke alarm in every household so the fire department just doesn't fight fires. That's correct. We have paramedics that respond to people that are have an emergency medical crisis down 9 1 1 and will dispatch a medic unit to their home to treat them. And transport them to a hospital. The fire fight is they drive fire engines and fire trucks to emergencies. If there's a fire they'll pull fire hoses off the fire engine and extinguish it with water. They raise ladders to the roof sometime to rescue a person. And they provide emergency medical care

as well. How many people actually work for the Baltimore City Fire Department and our fire department we have over 700 men and women that serve the city of Baltimore. If a big kid wants to be a firefighter What should they do. Any big kids that are interested in becoming firefighters number one it's important to listen to the rules of your mom and dad do their chores each or vegetables study and become physically fit. SCHIEFFER All right thanks for teaching me about the fire department. I got to go and get shake. OK. They. Want a. Police car. I wonder who gets to drive this. Well no one gets to drive this you know this car was built in 1929. Hi I'm Bob vids. I'm commissioner Fred Bealefeld. Very nice to meet you Bob. I mean you're the commissioner of the entire police department the whole place. How long has Baltimore had police

for over a hundred and fifty years we've had police all over the city. And what kind of jobs do policeman do. Well there are lots of jobs. They ride horses but. They fly and helicopters. They ride on motorcycles. Because we're so close to the water. Sometimes they get to ride in boats and patrol the harbor. So why is it important that cities and towns have police. Well they're important to help make people safe and to enforce the rules that we have all across the city. For example you're not supposed to litter in your community. You're not supposed to break out windows right. Right. And you're supposed to be there. When you cross the street you shouldn't take things that don't belong to you never heard anybody should never ever hurt anyone. Commissioner what do vid kids need to know if they want to become police people. One of the things they need to do is they need to listen to their moms and dads. The second thing they need to do is follow the rules. The third thing they need to do is go to school and stay in school.

They need to learn to read and write. That's very important for being policeman. And the last thing you need to eat all their vegetables. Do you think some day maybe I could even be a policeman. Yes you need to keep building and getting strong drink all your milk and keep reading those books. I will. Gee Baltimore sure has a lot of history but there's a lot going on right now. I'm so glad you love our city. Look park do you like about our city. It's so hard to figure out I mean you got to you know Harbor all these places to go and then there were city hall the little towns like you talk about on neighborhoods you know what exactly is a neighborhood. Well you know a neighborhood is made up of houses where people live there and schools are located in neighborhoods. We need just groups churches or synagogues and businesses in there grouped all together and people who live in those neighborhoods. And what's your favorite part. Oh you know I have so many favorite parts of Baltimore. If you go downtown today in a harbor at right where I am or in gold in my

neighborhood hunting ridge where we have Lincoln Park in the Carrie Mary's Center we kids can calm and look and learn about nature or you can go down to Fells Point or Roland Park and mouthwash and we have so many great neighborhoods and I like all the neighborhoods that a man you never meet a nice new one. Thank you. Matt better. That was the mayor. Yeah kids have enjoyed the city my city the big city there's whole walk that goes on every day. And every night. As a lot of people that can teach you more about. Good people people I know. Has it turned out that Bob did really well on his big city school which made me very proud. You know when you think about it that Bob wasn't such a I need your help.

But he sure has a lot of weird friends. Yes he goes with the job. Around the kids. They. Think he made.

A lady type to me.