And, the daily paper was seven cents.
Posted on 09/03/2017 12:00:05 PM PDT by DallasBiff
Every Sunday the huuuge Pittsburgh Press was on the front porch and after breakfast my mother would have her cigarette and coffee and read the paper. The Press was basically conservative.
My mother also insisted in getting the sunday New York Times, which came around 2 PM at the local candy store. I guess she liked seeing the real estate section and my dad would say "I'm spending good money on a paper whose motto should be "All the news, that's fit to tint"".
We also had a new german shepherd puppy and my mother had planted newspapers all around the house to house train him. I was reading the comics on the floor and the dog came over and urinated over Nancy and Sluggo.
Dick Tracy! L’il Abner! Bringing Up Father! Snuffy Smith! Blondie! I miss ‘em.
I used to deliver the Stars and Stripes and the Washington Post.
The Washington Post was a beast. I had to assemble them before delivery, and when I was ready, each on was about three inches thick (or more).
I could only hold about six or seven of them at once in that canvas bag they gave us...
GMTA
THIPPITTT ACK !!!
And, the daily paper was seven cents.
Yeah, I used to love to sit and listen to the old folks talk. Much of it I still remember.
I am related, on my mothers side, to the family of Joel Sweeney, of 5 string banjo fame.
I have an old newspaper article about Mrs Sweeney fixing dinner for General Fitzhugh Lee after the surrender at Appomattox, VA. Their cabin was in the no man’s land between the Union and Confederate armies. A five minute walk from the McLean house.
I had a banana seat bike...I did my paper route with it. My bike’s name was windstorm. Or if I decided it was a horse that day, it was Texas...the only horse in the world that could run across the whole state of Texas in a day. On its off days it was Napoleon Solo’s spy car.
I have already told her I want it when she is finished with it.
I am trying to get her to write down her memories so her life can be understood by later generations.
She is one of three remaining of ten brothers and sisters.
I have some old photographs that I want to assemble in a book with at least a little written about each person. Let my children and grandchildren know where they came from.
I ain’t a letting anyone rewrite our family history.
Yes, we do. Five lizards, among other things, but they all have sand in their cages rather than newspapers.
Hagar the Horrible. Prince Valiant. The Wizard of Id.
Champ
The Seaman’s Club overlooking Fore Street, Bloodies, Eggs Benedict, the NYT and the Sunday Telegram, and seeing who showed up with who for breakfast.
Ah, politics in my fair state in the seventies and eighties.
Dondi, I haven’t thought of Dondi in a long time. My mother was a post WWII Italian bride. That was her comic.
People won’t write things down. The simplest way to do it is to videotape them. Borrow a camera if necessary. I’m digitizing tapes from 1989 and they’re still in great shape. If you don’t have a cheap tripod that will work, sit the camera on a table and make sure that the viewfinder shows the subject in focus in their chair. Your chair is next to the camera as close as you can, about the same height as the chair the subject is in. Turn the camera on, check that the camera hasn’t moved, sit and start asking questions in a quiet voice. Nod in exaggerated movement, but keep your mouth closed. Let them talk and encourage with facial expressions and body movements. Only ask when they slow down. You can light the chair they’re sitting in with one of those clip on metal scoops from the hardware store. Bottom line. People won’t write. For family history, you have to take the initiative. Do it once and you’ll fill your shelves with family tapes.
I remember my father taking me and my brothers out late on Saturday night, probably about 9 PM or so, to get the first editions of the Sunday papers. We lived in NYC, so they were there that early. We’d always get the Times and the Daily News (the Post was an afternoon paper and I don’t think they had a Sunday edition, but it was quite lefty in those days and my family did not take it.) We’d also get a treat of some candy or something, come home and read the funnies (as we called them) and then watch “Chiller Theatre” or some other late night flick.
I just loved that part of my life so much, I really miss it.
I read the papers until after 9/11/01, got the Sunday Times long, long after they really annoyed me. But it’s all over now Baby Blue.
The last time I bought a paper I kind of freaked out the Supermarket cashier. “you want to BUY that?” he asked in tones of sincere astonishment. I reassured him ‘yes, I do want to buy it, but don’t worry I have no intention of reading it, I just need to pack up some china”.
I could almost feel bad for them, but they brought it all on themselves and they deserve to fail utterly.
“Us kids spread the funny papers on the floor and would lay on our bellies to read them.”
YES!
“Students Wildly Indignant about Nearly Everything.”
HA! And Double HA! The more things change, the more they stay the same. Hilarious.
Spent half of Sunday afternoon doing the NYT Book Section and the crossword puzzle.
Of course, that was then. Now I need the time to check my social media sites, recycle my paper/metal/plastic, hunt for every bargain, fill out useless government forms, learn new online skills every other day, conform my property to all the HOA rules, drive slow because of speed cameras, always put the dog on leash, answer intrusive questions from the Census, screen junk marketing calls...
I will try that.
My mother loves to write so that gave me the idea of her writing her life story, more or less.
You just gave me the idea of taking her on a trip to NC and using pictures and her commentary to go from NC to VA, each place her family lived and how they lived at the time.
THANK YOU!
That is a BRILLIANT idea! There are generations that will bless you for collecting this information. I once knew a very special man who said that you shouldn’t worry about collecting information beyond what you can work with now. Just collect it and keep collecting it. Let the future work out what to do with it. That always struck me as really good advice. There are so many ways you’ll be able to use that type of commentary. Really lovely plan.
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