Todd Stadler's blog

pictures from the past

Speaking of items from the past, my roommate Natalie recently bought a used art book that had lots of old newspaper clippings left in it.

They all appear to come from The Daily Record, an Ohio newspaper, from the early 1960's. Most of the captions mention people with the same last name, so presumably these clippings were just of family members.

But I found them interesting because they offered such a distinct point of view. Small-town Ohioans thought differently forty years ago than do urban Portlanders in present day.

For instance, the front page of the newspaper gave as much prominence to a Girl Scout festival as to world events. There was also a picture of some students delivering a check for $27.50 to the local heart fund, whatever that is.

One thing I found amusing was on the back of an article about a missionary family. It was an ad for a steak sale of some sort. Of course, the ad is oddly clipped since it was the missionary story that was cut out, so it reads mostly like "full cut bone in ... STEAK ... fully trimmed ... STEAK ... Boneless Rump or (None Priced Higher)". But I had to chuckle when I saw the error in the ad, seen, in part, in the image above right.

But my favorite clipping, below, defies explanation. Unless you consider "small towns are just odd" an explanation.

It has everything you could want from a small town photo: mockery of pop culture, old men, captions that feature curious nicknames, and unnecessary use of scare quotes. But that doesn't mean I understand it.

But hey, what good is the past if we can't laugh at it awkwardly?