My love affair with news papers goes all the way back to childhood, there was the Advance News paper, covering all things local. You could find the little league baseball scores, who got arrested and what special prices the grocery stores in town had that week. Marble Hill had the Banner Press, with tidbits, gossip really telling everything from who filed for divorce to which little ole ladies attended the Saturday morning brunch for Bible study and biscuits.
The Southeast Missourian, Cape Girardeau's big paper was a favorite (if you could afford it). The stories, well written acted as a sounding board for the area. If you read the paper, you quickly discovered in a few days the local television news would mention something the paper had already covered in depth......
It was clear to me even as a child a truly educated person read the paper. I don't know the exact day the paper stopped being my routine... it sort of happened when my wife had twins,.....and then triplets... time once spent reading was better spent catching up on lost sleep.... or more likely than not wiping a butt or three......
By the time our herd outgrew diapers and needing all of our attention the world replaced the need to hold a news paper in your hands with websites which brought the world to your fingertips often within seconds of when events took place....... Honestly, until today I couldn't tell you the last time I purchased a news paper.....
Facing a 90 minute drive home at 11:30 pm, physically exhausted..... yawning and needing fuel I stopped at a QT station to fill my tank, and grab a cup of coffee. As I checked out, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper caught me eye, and I added a copy to my caffeine supply, thinking, ".....since I was sleeping alone tonight - besides my dog Red I would enjoy a restroom visit with a paper in hand......"
The news paper held a couple of surprises for me, the first thing I noticed was how small the actual paper was..... Physically the news paper was 1/2 the width it once was, as well as being shorter in length.
I also remember a thicker news paper, jamb packed with both pages and advertisements, what I discovered today was a paper front to back containing just 20 pages.....it was as if the world had nothing to say......
The biggest surprise, at least for me today was when I looked to see the price. I purchased the paper, unconcerned with cost. Honestly I had no expectations about what the price would be..... Had you asked me to venture a guess, I would have said something like, .....well back in the day papers were $1 or so. With everything being more expensive these days I would guess the paper would be somewhere between $1.50 and $2...... When I saw the $4 price tag, I couldn't have been more surprised if I was being penetrated in a jail cell rape...... WTF.
I like technology, probably because of something my dad told me 50 years ago. We were talking about selling family antiques and I questioned why he was so willing to part with something his parents had owned. Dad smiled, gave a little chuckle and said, ".....I grew up using that old shit, I'd much rather use something that actually works. So, let's sell the old junk and live modern........"
For the most part, I agree with dad, but every once in a while it won't hurt to drop a $20 bill on the counter and spend your Sunday morning living in the past.......
Do you still read news papers? How about magazines? Heck, for that matter, when is the last time you purchased and then read an actual book? This Sunday morning, I'm going to enjoy taking a dump and then reading the latest news that is already a day old......
