Anyway, seventy years ago about this time in November, a major winter storm struck the Midwest. As the front page article above noted, "A vicious wintry storm piled up to nine inches of snow in the Midwest today, caused at least two deaths and cut off long distance communications to 37 communities.
"Snow and sleet fell on parts of North and South Dakota, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, and Minnesota. Up to nine inches of snow was reported in parts of Nebraska and the storm knocked out communications to at least 21 towns in Minnesota and at least 16 in South Dakota."
That wasn't the case in the Lorain area, though. A small article below the headline story noted, "Ohio's Indian summer weather is expected to go on the warpath late today, bringing an end to the pleasant temperatures and sunny days that unseasonably have been hanging around the state.
"The weather man said today that the advent of cooler air from the west, where snowfalls are predominant, will take temperatures considerably below Friday night's readings.
"Friday night's low was 62 at midnight; high was 72 at 4 p. m."
Also on the front page, we have a nice photo of a hunter, Warren "Socks" Mowery, chief timekeeper at the Lake Terminal Railroad. The accompanying article explains that the start of the hunting season depended on getting some rain or snow to reduce fire danger. (As we know from the Nov. 23, 1953 front page I posted a few days ago, the weather did cooperate and hunting season opened on time.)
****
It's somewhat depressing looking at this front page, and realizing that Americans will never again get the majority of their news from daily newspapers.
This page has unbiased reporting about happenings in other states, including the storm; international stories; news from around Ohio; specific stories from Washington. D. C.; local coverage of happenings in Lorain and Elyria. Buy a Morning Journal nowadays, and you might get a couple articles on the front page, mainly of the 'soft' or feel-good variety, such as the opening of some new store or a story about volunteers, plus a huge photo.
What's sad is that the general public has little awareness of what is going on in other states, or the world. They rely on social media to fill them in.
For decades in the Brady household, my parents always read the paper after dinner. Mom read her portion of the paper at the kitchen table. Dad read his sitting in his chair in the living room. It was a nightly ritual and like others who read a daily newspaper, they were both pretty informed as to what was going on.
If newspapers were like this today, you would not get the latest updates about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, reviews of the newest superhero and slasher films, nor full-page discussions of the best chicken wings in the county. And then where would you be?
ReplyDeleteThe article at the bottom, about the "callous killers" is pretty typical of the way criminals were handled in the press at that time. None of this explaining away bad behavior with stories of broken childhoods. Unsure if that's a good thing, or not.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Dan, on the demise of newspapers. I've read thousands of old papers, from the early 1800's on, and it's been so sad to watch them become shadows of their former selves. Not that all of them were wonderful in presenting un-slanted news, but they were in many ways the glue that held communities together.
It's been about ten years since I read an entire newspaper; I got sick of articles extolling the virtues of this or that "undocumented" person. As a child, I read the Journal from front to back, a habit that kept up until it turned into McPaper in 1990.
ReplyDeleteI'm reminded of what Linda Ellerbee said about USA TODAY; she called it "a newspaper for those who find television too strenuous".
Stay warm, Children of La Rio Negro!
I've seen it from the inside working for two newspapers including The Journal over the past 40 years and it is a shame. But when you look at how everything has changed in the past forty years it's really not surprising. Looking back it was a gradual downhill slide but I think the decline of family owned papers is what eventually killed local newspapers.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read a newspaper myself probably within the last 10-12 years.I used to read the whole thing at work,then cell phones became so prevalent and you can read the news instantly instead of waiting for a day for it to be printed on paper.My father is one of the last holdouts for reading the paper.I looked at one that he was reading the other day and there aren't even any car ads,wanted ads,misc stuff for sale,nothing like that at all.
ReplyDeleteThe observation about the decline in the number of family owned newspapers is correct. This link
ReplyDeletehttps://www.usnewsdeserts.com/reports/expanding-news-desert/loss-of-local-news/bigger-and-bigger-they-grow/
also points out that consolidation has been a factor, with only a couple of dozen companies owning about 1/3 of all newspapers. Advertising dollars previously spent on newspaper ads have largely moved to online purchases.
I guess I should be happy that the Morning Journal is still surviving at all (which I attribute to the fact that it is much cheaper than the C-T).
I do miss reading the newspaper daily. I worked at the Chronicle for 10 years, and for 6 of those years, I worked in the pressroom. Every day, I read the paper pretty much front to back during the run. I'm amazed now how small the paper is when I do see one. Nothing like what we printed 20+ years ago.
ReplyDelete