Besides a few cash prizes, there was a 20-piece chicken dinner from Mister S, and some baby shoes from Januzzi's.
The ad above ran in the Journal on January 2, 1974. It revealed the name of the winning: Karen Marie Barker, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Everett Barker of Lorain.
An article on page 3 of the same edition also included a roll call of other first babies, including the first baby born in Lorain County, the first one at Elyria Memorial, the first in Huron County, the first at Memorial Hospital in Sandusky, the first at Fisher-Titus in Norwalk, the first at Amherst Hospital, and the first in Huron.
Does the Journal (or any local newspaper) still compile this type of "First Baby" story?
Hey Dan, I currently receive the Journal and can confirm there was nothing in there this week about the first baby born this year. I switch back and forth between the Journal and Elyria Chronicle one year at a time to receive the "new customer" rate. I'm one of those dinosaurs that still enjoy reading the newspaper, what can I say. I read it at lunch on workdays and with my coffee in the recliner on the weekend.
ReplyDeleteI do wish newspapers would publish court reports again so we could see which of our friends and neighbors were arrested for speeding, marijuana possession, etc.
ReplyDeleteIt takes a lot of manpower resources and coordination between advertising, editorial and production departments to produce "special" pages like the first baby contest. Unfortunately, those resources no longer exist in today's newspapers. I'm not 100% positive but I think they were already gone by the time I started at The Journal in 1980. Todd
ReplyDeleteI'm with Buster, I love reading the court reports, who got married, divorced, arrested, died born etc I guess it satisfies the nosiness in us. I remember the Journal used to publish a Home Guide section every Saturday where they would list the home sales transfers by name and price. Advertisers used to want to have their ads on those pages due to the high readership. Once we found out who got arrested we wanted to know what they paid for their house.
ReplyDeleteWhen my kids were young, the local scandal sheet printed the "police report," something I sorely miss. I used to read it aloud and we'd laugh about the idiots who were busted with a bale of weed in the back because they were driving without using turn-signals. Years later, I figured I might've been educating my children on how to be smarter felons.
ReplyDeleteNo arrests. So far.
The home transfers and obituaries are still in the paper so there still is a bit of nosiness but not much on the criminal side other than a few that make headlines.
ReplyDeleteYes,I too miss all of the above "juicy details" of our friends and neighbors in print.But you can still find mug shots of people who are arrested online.And then you can find out peoples problems and crimes in the online court dockets.But it is a little harder to look up instead of just opening the paper and seeing it all within the turn of a page.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mike and Todd for the insider information about the Journal! Coincidentally, I happened to pick up a Sandusky Register on the way home tonight and guess what the headline was? "First baby of 2024 born." It was referring the first baby born at Firelands Hospital in Sandusky, on Monday.
ReplyDelete