One for the romantics, on Valentine’s Day:
Author: Bulletin Board
The little treasures (Volume 1)
We are, it turns out, a pack rat, unwilling to dispose of “stuff” we have accumulated if we think there is value in it — even if that value is not immediately apparent to anyone else, or even to us.
So it is that, when we left the Pioneer Press in the fall of 2016, we carried with us a box full of photographs (and a few clippings) that readers had sent our way — photographs and clippings that, for one reason or another (not enough space — always an issue; wouldn’t work well on newsprint — a very common problem with old pictures), we had never published.
E.B. White: ‘It is quite obvious that the human race has made a queer mess of life on this planet.’
Life as we know it
Including: Unfamiliar quotations
The Divine Mum of Crocus Hill: “Subject: I needed to read this today:
“‘Dear Mr. Nadeau, who has lost his faith in humanity:
“Tell me something, little girl. What did your mother feed you for lunch today?”
Now & Then
Great Depression Division
The Gram With a Thousand Rules: “Subject: ‘Why does that kid walk so funny?’
“We bought some Vanilla Wafers the other day. One bite, and it brought back memories of the day I ate them for lunch when I was in the second grade.
Continue reading ““Tell me something, little girl. What did your mother feed you for lunch today?””
“AND WHAT WILL YOU BE HAVING TONIGHT, SIR? STUFFED CABBAGE ROLLS STRIKE YOUR FANCY? NO? HOW ABOUT BULLHEADS FRIED IN CRACKER CRUMBS?”
Gee, our old La Salle ran great!
Or: Now & Then
The Doryman of Prescott, Wisconsin: “Like many of my contemporaries, I have more past than future.
“That past seemed better in most ways, if for nothing more than comfort.
How the rookie copy boy learned his lesson: ‘The newspaper is not a toy!’
Live and learn!
Zoo Lou of St. Paul reports: “Subject: ‘The newspaper is not a toy!’
“Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to be a writer. I remember putting out these one-page papers (Opie did the same thing in an episode of ‘The Andy Griffith Show’) that dished the dirt and spread rumors like a Hedda Hopper or the National Enquirer.
Continue reading “How the rookie copy boy learned his lesson: ‘The newspaper is not a toy!’”
Seven decades later, the memory is as fresh as the cement they stumbled across!
The Permanent Sisterly Record
The Gram With a Thousand Rules: “Subject: A Tale of Two Sisters.
“My sister Ruth kept a daily diary from her teenaged years until she suffered a stroke in her late 80s. When she experienced a damaging flood in 1981, Ruth dried out the waterlogged books and salvaged as much as she could. Some of the passages were unreadable, but the bulk of them survived. She told her daughter that they ‘weren’t a secret’ and she hoped she would read them someday.
Continue reading “Seven decades later, the memory is as fresh as the cement they stumbled across!”
