Journalism Archives

August 14, 2015

What Would You Save?

Running across these photos of an abandoned house in St. Mary from around 1966 got me to thinking about something.

For a long time, I carried around a list of stories I’d like to do. Eventually, I came to realize that stories found me, I didn’t go looking for them, so I set the list aside.

Still, the idea that stayed with me the longest was something about the early settlers who headed out west in their wagon trains. When they started out, they carried everything including the kitchen sink. As the trail got steeper and food and water supplies got low, they had to lighten the load by throwing out possessions they thought were least important. What was the last “nonessential” to go out the back, I wondered?

What would you save?

Before I got around to asking strangers to let me to photograph them with the three things they would save from their home if it caught fire, I decided to pose the question to friends and coworkers. Turned out most folks were very predictable: family; pets, then photographs, were what would be carried out.

When it became obvious that most of the photos would look alike, I abandoned the project.

What did they take?

Still, when I look through this open window, I have to wonder what did the owners take from those opened drawers, and why did the random beads, buttons and juice squeezer not make the cut? (As always, you can click on the photos to make them larger.)

So, what would YOU carry out of your burning house? Are you going to be like most folks and say “Family, pets and scrapbooks?”

July 29, 2015July 31, 2015

Making Math Difficult

When I started out as a substitute paper carrier making a whopping $2.50 a week, The Missourian cost 30 cents a week, making math easy when I went to collect on Saturdays.

We learned the times-three tables early in grade school, so figuring out 2 x .30 = .60, 3 x .30 = 90, and a month’s payment was $1.20 was no challenge.

Then the paper bumped up to 35 cents a week, making math much more difficult. I was not sorry to see the next increase take it to a much more easily multiplied 40 cents a week.

The receipts were issued in pads that were held in collection books like this one.

I hope this fixes it

I’ve been getting messages from folks saying that the email notification they are getting of new content has been broken. They were right. My best guess is that an automatic security update busticated something. Kid Matt deleted the email program and reinstalled it, so this is a test to see if it’s working again.

How much is it today?

I have a digital subscription to The Missourian, but I was curious how much home delivery costs today for someone living in Cape. What cost $1.40 in 1959 goes for $16.95 today.

June 11, 2015

Do You Still Get a Paper?

While looking for a picture I had taken on one of our vacations back to Cape, I ran across this 2006 picture of a Missourian under my van. Who knows why I shot it? Maybe I wanted to gripe if it was a pattern.

That got me thinking about my changing newspaper habits. When I used to go on a road trip, Wife Lila would give me a $10 roll of quarters to drop in newspaper vending machines outside motels and eateries along the way. I gradually stopped doing that when dinky dailies wanted a buck or more for 12 pages of mostly advertising and press releases.

I realized the other day that I left West Palm Beach on March 17, and, so far as I can remember, haven’t bought a single paper along the way. Even when I was in motels that gave them away free, I didn’t bother to grab one from the lobby.

Still a news junkie

Papers for Ken's Paper Route — Papers for Ken’s Paper Route 1961

Don’t get me wrong, I’m still a news junkie. When I get up in the morning, I check for email and Facebook messages, then I turn to the USA Today ap on my tablet (I’m not crazy about USA Today, but their ap is clean and easy to use). After that, I check out Google News. If I have a lot of time, I’ll visit Digg. The other day The New York Times offered me three months of digital access for $5. I’ll cancel it just before it jumps to five bucks a week.

I’ll dip into The Missourian’s website (which I pay for) and take a quick glance at The Palm Beach Post’s headlines.

Even with my employee discount, The Post subscription costs enough that Lila and I debate renewing it now that has become the Incredible Shrinking Newspaper. The other night I told her she could stop saving them up for me like she’s done on all my other trips. “I’ve already seen the world, state, and regional news and comics online, and I don’t care about who was shot or in a car wreck overnight.”

The Three Bs

Post Editor Eddie Sears used to say that newspapers would survive because of the Three Bs: Breakfast, Bathroom and Beach. I’m OK with the first two and never go to the beach, so I’m not so sure survival is in the cards.

March 14, 2015

Walmart Marketing Fail

When you have as much old stuff as I do, and you are constantly shifting it around as it is scanned, published, or just set aside, you need lots of storage boxes. I’ve found over the years that clear plastic boxes with sturdy lids do the best job.

With that need in mind, I set off for Walmart the other night. I’m not crazy about the big box store, but they usually have a wide selection of boxes and bins.

This one looked like it was going to be perfect: it had the right dimensions, had a great lid, and, best of all, it was “virtually unbreakable” enough that it came with a limited 10-year warranty.

There’s only one problem

There was only one flaw: this is what I found when I went to pick up the “virtually unbreakable” bin.

Some times a picture tells the whole story.