Sometimes the walls CAN talk

Steve Nelson · **Posted:** Sun Jul 27, 2008 4:25 am

So I stopped by my brother's "new" house last evening. He just bought this old (extreme) fixer-upper. Just your average old frame house. But when he tore up the linonlium in the upstiars bedrooms, he found that when it was put in they'd laid down some newspapers for insulation. Just trash at the time, but for a history buff like me (and I'm sure most of us here) it's a real treasure trove. One bedroom had several papers dated from April/June 1944 (the latest date June 1..if only they'd waited another week to put down the flooring, I could have had some really historical stuff!) Most are in amazingly good condition..not really valuable, but a fascinating snapshot of wartime life. He also found a 1908 Sears & Roebuck catalogue in one of the walls, along with a little obituary plaque from 1912.

Anyway, here are a few tidbits. I snapped a few digital pics and tweaked them in PhotoShop to make them more readable.

Enjoy!

Steve

The funnies weren't quite as politically correct in those days..

Lest we forget..

airnutz · **Posted:** Sun Jul 27, 2008 5:31 am

Steve, I dunno... "Ernie Pyle Wins Pulitzer", "L-bird delivered during the re-taking of Wake", and the doco of
the Allied drive up the Italian peninsula..not exactly a losing proposition.

Very nice find!!! Thank you for sharing! :wink:

Bill Greenwood · **Posted:** Sun Jul 27, 2008 6:04 am

Great stuff. That catalog may have $ value. Are there any Craftsman houses in it?

Steve Nelson · **Posted:** Sun Jul 27, 2008 10:27 am

The catalogue is fairly thin, and appears to be mostly grocery items. Don't know if it's valuable or not, but it's neat to thumb trough. Five pounds of coffee for $1.29..a 25 lb. crate of dried prunes for $1.49 (those'll keep you awake and regular for awhile!)

SN

Matt Gunsch · **Posted:** Sun Jul 27, 2008 5:23 pm

I had something like that. We tore apart a camper my dad had built in the 70s. for insulation he use newspaper, and one of them I found had a story about a guy from Mass, driving off a bridge and leaving his date to drown. I think he is a senator now.

Obergrafeter · **Posted:** Sun Jul 27, 2008 5:33 pm

No that girl was a real heroine.............she pushed the Senator out the window sacrificing her life to save the world. Her rich uncle was a Scotch salesman and needed the income he would have been out the next 40 years.

tom d. friedman · **Posted:** Sun Jul 27, 2008 6:39 pm

wow!!! a great find !! preserve those papers well!! keep them flat, in a good moisture / dry proof environment, away from direct sunlight, direct ambient light too.

Jollygreenslugg · **Posted:** Sun Jul 27, 2008 7:26 pm

Old newspapers are a fascinating memento of history, and can be found pretty cheaply, compared to other memorabilia. I picked up a copy of the New York Times from December 8, 1941 for ten bucks, as nobody else bidded on the online auction. Even if it is a replica (doubtful as it if quite a few pages) it is a fascinating read. Nice find too, by the way.

Cheers,
Matt

Obergrafeter · **Posted:** Sun Jul 27, 2008 8:24 pm

A few years back we came by a San Antonio paper dated August 15, 1945 (I think) that proclaimed "Japanese Quit". Interesting that also on the front page there is the report of Dick Bongs crash. The ads are also a great treat. Wish those prices would come back!

Obergrafeter · **Posted:** Sun Jul 27, 2008 8:28 pm

The headline in the paper wasn't as it came thru in the previous post, thats why I put it in italics. The shortned word for our Oriental foe was used so I don't know why we can't use it today. Political correctness changing history!

Bluedharma · **Posted:** Sun Jul 27, 2008 10:30 pm

Wow!
Nice find!

Chris Brame · **Posted:** Sun Jul 27, 2008 11:19 pm

Great find, Steve! What was playing at the Bijou, Michigan and Strand theaters in the second photo?

Steve Nelson · **Posted:** Mon Jul 28, 2008 2:13 am

I'll have to check, but I don't think there were any films I'd ever heard of.

It's interesting that the three-letter slang term for Japanese was auto-filtered, but another (arguably more derogatory) term starting with "n" in a different thread wasn't. Probably becasue that word has another more common meaning.

SN

The Inspector · **Posted:** Mon Jul 28, 2008 2:32 am

....and the P.C. pendulum still has a very, very long path to go before it starts it's return swing-revisionist history is on the rise, we are already starting to be cast as the instigators of WW2 against the poor, downtrodden Germans and Italians, and, of course, our 'friends' to the far East still refuse to admit that they had anything to do with Hawai'i on a certain Sunday morning-
I try to keep a bucket by my chair for just such 'reporting' from the 21 inch peephole into paradise

airnutz · **Posted:** Mon Jul 28, 2008 4:18 am

The Inspector wrote:

-revisionist history is on the rise, we are already starting to be cast as the instigators of WW2 against the poor, downtrodden Germans and Italians, and, of course, our 'friends' to the far East still refuse to admit that they had anything to do with Hawai'i on a certain Sunday morning-

Whoa...'half empty' kinda mood there Inspector. Depends on who 'WE' is.

"Starting to be cast?"... :roll:

My understanding...Folks who don't have no bidness running gubmint, run around makin money or exercising some
brilliant idea somewhere across the world...Oops, almost a rant. Let's just say this flaw is definitely not unique
to 'US'.

When understanding history gets 'comfortable'...Go Back..you've missed something...

:wink:

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