We recently retrieved an old cedar chest from our son's house. It had belonged to Jack's mom. It was locked and nobody could seem to open it because the lock is a duo key/combination lock.
There was a lot of speculation about what might be inside. Logical thinking would reason that it was filled with fabrics (she was an excellent seamstress) or afghans - knitted or crocheted. She was a multi-talented woman, my mother-in-law.
I was secretly hoping for money...or stocks and bonds. But mostly I was hoping for money. Cold hard cash!
Well, when we finally got it home I was on that lock like a wood tick on a dog! Before we even took it out of the truck...I found an old brass key in Jack's dresser drawer, fitted it into the lock and had that cedar chest open in under ten seconds!
But in the bottom of the chest there was quite a find...a copy of the Minneapolis Star (before it was the Star Tribune) from April 26, 1950.
What's remarkable about this find is that, except for the advertisements and the names in the news, this could have been a newspaper from today.
You've got your political cartoons....
...and your Politics-as-Usual...
You've got your international conflicts....
And then there were the advertisements...
For international travel!
(That's my kind of international travel...I can drive to Canada...no airplanes for this lady.)
...good deals on shoes for the guys...
...and "tummy tuck" garments for the gals...
Remember cigarette ads? This one was quite adamant about it's benefits. No cigarette hangover and more smoking pleasure....well, let's light up, for goodness sakes!
Then there were advertisements for useful items that must not have been quite so useful...I have to say that I'd have purchased this in a heartbeat! The Dishmaster had it all, it seems! And for only $39.95.
I read the entire paper from cover to cover and enjoyed every single word.
A flash-from-the-past...
That is so neat and I love your correlation. It's not much different from today's! Great find, along with the afghans and quilts. Sorry about no cash!
ReplyDeleteYou might be able to convert that newspaper into cash. :)
ReplyDeleteDid you notice the garters on that girdle ad? Some of your readers probably wonder what those little hangy-downy things are for. :)
Too bad about the cash, but the quilts might be worth a lot! (especially if they are handmade. Just sayin')
ReplyDeleteThe newspaper, though - that IS a find! So cool to read what was happening all those years ago. Was there a reason she saved that particular paper?
I have some old magazines and papers that my mom saved - one is a Life magazine with a write-up about .... crap, I'm having a "senior's moment"... can't remember exactly what it's about. Sigh. Now I have to go dig it out of the old trunk and find out! (Good way to spend a rainy day, though, so thanks!) :)
That's pretty cool. I'm impressed that you got it open so quickly.
ReplyDeleteWonderful I love old newspaper. No cigarette hangover. Oh, for those days!
ReplyDeleteIt's oddly comforting to see news so similar.
ReplyDeleteNice to have a laugh after my extra shitty week. "Cold hard cash"! no I don't believe you for a second, like your humour best... Well, when we finally got it home I was on that lock like a wood tick on a dog!.... ;-)
ReplyDeleteNow to someone else that might have been worthless. I'm so glad that you enjoyed it for the treasure it was!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great find! And I wonder what treasures you will pack away in that chest!
ReplyDeleteI have an old newspaper from the Mpls. Trib that my parents saved from Kennedy's assassination. What fun, to look through your newspaper and see how very true it is that "the more things change the more they stay the same." A regular Nancy Drew you are! Or a Willy Sutton. Wasn't he the famous lock pick? :)
ReplyDeleteHow fun was that. How lucky you found the key. I've would have gone crazy until it opened.
ReplyDelete$2.99 for shoes - I'll take that. But the girdle - so glad they're gone.
A stack of bills woulda been great! But, it's also nice knowing that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Still - hmmm, think I'll salt my chest with a few ones...
ReplyDeleteVery cool, Lock-pick!
ReplyDeleteAloha from Honolulu
Comfort Spiral
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What a treasure even if it wasn't cash! I love the ad for the Dishmaster, that's priceless, and no down-payment, how can you lose? lol I've never even heard of one of these before and I've seen plenty of antique kitchen gadgets.
ReplyDeleteAnd what the heck, men's shoes for $2.99 and girdles were $2.95... make some sense of that. They were making a lot of money off of women's vanity as far back as ... well very far back from the looks of things.
Thank you for sharing your treasure, the trunk looks to be in fantastic shape.
I enjoyed this so much What a treasure trove. I want that Dishmaster!
ReplyDeleteWell, the trunk itself looks priceless!
ReplyDeleteI am reminded of an episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show, in which Rob inherits a roll-top desk from his rich old uncle. The uncle had said that the desk held a treasure, and after much struggle, Rob was finally able to open it. They found lots of stuff - Civil War bonds, which were all Confederate, old coins, none valuable, what they at first thought was a HUGE diamond, but discovered was an old glass doorknob. In the end, they found the treasure was a photo of his uncle as a baby...taken with Abraham Lincoln in the background.
Okay, so maybe your treasure wasn't that grand, but I like what you found in the newspaper, anyway. I guess the good old days really weren't that good, were they? Sounds pretty much like summer reruns.
Ethelmaepotter
This was so fun. You are right, the politics in the papers is still the same. I want one of the Dishmaster wonders. Online prices now run between $159.99 to $189.99. A little more than in the '50s.
ReplyDeleteMoney would have been nice!
ReplyDeleteOh what fun.. It's too bad there was no cash but I'm glad you shared the riches of this old newspaper with us. I enjoyed it right alongside you.
ReplyDeleteI love old news especially where we didn't have so many people sending genitalia photos or cheating on their spouse with the hired help. I once got a travel chest that was gorgeous inside. I still have it. But inside there was an old bra, a cigarette case with cigarettes from about the 1930s. There was also some literature but no newspaper though I've seen some older trunks lined with newspapers. This stuff fascinates me! Just not the news of late. I could do without that. ;-)
ReplyDeleteWhat a very cool find. Lucky you to be so observant.
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