TIME MACHINE: MAGAZINES

[jerry]

There was a time, well before some of my younger readers were born, when there was no Internet, which was just as well because there were no computers or comsats either. Rather than clicking Google to bone up on our favorite subject, we had to actually read stuff written on an ancient substance called paper. If a market-smart publisher bound together enough of these pages about a particular subject and published them monthly, well, by-golly we had ourselves a magazine.

www.stclaircountyal.com/timemachiine/time102.html

[gloria]

Great article, but I do enjoy have access to information at my fingertips.

[jerry]

Thanks. So do I. Magazines lay around her sometimes for weeks anymore before I get around to reading them.

[H Abiff]

Magazines, recently I had to get rid of boxes of Ham magazines gathered over the years, still have a couple of 1955 Motor Trend magazines, one with the article of the Chrysler 300 with 300 hp. Moving into a trailer from a house with a 38 year accumulation of stuff is a real job. I am a keeper, still have some of the 1/2 inch socket set that I got for my 13th Christmas.

[H Abiff]

Jerry do you remember cranking the phone and telling Grace the operator who you wanted to talk to?

[larrywalker]

I read the Sporting News cover to cover for years, and Readers Digest as well--don't seem to be able to find time for that these days.

[jerry]

Dec 12, 2009 20:59:09 GMT -5 H Abiff said:

Jerry do you remember cranking the phone and telling Grace the operator who you wanted to talk to?

Not quite, but I do remember party lines and dialing 1191 to cause my neighbor to answer. Also, reversing charges, person-to-person and station-to-station, calling for the time of day, round dials on pay phones, and phones with a seperate receiver and mouthpiece.

[scoutmom]

I have had to downsize our collection of magazines, esp the Nat Geo. David was on a kick for awhile that all money he had was spent on 10 cent Nat Geos at the local Public Library Used Bookstore. He thought it was a bonus when they had a map in them. Or if the cover was esp. shiny. He had a stack one time that was as tall as he was! Great article, Jerry.

[gloria]

Dec 12, 2009 20:59:09 GMT -5 H Abiff said:

Jerry do you remember cranking the phone and telling Grace the operator who you wanted to talk to?

Jerry may not, but I remember one like that when we lived in Charleston, Ms. I was around 6 or 7 years old and the telephone was on the wall with an ear piece and a crank. You turned the crank and when the operator answered you told her who you wanted to call.

[larrywalker]

being a baby of only 56, I don't remember the hand cranked models, but I do remember party lines, and remember giving my phone number, which began with 592, as Lyric 2...

[jerry]

My granny's phone number was 3-9458. Ours was 59-2331, which changed to 592-2331, then LYric 2-2331 like Larry's. Other local exchanges were WOrth, TRemont, ALpine, FAirfax, and one or two others I don't recall.

[sara]

When I was very small (age 4 or 5 and that would have been 1952-53) and living in Pell City, we had a heavy black desktop phone with a straight cord and a blank front. So we didn't have a dial or a crank. We just picked up the receiver and listened 'til the operator said "Number, please?" Phone numbers in that time and place were only two or three digits. The number 721 seems familiar to me. Could have been our home number. Or maybe my dad's work place. Although, all I had to do was pick up the receiver and say "I want to talk to Daddy at the shop." I was always connected. I don't remember when we went to dial phones, but though we had seven digits, we had to dial only five. The whole town was on the Edgewood 8 exchange. So 338-2924 was my best friend's number, but I dialed only 8-2924 well into the 1960s.

I know, I am getting old and repeating myself. I've told that before.

About our other topic here: I love old magazines. I love the gorgeous covers, the glamourous ads, the melodramatic short stories, the artwork, the silly homemaking advice, the moms in aprons and high heels. The color process from way back then was so wonderful. Those colors are still true, even if the rest of the page is crumbling.

I have a themeless, disordered collection ranging back to the late 1920s. Life, Look, Colliers, McCalls, Redbook, and lots of National Geographic. All of it essentially worthless, but I like them. Each is a little trip back in time. Also, one Jerry didn't mention: Readers Digest. My mother saved many years' worth of those, so I still have them. I read them cover to cover when I was a little girl. And its content was perfectly fine for all audiences.

[sara]

Oh! I forgot to say thanks for the article, Jerry. As always, very well done and thought provoking.

[jerry]

Thanks, Tag & Dawn. I did mention RD, Sara.

[sara]

Dec 14, 2009 8:36:39 GMT -5 jerry said:

Thanks, Tag & Dawn. I did mention RD, Sara.

You sure did. And so did U. More proof that I'm losing my grip.