New stuff can be learned from old newspapers

Published 12:00 am Monday, March 9, 2009

The owners of Home Furniture, 1200 Washington St., were probably more than a little miffed when they got their Sunday Post-Herald on the morning of July 8, 1951.

Remember those steel lawn chairs that had bright red or green seats and rounded backs? Home Furniture displayed them in its ad on page 5 of that day’s edition, “drastically reduced” to $5.95. But on page 2, Rice Furniture Company, 1504 Washington, had the same chairs — in yellow and white — marked down to $3.98 and showed $5.95 as the normal retail price.

Edley Jones Jr. showed me the paper from 58 years ago, mostly because it also contained a big advertisement announcing his purchase of the Mincy and the D.S. Wright insurance firms to start his own business.

Email newsletter signup

Sign up for The Vicksburg Post's free newsletters

Check which newsletters you would like to receive
  • Vicksburg News: Sent daily at 5 am
  • Vicksburg Sports: Sent daily at 10 am
  • Vicksburg Living: Sent on 15th of each month

The new Jones firm was in the Merchants Bank Building, then located where the parking area and downtown restrooms are immediately west of St. Paul Catholic Church.

I am a sucker for old newspapers, including a clipping Barbara Ramsay sent two weeks ago. It was from an Oxford paper in the 1930s describing life in a Civilian Conservation Corps camp. She found it tucked away in a family Bible and sent it, perhaps because I had written recently about Great Depression-era “make-work” programs and their lasting results in Vicksburg.

Old papers provide a chance to see still-familiar names. Marcus Furniture — still in business on Washington — was also courting customers in those days, but was offering a special on venetian blinds, not lawn furniture that Sunday morning. Michael’s Jewelers, since closed, was offering a 53-piece dinnerware service in a colonial pattern for $17.94 — or only $1 per week.

Many ads contained by-the-week pricing. There were no credit cards. Those were “we carry our own accounts” days. On pay day, customers could walk up or down Washington — where almost all stores were located — to make payments until their accounts were satisfied. Wells & LaHatte would deliver a 9-cubic-foot Philco refrigerator and buyers could pay $3.30 per week for 65 weeks. Yes, that’s more than a year — but this was a top model. Thomas Furniture, then at 1203 Washington and also still in business, had a perfect item for a then “dry” county. It was a “smartly styled” cocktail table made of “Cellarite” with a mirrored top. It’s prime feature was what appeared to be a solid base that had a not-so-obvious storage compartment that could hold six glasses (included) and bottled beverages (not included) — and no one would know.

Old papers also provide a chance to get new news, too.

For instance, before reading the 1951 edition I didn’t know today’s Port of Vicksburg was an alternative to an earlier design by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Today’s port and industrial sites were created in phases by building earthen cells and then filling them with mud dredged to create the slackwater channel beside them. The initial design, according to the story that day, had been to extend a dam across the Yazoo Canal at Lake Centennial, divert the flow and create sites that way. The new design was deemed faster and cheaper for the federally funded work.

And, finally, old papers also show not a lot has changed.

One of the 18 stories on the front page pledged improvement in the management for profit of school-owned lands. That’s a pledge still being made. Subsidies for farmers were being debated in Washington. And, if we think we live in a celebrity-obsessed world today it’s worth noting that Rita Hayworth’s impending divorce from Aly Khan was one of the biggest stories on the cover.

Lower on the page was a speech by President Harry Truman eerily similar to points made by President Barack Obama in his inaugural. The man who is president today said that if certain nations will unclench their fists they’ll find Americans peaceful and amenable to them pursuing their own interests with no meddling by America. On that Sunday morning in 1951, Truman sent the same message to Russia.

*

Charlie Mitchell is executive editor of The Vicksburg Post. Write to him at Box 821668, Vicksburg, MS 39182, or e-mail cmitchell@vicksburgpost.com.