PEORIA MAGAZINE November 2023

ONE MORE THING

I have a weird guilty pleasure: Reading old newspapers. use for old newspapers, to say nothing of old newspapermen, something I’m still trying to figure out. Anyway, there’s a throwback appeal to poring over weathered newspapers, especially those that arrived before I did. As far as visiting bygone days, it’s a different experience than reading history books, which offer a methodical and thoughtful presentation of context, anecdotes, statistics, experts and analysis. Rather, when you open an old newspaper, you get immediately plopped smack-dab into the middle of yesteryear. Bold headlines and wide photos high light major events. But the big picture is filled out with briefs, comics, ads and agate, which provide nuance and insight into people’s everyday life back then. What did they cook? Where did they eat? How did they talk? What slang did they use? Where did they shop? How did they spend their free time? FROZEN IN TIME When newspapers were king 82 years ago, there was no indication of the war horror to come BY PHIL LUCIANO I bet not too many of you do like wise. After all, it’s hard to find much

132 NOVEMBER 2023 PEORIA MAGAZINE