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Many items of interest spanned our local news pages in 1929
On Nov. 29, 1929, a small write-up noted, “Railroad business declining. The railroads of the United States performed 24 percent less passenger service per inhabitant in 1928 than in 1911. The passenger business of the railroad has been declining steadily in recent years due to the competition of the motor bus and private passenger automobile.”
The new technology of the time, radio, was also in the news. The May 17 paper noted, “The difference between the radio and the newspaper is that members of the family can’t take the radio apart and quarrel over who is to have this or that section.”
From Perley’s store a classified ad read, “See and hear the new Radiola No. 3.”
Other advertisements dealt with grocery sales such as one from the “Red & White” chain store, which was owned and operated by Woodruff & Busack. On May 17 the store was holding an “Economy Sale. We are offering an interesting assortment of merchandise at unusually attractive prices. Sun Kist navel oranges, 2 doz. for 35 cents, 10 lbs. cane sugar for 55 cents, 2 large cans of peaches for 39 cents, 2 large catsup for 29 cents, Hills Bros. Vacuum Packed Coffee, 53 cents a pound.”
The A&P (the Atlantic and Pacific Tea Co.) “Where economy rules” was selling 100 pounds of sugar for $5.49, three pounds of coffee at 95 cents, new California crop lettuce was “2 for 17 cents,” three pounds of potatoes cost 20 cents and three pounds of “Willow Twig” apples were going for 25 cents.
Church news was always evident: “Bazaar and chicken supper” was announced Nov. 8. The item read, “The annual bazaar and chicken supper of the Ladies Aid Society of the Methodist Church will be held at the M.E. hall on Thursday evening, Nov. 14. Fancy articles, aprons, quilts, rugs and homemade candies will be on sale in the church beginning at 8 o’clock. The following menu will be served commencing at 5:30 and continuing until all are served: roast chicken, mashed potatoes, biscuits and gravy, cranberries, cabbage salad, creamed carrots and peas, rolls, pickles, coffee, cake and jello. Supper tickets 35 cents and 50 cents.”
A week later it was written, “Nov. 21, Thursday evening. Annual supper and bazaar of the Ladies Aid Society of St. John’s Lutheran Church at the Legion hall.” The menu wasn’t listed for this event.
Playing in local theaters, it was stated that, “Tom Mix is coming in a great western motion picture, ‘The Deadwood Coach,’ a vivid, colorful and thrilling story of the old West. Mix plays the role of an orphan, a reckless outlaw whose chief mission in life is to avenge the death of his father who was killed when Mix was a boy by a man who swindled his father in business. The orphan is not a criminal at heart and proves it by helping the sheriff who had hunted him to put a stop in the depredations of a band of robbers who make a practice of holding up the Deadwood Coach. Incidentally, he finds the man who killed his father and gets his revenge. There will also be a 3-reel comedy.”
In that same month it was reported, “Only 68,000 Veterans of Union Army left. Although the blue lines of the Civil War are growing thinner at the rate of 12,000 a year, there are still 68,000 of the dear old boys marching bravely, eyes to the front, into the sunset. Sixty-eight thousand survivors 68 years after the great conflict opened. It is a wistful contrast to the 2,000,000 enrolled under the Union banner to the 1,000,000 under arms when the war closed and to the 745,000 on the pension rolls when it reached its high water mark 50 years ago. The decrease of 6,000 in the last six months, noted by a report of the Interior Department, is a ratio which if kept up will mean the dissolution of the blue line into the mists of history within another ten years.”
