Today as I am writing this, Friday, June 22, is my birthday. I was born in 1969, making this my 38th year of life.
But I’ve never felt old until I started working at this newspaper.
It’s not that the job is particularly stressful. It’s more about the books. Maintained at the Sherman Publications offices are archive books of its newspapers ? archived editions of The Clarkston News, go back to 1935.
Looking at the editions closest to my birth, June 19 and June 26, 1969, is like looking at ancient history.
The size of the newspaper is old-style huge, about 2-by-3 feet.
People’s hair, men and women both, look shiny and hard, especially in the studio portraits.
Looking closer, though, things seem more familiar.
One article, ‘Courtesy prevents accidents,? provides tips to avoid road rage, although they didn’t use that term.
On page 4, June 19, is a photo and article announcing the awarding of a University of Michigan Varsity ‘M? award to Dan Fife, a sophomore at the time. The current Clarkston High School baseball coach was quite the athlete himself, earning 11 varsity letters at the high school when he was a student.
‘Jim’s Jottings? was on the front page. One item was about his son, who is the current publisher of The Clarkston News, and getting him ready for a high school dance by cooking him a steak dinner.
Richard Nixon was president of the United States. One section in the June 19 edition published letters from Clarkston fifth-graders to the president, headlined ‘Dear Mr. Nixon.?
One asked the president if he liked the World Series between the Tigers and Cards. Apparently, the Detroit team did pretty well around that time.
Another asked Nixon to end the riots, because people were beating others to death and destroying homes.
Others asked for lower taxes ? weren’t taxes ever considered low?
Many wanted Nixon to end the Vietnam War ? at the time, Republicans were the ones campaigning on ending the war.
One suggested ending it by pulling the troops out and dropping the atomic bomb (he also suggested giving criminals the gas chamber).
Another wanted more negotiation with North Vietnam, but would nuke Russia if they tried to take over the United States.
Also in that edition, Jim Fitzgerald wrote a column lamenting his advancing years ? in his case, the 25th anniversary of his high school graduation.
He writes about a classmate named Tommy Knapp, who dropped out of school to join the army, and was killed in the World War II battlefields of Europe.
‘A war waited for most of the boys then,? Fitzgerald wrote. ‘Now, 25 years later, another war waits for our sons. This is progress??
I know history repeats itself, but does it have to be so verbatim?