One of the things I did as talk intensified leading up to the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy was go into our attic and find the newspapers I had saved from that day and the three that followed.<br />
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In addition to re-reading the articles associated with the assassination, the killing of Lee Harvey Oswald, and the president's funeral, it was interesting to look at the rest of the paper - the other news stories, the ads, the comics, etc.<br />
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The most glaring thing about the newspapers themselves - an Atlanta Constitution, Atlanta Journal, and Moultrie (Ga.) Observer - was their size. Newspapers in 1963 were so much wider than than are today. I measured and found they were about five inches wider than today and about an inch shorter. I remember when newspapers began to downsize the size of their pages but I had forgotten how much they had changed.<br />
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Several things stood out as a scanned both the Atlanta papers and the Observer (a paper from my hometown): <br />
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*Black victims of accidents and crime, and those suspected of a crime or having been charged with one, were still being identified by race - as "Negro." Other people who fell into the same categories, presumably whites, Asians and Hispanics, were not identified by their race. Of course Atlanta's population was not nearly a diverse as it is now, so, one can assume most of those "others" were white.<br />
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*The common term for rape at the time in a news story was "criminal assault."<br />
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*A court battle over desegregating Atlanta's public schools had reached the U.S. Supreme Court.<br />
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*The source of a statement used in the headline of a story was identified as a "Jew," not by his name. An apparently well-known Hollywood pornographer who had been found shot and killed was called a "smut peddler." The "R" word was still in use when referring to the mentally handicapped.<br />
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*Right next to the bold headline on the front page of an EXTRA printed by the Journal that fateful afternoon and proclaiming KENNEDY KILLED was a story out of Fort Worth, Texas, where Kennedy, a few hours before his assassination, had talked about a new rocket BOOSTER "so powerful that it will put the nation far ahead of Russia in the space race."<br />
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*There was a liquor ad on just about every page of the front section to the Journal and Constitution. Furniture store ads touted 7-piece living sets for $188 - $5 down, $5 a week. <br />
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*The big sports news of the day in Georgia was confirmation that longtime Auburn basketball coach Joel Eaves had agreed to become athletics director at the University of Georgia.<br />
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*The television program grid listed programs for only the big three networks - ABC, CBS and NBC - and their Atlanta affiliates, WAII (now WXIA), WAGA and WSB, respectively. Yes, at the time, WSB was with NBC and /WAII/WXIA was with ABC. The PBS station in Atlanta was not included but was listed on the opposite page.<br />
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*Of the 14 comics in the Journal, I recognized only three as still around today: Beetle Bailey, Mark Trail and Blondie. Some of the others may have survived but they are not in the papers I read on a regular basis.<br />
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*Oh, and that $1 all-your-can-eat spaghetti special? It was at Howard Johnson's, which was also spotlighting a plate of baked ham with Virginia sauce, potatoes and green beans for - $1.29. <br />
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The papers are a bit brittle and yellowed by now of course. But I'll be putting them back in the attic soon - ready to be pulled out in another 50 years, or maybe 25. <br />
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In the meantime, I'm going to see if Howard Johnson's is having a $1 spaghetti special this weekend (if I can even find a Howard Johnson's).<br />
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If not, I guess I'll settle for turkey and dressing.<br />
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Happy Thanksgiving!<br />
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(Ken Stanford is the retired longtime news director for radio stations WDUN-AM, WDUN-FM, and 1240 ESPN Radio, and AccessNorthGa.com.)
