Learning about Print Media from Grandma

"How appropriate," I thought, as I brought a magazine in to my grandma on the day that I interviewed her about print media, including magazines, newspapers, and books. Even more appropriately, it was a Reminisce, which is a nostalgia magazine that she likes to read. I had high hopes that this would be a good interview because I know my grandma loves to read, and I was not disappointed.

An issue of the Ironwood Daily Globe from July, 1938 

https://newspaperarchive.com/ironwood-daily-globe-jul-20-1938-p-2/

An issue of The Bessemer Herald from Dec. 1933

https://newspaperarchive.com/bessemer-herald-dec-08-1933-p-1-203532737-thumbnail.jpg

The Katzenjammer Kids 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/Katzenjammer1901.jpg

I began by asking Grandma about newspapers; she said that her family always subscribed to the local paper when she was growing up, and it was their main source of news other than the radio, so everyone read it. She surprised me by remembering the names of both newspapers that they read: the Ironwood Daily Globe, which was the daily paper, and The Bessemer Herald, which was a weekly paper. She told me that her brother was a paperboy, so the Daily Globe would get dropped off  at their house every afternoon for him to deliver around the town. Her dad was likely always the first to read the paper, and Grandma commented, "I doubt if Grandma (her mom) had a lot of time to read the paper with us kids." Later, she added, "She'd read the newspaper and go to sleep."

I asked about the content of the newspaper, and she looked at 
the latest copy of our local paper and noted how similar it was--sections of sports, news, comics, obituaries--the norm for local papers. She flipped through the comics section, reading the names of the classics that have been in print for decades, but even these are different from what she read as a child. She mentioned a favorite, The Katzenjammer Kids, which was originally printed in 1897 in the American Humorist.



Since I know that doing newspaper crossword puzzles is one of my grandma's favorite pastimes, I asked if she did them when she was young. She surprised me by saying no, and she actually seemed a little surprised by her answer. Doing puzzles was a hobby that she picked up as an adult, and it is how she passes a lot of time today.
As the conversation shifted to magazines, Grandma told me they did not have many magazines at home when she was growing up because they could not really afford them. However, as an adult, she subscribed to some magazines, including some typical women's magazines of the time: Good Housekeeping and McCall's. She would even read Grandpa's Legion magazine. Magazines are still a relevant part of her life. She reads the aforementioned Reminisce, as well as Birds and Blooms and Reader's Digest, among others.
Asking about books revealed stories and history that I had never heard from my grandma. She began by telling me how she and her siblings would get their books. During the summer, their school library was open a few days a week, so they could go down and check out what they wanted to read. They would pick out "anything that looked interesting," but The Bobbsey Twins were a favorite. When I asked if there were any books that she tried to check out that she was not allowed to read, she said, "There weren't any that the lady wouldn't check out to me, and I don't know if grandma even looked at them."

The Bobbsey Twins at the Seashore 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bobbsey_Twins_at_the_Seashore.djvu

With year round access to the school library, the family never really bought any books. However, another interesting source of literature was the neighbors. Grandma said that she and her sisters would get "love story books" from "the neighbor lady's daughter," when they were in junior high and high school. They would go there and read them "when we should have been doing our chores at home."
To this day, Grandma still reads books, magazines, and the daily newspaper. While I do not know if she still reads "love story books," I know she enjoys mysteries and her daily devotionals. The love for reading is something that has certainly been passed on in our family. Some of my earliest memories with books include scribbling my name inside the front cover, excited to have something to call my own. I even enjoy Reader's Digest, which is something that I share with both my grandma and my mom. Even though that particular magazine has changed some over the years, it is still relevant and enjoyed by millions.
Print media are unique in that they have the ability to last for generations. Unlike many forms of electronic media that seem to be here today and gone tomorrow, newspapers, magazines, and books have a permanence to them. We clip out meaningful articles, we save recipes for future use, we pass to our friends books that we think they might enjoy. Print media connect people. They connect generations. In my case, they connected me to my grandma. I now have a greater appreciation for these "legacy media" because I realize that even though they have been around for practically forever, they continue to have an immeasurable impact, and I think they are here to stay.