Reading newspapers. (original) (raw)

Idon�t drink. I don�t smoke. But I am addicted.

Give me a stack of East Texas newspapers, and I�ll be hooked for hours.

Each weekend, armed with a pile of newspapers graciously sent to me by some of the newspapers who print this column, I read all about people, places and events all over East Texas.

And I discover the oddest things, especially in the small-town weeklies.

In the Corrigan Times, I read an obituary about a minister�s wife. It called her �a true yoke fellow in the ministry.� That was a new phrase to me.

Wanda Bobinger, who writes a column, �From the Archives,� in the Polk County Enterprise, recently wrote a piece about old obituaries. One funeral notice said: �The Angel of Death came for Mrs. Jones at 3 o�clock in the morning.�

Also in the Enterprise, I read about a fire that burned downtown Livingstonto the ground 105 years ago. Only two businesses survived.

The fire began in a warehouse owned by a leading prohibitionist after the town passed an election to ban alcohol.

In the Buffalo Press, I read about an old-fashioned wagon train pulled by horses and mules that passed through the town last year. The train, the brainchild of Mike Smith of Texarkana, was on its way from Arkansas to Arizona. I hope they made it.

Also in the Buffalo Press, I read that the tiny community of Donieonce again has its own post office.

Donieis south of Teague in southwest Freestone County. The site was probably settled in the 1880s. In 1898 the residents applied for a post office under the name of Douie, which was misread in Washington as Donie. Washington was making mistakes even then.

The columns I like most in small newspapers are the �Looking Back� features.

A recent issue of the Pittsburg Gazette reported that 70 years ago lightning struck a tablecloth at the home of T.H. Peterson. Some 85 years ago, a phony photographer was doing a good business in town, but the story, unfortunately, didn�t say what he was doing. And 60 years ago, the local temperature was 107 degrees.

In the Van Zandt News, I learned that the Howell family once had a stagecoach stop at their farm on the way from Marshallto Dallas. When the stage topped the hill near the farm, the driver would start ringing a bell, signaling the Howells to have a fresh team of horses ready.

My favorite newspaper name is The Jefferson Jimplecute, and I like editor Vic Parker�s column, ��Heard Around Town.�

He recently talked about a attorney who asked a doctor, �Now, doctor isn�t it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn�t know it until the next morning?� The doctor asked the lawyer: �Did you actually pass a bar exam?�