Reading Newspapers. (original) (raw)
I don�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 �Bob Bowman�s East Texas,� 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 CorriganTimes, 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 an occasional 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 more than 100 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 once passed through the town. 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 PittsburgGazette reported that 70 years ago lightning struck a tablecloth at the home of T.H. Peterson. Some 85 years, a phony photographer was doing a good business in town by shooting photos and never delivering them.
In the Van Zandt News, I learned that the Howell family once had a stagecoach stop at their farm on the way from Marshall to 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 JeffersonJimplecute, and I loved former editor Vic Parker�s column, ��Heard Around Town.�
He once 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?�
February 13, 2011 Column.
A weekly column syndicated in 109 East Texas newspapersMore Texas| Stories From Texas' Past | TE Online Magazine