I’m so old I remember when people would read the newspaper.
Like, read every sentence in every story of each day’s newspaper, trusting the editor not to print anything that would be too much of a waste of time.
There is an old guy at the deli near me that reads the paper with his coffee.
I also remember being asked to write about current events in school and had to turn to the newspaper to find something current.
I’m so old I remember reading the ingredients on the shampoo bottle because my brother took the bathroom joke book with him after pooping.
I’m so old I remember grabbing The Onion from the free dispenser outside my apartment building.
I’m so old I get a PSA test annually and need to schedule a colonoscopy
I do regret not ordering the matching embroidered “Face” and “Ass” towels from an ad in The Onion when I had a chance.
im old enough for my parents to be sending me to go get the paper and sometimes I would be at a friends when their parents wanted them to and went with on the trip.
Brosef, I remember when I used to read the newspaper. The $1.25 to get the Sunday paper at the 7-11 because ain’t no way I would scrounge and spend 5 quarters in the machine. That’s for laundry money!
What’s interesting is how everything merged into the same thing online. For example, ABC News is the news division of the TV network ABC. USA Today is a newspaper. KTLA is a radio station. All those websites look pretty similar today. They all have text-only stories like a newspaper. They all have video stories.
You’d think maybe TV stations would say “we’re not going to do text-only stories” or newspapers would say “we’re not going to do video”. I wonder if we’re ever going to get to a time when there is a distinction between them again.
I’m so old, I remember using newspaper to wipe in the outhouse. Also Sears catalogue. Worst toilet paper ever. It didn’t clean anything, just moved stuff around.
You don’t take the Sears catalogue into the outhouse for the paper, you take it for the lingerie section. If you need a book of good wiping paper you take the Farmers Almanac
My first job was delivering them.
Read the funnies every day.
Yeah, but we’re so much luckier today with options online. I remember there were definitely tiers of the comics and I read them in a particular order, from the crappy soap-opera one that wasn’t funny through (oh I’m gonna piss people off now) the also-crappy ones like Family Circus and Marmaduke and… was it called Love Is? They were always so hokey… then saving ones like Far Side and Calvin & Hobbes for last :)
I did the same thing with food which is why I’m still fat. :(
I used to get so mad at my grandparents for calling them that. They were COMICS, and it was Very Important to call them by the proper name.
I like to think I’ve loosened up a bit since I was a kid.
Newspapers were still pretty popular in many places up to early 2010s. Some people still read them today.
I tried a few years ago but couldn’t get over the absurd amount of advertising and dumb bullshit so I canceled my subscription. I would love to spend Sunday mornings drinking coffee and reading the paper like an old-timey person but the paper is at least 90% garbage. The 10% that isn’t garbage is poorly edited and often has typos. It felt like I was being insulted every time I opened it up.
This right here. I remember when finding an error in the paper was like finding a four-leaf clover, now it’s more like finding an article without an error is that rare!
The occasional ETAOIN SHRDLU :)
My mom worked for a small paper as a linotype operator around the late 60s to early 70s. :)
It was 50% garbage in the 90s and quickly spiraled out of control as the internet grew in popularity.
I get my county’s rural, local newspaper. The stories are all relevant to my personal experience and typically quite well written. Local politics, goings on and such. It’s nice to have a little piece of life in the 80s back.
You are lucky tbh. So many “local” newspapers are owned by giant corporations. Here in Canada we even have a boatload that are owned by those same American corporations. I helps push narratives among people who are more likely to be isolated or disenfranchised and it works really well.
Me, getting the monthly issue of The Onion (America’s finest news source, btw): hello
Those were the days. Also, remember when we got catalogs in the mail?
Please allow 6-8 weeks for delivery.
I remember reading newspapers. 🙃
I still read the news paper.
Me too, pay $175 for a yearly subscription and read it at dinner everyday. My kids read the comics, and my wife does the crosswords. I’ve found tons of interesting things about local news, even some obits, that I never would have found online. Well worth the cost.
