By Staff
I saw a picture taken around 1910 showing a few old South Bend paperboys.
What stood out was the white canvas shoulder bags the boys had over their shoulders.
Of course, they all said South Bend Tribune in big, black letters.
I remember our Dowagiac Daily News boys used to have bags like these in the 1930s.
I recall the boys used to get their papers down under the old Daily News office on the corner of Penn Avenue and Commercial back then and I also remember how the boys folded the paper into about a six-inch square that fit into these bags and were easy to throw on one's porch from their bicycle as they rode down the sidewalk.
Some of my old paper boys I remember: Hal Palmer, Ken Lund and, I think, Ken Ray.
No more boys on bikes.
My paper comes by car and is rolled up with a rubber band and is enclosed in a plastic bag.
The carriers are grown-up men and some women.
Back in the old days (my days), before there was automation, potatoes were dug up by hand by a nine-tine special potato fork.
The tines were blunted on the ends so there was less of a chance of spearing a potato on a not-too-sharp tine.
How come we always refer to it as the Dowagiac "Crick" when we should call it the Dowagiac Creek?
As much as I like music, I sure wish I had been one of those lucky people who can play the piano and organ by ear.
Is there anyone besides me who wonders who the "character" is that on Halloween put nice orange pumpkin cutouts up against one of the signs on U.S. 12 in the Niles vicinity?
Now the other day I see one of the nice spruce trees on the road right-of-way on U.S. 12, someone has decorated and I bet it is the same yahoo who did the pumpkins.
Why is it the first thing everyone looks at in the Daily News is the obituaries page just to see that it may have their name. Ha! Ha!
Remember how years ago the grocery stores used to have a big stalk of bananas hanging from the ceiling and you could cut off the number of bananas you wanted?
I read where there used to be a waiting list for the empty stalks, which were used to kill fleas. People used these stalks in their chicken coops and dog houses.
Does any old timer remember Faultless Starch? I only remember Argo Starch, which came in a blue-and-white box.
Why are there no school safety patrol boys and girls like we used to have in the 1930s and '40s?
I've seen on the corner of N. Front and Telegraph streets an adult lady and have seen a local policeman on this corner.
My "child bride wife" has informed me they probably have to use adults now as this generation of little kids is different than we were and wouldn't show any respect to older kids giving them instructions.
Note the American Encyclopedia gives Philo D. Beckwith of Dowagiac the credit for discovering and perfecting the first under draft stove and furnace in America.
E-mail him at cardinalcharlie@hotmail.com.