Reading the Paper

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I’m reading the paper with my mother. 1962, Old Plank Road. Near Wixom, MI.

This is a small undated Polaroid snap shot. I dated it by looking at other photos from that year that were dated. It was probably taken in the summer or early fall.  I was 16 and would be a high school sophomore in the fall of that year.

What were we reading about? I decided to look up what happened during 1962. It was an eventful year.  Lot’s of above ground nuclear tests; countries in Africa and the West Indies gaining their freedom; Civil Rights demonstrations in Albany, GA; the Berlin wall; Thalidomide; the Cuban missile crisis and George Wallace winning the governorship of Alabama are a few stories we could have been reading.

1962_collage

In February of 2013 I did post about reading the newspaper on a Sunday morning  Reading The Newspaper – 1962. Appears my mother and I did a lot of tandem newspaper reading.

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24 thoughts on “Reading the Paper

  1. 1962 was a great year for news. I remember it well since I graduated that year. Thanks for the memory board, it was enjoyable looking back.

  2. I always love seeing your photos Kristin. Particularly that first one. I think you’re looking at advertising there. Maybe you were planning on going to the movies and were looking at the session times??

    1. I don’t think there were even any theaters in the area, we were out in the country and even if there were, I don’t remember going to the show with my mother after we stopped going to Disney movies and Zorro. I never thought of that but I don’t remember going to any adult movies with my mother. Could have been looking at adds, I guess, though for what I can’t imagine.

  3. It might have been a small Polaroid snap, but what a fine photograph it is. The composition and the technique scream out quality and it could be blown up to poster size and still hold its own.

  4. I love that first photo. I’ve been looking at the appliances in the background; we had a refrigerator exactly like yours (with the rectangular panel on the door with ridges), but ours was that nasty avocado green, not nice and white like yours! Great!

  5. The photo spoke to me in so many ways. Loving the Photographer. You and Your Mother were so engaged! Everything looked so comfortable where you were. Thanks Kristen.

  6. Kristin, I love this photo, including all the appliances in the background. It tells us so much.

    Is that a doorway in the background? I wonder what is behind it? It seems unusual to block a door? Sorry, I don’t mean to be nosy.

    1. Through that door was the big, unfinished room that was once the ‘wood room’. When the house was heated by wood and wood was used for cooking, the whole room back there was full of wood. We didn’t use wood or that room hence the blocked door.

  7. This photo is wonderful; just look at all the detail in it! There’s so much to see, talk about, wonder about and reminisce about. I also thought your take on the prompt this week, very creative.

  8. Hi Kristin, this is my favourite. I love the intimacy of mother and daughter sitting closely together in the kitchen and reading the newspaper. This lovely scene would give enough material for a story. I also like the kitchen it looks homely with the pretty wallpaper, chairs and tables are still wood not formica as it used to be fashion at the time. We usually forget what happened in the world after the years, but it has always been tumultuous. A very creative and fine post.

    1. The house at Old Plank was furnished mostly with furniture from my great grandmother’s house because my great aunt died and nobody lived there any more. And yes, the world has always been in an uproar and on the brink of worse since I can remember.

  9. Alan’s right. It’s a photo with wonderful composition. It reminds me of a Norman Rockwell painting with a similar sense of drama in your mother’s slightly anxious appearance. 1962 was a year filled with world events, but the two of you seem to be reading page 2 of whatever report it was.

  10. What a wonderful photo. Your mother does look shocked as well, there was so much going on in the world at the time too, it could have been a number of things. I just watched the movie The Butler, and that certainly recapped so much throughout that entire movie!

  11. What a terrific collage! And what a year that was! How many of those events were you aware of at the time, do you think? (Quite a few of them, I would guess, from what I’ve learned about your parents.) Countries gaining their independence, civil rights struggles, nuclear explosions, musical explosions, the rise of pop and global culture. “Freedom in the Air” says it all. Love the attention with which you are leaning over your mother’s newspaper. It conveys to me intellectual curiosity, and a relationship of both closeness and respect.

    1. I was entering my third year in high school and was very political. I probably knew about most of them. I didn’t remember that there were so many above ground nuclear tests until I was going over one of those “events of 1962”.

  12. Interesting reminder of what was going on – Marilyn and Wallace, what a juxtaposition of news.

    But I’m loving the house — the furnace, the little frig and bread box, the hot plate, and what is that? And blocking a door too.

  13. It Really Is A Classy Photo.’ Really Illustrates How Important Paper-News Was Back In The Days Before The Internet.There Is Something About Events Being More Substantial Then.You Couldnt Click It ‘Off’ Quite So Easily.

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