Many moons ago, I bought an old wooden, canvas-covered trunk.

At $20, it was a big-ticket yard sale purchase, which I justified as it would serve a purpose in our almost closet-less old house.

The bottom was lined with some old newspapers, which I left in there.

Before parting with the trunk recently as part of a household purge, I did sit down for a few minutes to take a look at the old papers. It was The Chatham Daily News, dated Saturday, Nov. 21, 1959. As I planned to return the papers to the trunk for its next owner, I took a few photos to share a few little tidbits with you.

Under the larger headline of TOPICS, I read that “Murray Pepper, of 48 Edgar St., a Chatham Daily News carrier boy, reported his bicycle missing from the side of his home yesterday. The boy had just finished paying for the bicycle from money earned as a carrier boy.”

Poor little guy!

As well, I read that: “Committees for the 1960 Jaycee Fair were set up at a meeting of the Fair Board Thursday. One of them, the booth sales group under chairman Jack Mitchinson, will begin work immediately to rent space. Board chairman is Nick Deley.”

I was amazed at the sheer number of stories sandwiched into these pages, which were larger than the current size, and the type size was smaller.

Still, I could well imagine local residents poring over the pages 65 years ago, anxious to catch up on the news of the day (and yesterday!) in a simpler time before the internet intruded in such a big way.

The pages of this newspaper were riddled with lengthy stories and advertisements, including one which alerted readers to the fact that the Goodfellows would be collecting names for food baskets until Dec. 17. People........

© Sarnia Observer