Christmas missed making headlines

By Dave Churchill (Contact) | The Daily Journal

Published Friday, December 22, 2006

Growing a bit weary, by this time, of all the Christmas stuff? Shopping to do, wrapping, meals to be planned? Hustling to get ready to head out on a visit to family? Getting ready for family to come and visit you?

The list seems endless.

It was, however, not always so. Curious about Christmas past, and seeking less alarming reports than Jacob Marley’s spectral visitors delivered via Dickens, I turned this week to past issues of The Journal.

Back in 1897, the Christmas Eve edition contained not so much as a “Merry Christmas” note, the only recognition of the season coming from a pair of merchants and the Lyceum Theatre, which planned to show the latest comedy drama, “Railroad Jack,” on Christmas Day.

Lead headlines then were far from what we today like to call the spirit of the season. “Frozen to death: Four hunters found dead,” was the lead, followed by “Score Seriously Injured,” and the even less uplifting, “Killed and Ate Children.” Bet that was some light reading around the yuletide fire.

Indeed the only holiday-related news story was an account of where Fergus Falls school teachers — all unmarried women — planned to spend the Christmas break. Seventeen of the 22 were planning to be out of town.

Christmas was getting a bigger billing by 1915, although still not in a very uplifting way. Henry Ford announced he had given up efforts to get American troops out of the trenches of World War I before Christmas — and that was the good news, at a time when battles were raging throughout Europe.

Not far from the story about a baby burning to death in Little Falls and the hog cholera outbreak near Perham, was news that Christmas shoppers had a wide selection of fur coats from which to choose at Iverson & Lee. Among the bargains, a rat-lined coat with otter collar and a wool shell for $70.

Holidays had, in those early years, not yet become the interruption that they are today. Postal workers in Fergus Falls were scheduled to make one delivery on Christmas Day, although the post office was going to close at 10 a.m. — before re-opening on Sunday for carriers to deliver mail via window service. Good news for most folks, but kind of tough sledding for postal workers.

The sledding was even tougher —literally, this time —in 1931, when the Fergus Falls area enjoyed a pre-Christmas season nearly as balmy as this year’s. The high temperatures on Dec. 25 was 36, and the low 26. A front-page Christmas round-up story noted that farmers in the Fairmont, Minn., area did some plowing on Christmas Day. All was not good cheer, however: Eight Minnesotans died in car crashes on Christmas, including a Hibbing woman hit by a car while on her way to Christmas services.

On December 24, 1941, 11 stories about war in Europe and the Pacific surrounded a front-page reminder that it was, “The night before Christmas.” Inside the paper, retail businesses in the county were doing their best to whip up enthusiasm for the season; the Journal of that day was full of holiday greetings and last-minute bargains, which were no doubt of particular interest to Mr. A.G. Schwarzrick, subject of a story headlined, “Car and Gifts stolen at Perham.”

Christmas was back in a big way, though, by 1945. With the war in hand, the paper was full of stories about troops coming home for the holidays, and the Page 1 photo (a rarity then) was of 14-month-old Johnny Salverson, Jr., looking out the window of his family home at 209 West Channing Ave., hoping for a sight of the soldier father he had never yet seen. It was one of many relatively heart-warming stories about the holiday that greeted readers on that Christmas Eve.

It appears that the end of World War II may have been the turning point, the moment when Americans were able to lift their heads up from constant toil and the news of war, to begin putting significant thought into the Christmas season — into the commercial and family, the non-religious, aspects of the season.

That we have the time and, for the most part, the income to indulge ourselves at this season is a favorable comment on the quality of life in these United States and in many other countries around the world. That focus also tends to obscure both the real meaning of Christmas and some of the real woes that surround our island of success.

Getting gloomy by looking at old headlines is not a recipe for making the most of the Christmas season. But it’s sure a reminder of just how fortunate we are.

Enjoy the season.