Old News

At a recent family reunion, a relative brought along copies of the La Crosse Tribune from the early 1960s through the late 1970s that had been saved by a grandparent. Lots of interesting stuff about flooding in the area, particularly, plus the Kennedy assassination. But there were other sections that made me get out my camera.

First I saw this, from 1967:


Which reminded me of the white open-carry advocates who filled a Minnesota legislative hearing a few months ago without inflammatory front-page headlines. And the point often made these days that white people wandering the aisles of Target with rifles dangling from their shoulders somehow are treated different from black people who even seem to have guns.

Then there was this headline from the 1980 presidential election:


Do you remember Reagan winning in a landslide in 1980? I don't. Reading the article makes it clear that the term is inappropriate (he got 51 percent of the popular vote). But he did get a landslide of electoral votes. Is that what this headline makes you think?

Finally, this from the early 1960s:


The headline "Women Say They Cannot Stay Home 'Where They Belong'," is another bad fit for the wire service article. The women don't say they belong at home, as it says in the lead. Their critics say that's where they belong. The dainty single quotes around the phrase don't seem enough to get that across.