Other News
by Brendan Smith
Weirs Times Editor
I had a lot of fun putting together this edition’s front page story about the Apollo 11 Moon Mission that happened 50 years ago this week.
It certainly wasn’t difficult.
I had so many newspapers about the event and it seemed the logical thing to do was just recount the words of the reporters of those newspapers.
There certainly wasn’t a lot of spin, just detailed accounts of something that was happening that no one had any idea how it would end.
As historic as an event it was, it could just as easily turned into a disaster. Like they say about baseball, it was a game of inches.
I’m a bit amazed at myself for lugging around all of these old newspapers over the years.
In the past 50 years I’ve gone through many changes and lived in a lot of places. Living room and bedroom sets have come and gone, so has a lot of hair, yet these newspapers lived on.
Everything for a reason, they say. Maybe this week was the reason I’ve had them for so long.
Besides the stories of the moon landing, these papers contained a lot of other interesting information about that year as well. It was interesting to see what was going on in July of 1969. A bit of a time capsule.
Growing up on Long Island, NY, all the papers I read were from that area.
The sports pages in July were covering another remarkable feat. The fight of the, up-to-then, hapless New York Mets as they chased the Chicago Cubs for first place in the National League. The Mets, of course, would eventually make it to the World Series and, in a stunning upset, beat the Baltimore Orioles. (Mets fans would love to see those guys around this year.)
The Dow Jones was at 826 points. The prime lending rate was at 8.5 percent.
A Clerk/Typist – known today as administrative assistants were earning, before taxes, about $125 a week.
A new washing machine costs between $110-$150, depending on the model.
A decent apartment on Long Island was about $150 a month to rent.
A few stores were advertising new women’s dresses for about $8.
A man could buy a new suit for about $60.
A central air-conditioning system for an entire house was a cool $700.
Fifty lbs of cow manure would set you back about $1.88 in 1969.
You could buy a new Ford Mustang for $2400 fifty years ago.
Gas was about thirty-five cents a gallon.
There was one other big news story that was kept off the front pages during that week in 1969. One person obviously wasn’t enjoying the moon landing all that much.
On Friday, July 18th,1969, Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts drove his car off the Chappaquiddick Bridge in Edgartown, Mass. Mary Jo Kopechne, the only other passenger in the car drowned while Kennedy fled the scene. He didn’t report the accident until nine hours later, after the car was discovered by two men fishing from the bridge. Kennedy was eventually charged with leaving the scene and after fighting the charge for awhile, he eventually pled guilty. He ended up with a two-month suspended sentence.
Ahh, power and politics.
The best-selling fiction books in July of 1969 were “The Love Machine” by Jaqueline Susann and “The Godfather” by Mario Puzo. The best-selling non-fiction book was “The Peter Principle.”
Some of the biggest movies of that month were “Funny Girl”, “Ice Station Zebra”. And “Rowan & Martins’ ‘The Maltese Bippy’.”
On television, most of which was still watched in black and white, some of the top shows were “It Takes A Thief,” “Bewitched”. “The Flying Nun” and “60 Minutes.”
For those 1969 technophobes one could buy a Magnavox, 18” slimline color TV for only $359.50.
Oh yeah, the cost of the other News newspapers themselves were a nickel.
Reading through a lot of other smaller stories in those papers from 1969, besides the moon landing, there was a lot of news that made it seem like those were the worst of times.
We were fighting a war in Vietnam, there was a housing slump due to high interest rates and tight money and General Motors saw another quarter of lower earnings. Inflation was high and the market was in a slump and hoping for a recovery.
I guess we pulled through just fine.
Brendan is the author of “The Flatlander Chronicles” and “Best Of A F.O.O.L. In New Hampshire” available at BrendanTSmith.com. His latest book “I Only Did It For The Socks and Other Tales of Aging” will be published later this year.
