I didn't start collecting WWII items until about 2004, but among my favorite treasures to find are old magazines and newspapers from 1939-1945. Just recently I made a huge haul of TIME magazines and old newspapers at an estate sale here and I'm still not all the way though reading the old issues of The Ellensburg Daily RecordI found. back then there was no TV or 24 hour cable news to get your world news from. It either came from radio or the print media and the newsreels shown at movie theaters. I LOVE reading stories about the war from the newspaper! I'm serious when I tell you that reading an article from an old newspaper puts me back in time to the 1940's just like a time machine. It's easy to understand why so many Americans seemed to be very patriotic and more supportive of WWII as opposed to any wars since that time. All the war news reports were highly censored in WWII, and in reading some of these reports I've noticed that they tend to report it in a way that created the impression that our troops were winning each battle without heavy losses, which as we know today was not accurate. Sometimes propaganda is needed.
I also enjoy reading the classified ads. Today I was reading the Help Wanted section in an issue from June of 1944 and there was one seeking skilled Carpenters that caught my eye. They were offering a wage of $1.20 per hour... Another was looking for a waitress and offering room and board in return...Back then most businesses in Ellensburg were family owned, but today there are only a couple of them that are still run by family and that's a sad thing for me to see happen, but it didn't happen overnight.(I'm not going to even start here) on what I think about our 'Global Economy.
Hope everyone is enjoying a peaceful Sunday in our Great Nation!