Today
I was thinking about newsstands, those places one could drive to for national
and international newspapers, magazines, candy and cigarettes—24 hours a
day. I loved doing term papers for high
school and college. For my senior high school
Civics class I choose to do a report on the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, also
known as the Labor-Management Relations Act.
Senator Taft was the eldest son of President William Howard Taft and a Supreme
Court Justice. Fred A. Hartley, Jr, was House Representative from New Jersey. The Act caused controversy and was vetoed by President
Truman, but Congress overrode the veto and it became law.
So in those days, more than half a century ago, research
consisted of the school library and town library. I wanted a copy of the New York Times, and
from what I recall, the Times must have done an article or was doing one in the
upcoming edition, so my only chance of getting a copy of the newspaper was to go
to Los Angeles (40
minutes away) to one of the several newsstands.
My fiancé and soon to be husband, drove me to buy a newspaper. I don't
recall which newsstand we went to, either one in Los Angeles
or in Hollywood,
but it seemed like going to the big city for a "big city" newspaper. And
that "big city" newspaper was thick, heavy, and huge compared to my
local daily newspaper. I recall it was
evening, and the stand was on a corner and took up a good part of the city block.
The photo I found here, is of World Book and News, in later years on N.
Cahuenga, just off Hollywood Blvd., and after 78 years in business, it closed in
2014.
All this for a term paper, and why I choose to report on
labor law, I don't know. I do know I
received an A+ for the term paper. Today
we can easily do research online, find archives of newspapers, interviews,
documents, and not have to leave our computers.
Times do change, especially over decades. Sometimes it is good, sometimes not so
good.
