The strangest things can blow into your yard. Last week, an old newspaper showed up against the fence. Before wadding it up and throwing it in the trash, I glanced to see if it was some of my finest work.This paper predated my time at the News-Press. It was the afternoon edition from Dec. 31, 1987. It was interesting to read how much has changed in 20 years. And how much has not.
On the last day of 1987, the sports page featured the Benton Cardinals, who won the LeBlond Holiday Tournament.
The game photo showed Brett Goodwin, who is now the coach of the Benton girls basketball team, and Chris Tabor, who has gone on to a professional football coaching career.
In those days just as now, the sports section buddied up with the business section.
The business page featured a photo of a specialist who tested frozen dinners at the Campbell Microwave Institute. The company was hoping to cash in on the growing demand from the public for microwavable dishes. Wonder if that microwave cooking will ever catch on.
The Dow Jones industrial average was down, closing at 1,933. I had to look at it a couple of times to be sure the comma was in the right place. That’s about 15 percent of what the Dow was this week.
Industrial production was expected to increase in 1988, with computer manufacturing to grow and construction to slow. The article noted the Commerce Department survey was taken before the record stock market plunge of Oct. 19, 1987.
Missouri’s unemployment rate was up to 6.1 percent, driven by 2,500 layoffs at auto plants in the St. Louis area.
Passengers on TWA were irate about a smoking ban on a cross-country flight. The passengers pushed a flight attendant and the pilot left the cockpit to help her.
The classified ads listed a 1987 Ford Tempo available at Interstate Ford for $8,695. You could make payments for 48 months at 11.25 percent interest.
Home loans were advertised at 9.75 percent interest, fixed for three years. Kind of puts the current housing market “crisis” into perspective.
Maybe you didn’t worry so much about interest rates in 1987 because you could buy a three-bedroom home with one and a half baths, garage and stock barn on 37 acres for less than $60,000. Or rent a “nice two-bedroom apartment” for $195 a month. Maybe you could live there if you got a job as an “electronic technician” making $18K.
The business page also reported that newspapers were bracing for a hike in the price of newsprint. I’m glad the paper has managed to keep printing pages. For all the convenience and up-to-the-minute information offered by broadcast and online news, 20 years from now, they’ll never wind up in your yard as an entertaining blast from the past.
