October Podcast Month: 100 Year Old Newspapers

Today, I completely lost myself in… not the work I should have been doing, but rather what we might (extremely charitably) call research. Namely I spent ALLLLLLL day reading newspapers from a hundred years ago.

In this episode I share a couple of gems including a Halloween ad from 1919 and a prediction for the future of skyscrapers from 1914—which I mistakenly say is from 1919 or 1920 in the podcast. Oops!

Image Description: A newspaper ad from October 30th, 1919 featuring a jack o’lantern and assorted ghouls hilarioursly chasing a terrified child.

Here’s the text of the ad:

What To Eat On Spooks’ Night.

Come, enjoy this hilarious once-a-year festivity. Tomorrow night is Halloween, the night of spooks, witches, goblins, and, above all, of whole, good-hearted laughter. Make out your list now, and telephone, or drop in the store early tomorrow — we deliver.

Big 9 inch Pumkin Pies.
Corn for Popping.
La Crescenta Molasses.
Red crisp Jonathan Apples.
Jevne’s Golden Brown Doughnuts.
Ginger Bread.
Fresh sweet Cider.
Budded Walnuts (new crop.)
California Fancy Almonds.
Jevne’s Fuint Nut Cake.
Fort Canned Pumpkin.
Salted Nuts all Varieties.
Jevne’s Supreme Chocolates.
Jevne’s Marshmallows For Toasting.

Grinning, grotesque ghost masks; funny owl faces to slip over the head. Our Art Paper Dept. carries an extensive assortment of Halloween caps, favors, decorations, etc.

H. Jevne Co.
Two Stores
Cor Sixth & Broadway
208-10 Spring Street

Home 10651
Broadway 4900

Do you consider pumpkin pie a Halloween food? Or any of these foods, for that matter. I think of them as more generally autumn foods, I think, and the food I most associate with Halloween now is candy, but I do think of bobbing for apples and eating doughnuts on strings as old fashioned Halloween food activities. Popcorn falls roughy into that category for me, too. But for some reason I don’t think of pumpkin pie as a food for a specific time until US Thanksgiving in the end of November.