This all appeared in The (York, Pa.) Gazette and Daily on June 1, 1949
Some things never change. Here’s the Gazette and Daily’s Walt Partymiller’s take on June 1, 1949, about adventures and challenges facing high school and college grads. Background posts: Cartoonist made York newspaper owner’s views an art form and Newspaper’s founding date hard to pin down and Further education plans, YorkCounts quality-of-life indicator: Post-high-school prospects rising.
When scrolling through microfilm, some things just catch your eye.
That happened recently when I was looking for what happened 60 years ago, on June 1, 1949.
History has a beginning and will have an ending and has meaning. None of this circular stuff. But sometimes recurring themes just keep popping up, as I was reminded on my scroll.
Some summaries from The Gazette and Daily for that date that might interest you:
– Last week, the market approached a 1949 low in skittish fashion, backed away at the last minute, and then on Friday headed downward again. Wall Streeters agreed then that the market was in critical price territory and that a lunge one way or another was in the making. The Associated Press average of 60 stocks dropped 1.4 points to 60.8, lowest since 60.5 was hit on March 16 last year.
– A York police captain returned Saturday from a week-long traffic school at Penn State and indicated that he would favor a crackdown on motorists involved in traffic accidents. “I’m convinced now that accidents just don’t happen,” the captain said. He suggested that an arrest should be made in almost every case. The captain’s name? Jacob W. Hose, father of former York City Police Chief and York County Sheriff Bill Hose.
– York motorists on the eve of a one-cent boost in gasoline taxes filled their tanks. So did gasoline stations, receiving distributors’ trucks until midnight the previous day. The increase hiked the gas tax from 4 cents to 5 cents a gallon.
– Peter P. Carter of York’s public schools spoke to the Exchange Club at the Yorktowne Hotel. His topic? Sex education in schools. He spoke about the theory that parents must be made to see the necessity and practicability of teaching sex as a part of the regular curriculum. Exchange Club members saw the film then being shown to 9th and 11th graders in York schools, titled “Human Growth.”
– Of course, it was graduation time. Eighty-two West York High School seniors, for example, received diplomas at commencement exercises the night before. Diplomas were presented by Emory Joseph, school board president, as nearly 1,000 parents and friends looked on. The main speaker’s parents lived in Menges Mills and his brother had graduated from West York the previous year. The commencement speaker, according to the newspaper, was the Republican co-author of a notorious “witchhunt” bill which was killed in the 80th Congress when various liberal groups protested that it would be a severe blow to American Civil Liberties. The speaker’s name? California Congressman Richard M. Nixon.
– It was a bad battle, even by post World War II standards. The attackers were on the verge of overrunning the other’s lines. Then the almost-defeated side rallied, charging back. A raging standoff ensued. But then something strange happened. A couple of squad members walked home. And Boston beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 7-6. That was the Boston Braves.
