NHS News - 1940

Our "Colorado Conniver"

Richard Holstad must have a sideline business of Storage Facility ownership to accommodate all the souvenir stuff he has.  Even when he scans stuff electronically our guess is that he keeps the original somewhere.

Recently he passed along a copy of the NHS News from September 27, 1940, originally in the hands of the Larry Patterson family, but forwarded to him for review and electronic storage.

The editorial staff of the "News" was quite skilled, apparently sold ads to local businesses (candy bars 3 for 10 cents!), and published this compilation monthly.  The content is interesting reading for a variety of reasons.

Our Blog Provider won't allow the pages to be viewable within this posting, so click this link to go to a pdf copy of the actual document.

Any who started a career in education will recognize the mimeograph production, a far cry from today's computer.  A typo was not easily corrected, and full pages often were re-typed due to excessive errors or tearing of the sheet.  The original was messy to handle, then mounted on a cylindrical machine that was originally hand-cranked until the electric motor allowed automated production.  But back to the NHS News . . .

The publication offers editorials, gossip, club news, and all the stuff you'd expect from a school paper, PLUS the Normal Training news.  Many of our mothers might have taken the Normal Training in high school, then a summer of "advanced" training at Cedar Falls before becoming a rural school marm.  In the "Former Students" section a couple of alumni were reported to be visiting, on leave from the service just 14 months before Pearl Harbor, while two others were serving in Washington, D.C., in civil service positions.

This "News" being before our time, too few names are recognizable, though Harry Thompto was reported to have been elected President of the "Athletic N. Club" as well as president of the senior class.  L. T. Dillon, the band man (extraordinaire, apparently), was noted at least twice for leading yells with/for the cheerleaders.  And on the "Professionals" page, there are some very familiar names: Veenker, Olson, Osten, Allison, and Johnson.

Change the names, change the year - and nothing changes, except yesterday's paper is now yellow.  It's worth at least a few moments of your time to glance at this history.