Have you ever looked for yourself in the newspaper?
I always thought I was “never” in the newspaper – except the one time when, under my photo, the name was listed as actor “Dana Andrews” instead of “Dana Stewart!”
So, I never looked for myself… until this weekend. Newspaperarchives.com carries the newspaper from the small town where I grew up. While digging around, I was pleasantly surprised to find four clippings where I was mentioned!
Hospital Dismissal
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When I was 5 I appear under the “dismissed from the hospital” column. My mom says it had to have been one of two events: the mild concussion I got while either jumping on the bed or jumping on the toilet set to see myself in the mirror – my mom wasn’t home and heard both stories. Or, the time I had chicken pox and measles at the same time and got dehydrated. Thankfully, I don’t remember either of these incidents!
Head Injury
A horrible photo of me, but it shows the nasty scratch on my head from my fall
When I was 6, our Campfire Girls troop went on an out-of-town trip. We were taking a group picture on the tall steps of a statue, and I fell and got a nasty scratch and bump on my forehead. I got teary eyed when I read, “We visited the museum and had our picture taken by the Pioneer Woman Statue. Dana Stewart fell and hurt herself, we all hope she’s fine now.” Oh, how I wish I had a copy of that group photo! (And, a nicer looking photo of me with this injury to share!)
Dear Santa
Santa from Wikipedia
A “Dear Santa” letter written by 6-year-old me was another clipping I found. I’m guessing my teacher helped me write the following: Dear Santa, Would you get me some dolls and doll clothes. I would also like a Tugboat Suzie. A package of Shrinky Dinks would be nice and a doll house. I’m six years old and I live on B street. My name is Dana and I have tried my hardest to be a good girl. I would like to see you this year and all your reindeer especially Rudolph the red nosed reindeer. Please come this year to my house. – Dana Stewart (By the way, I lived on C, not B, Street, but this was a very small town and I feel certain this is my letter; I LOVED dolls!) UPDATE 1/10/2017: I now believe this “Dear Santa” letter might have been another girl named Dana Stewart who lived in our small town.
3rd Place City-Wide Winner
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I spent many hours jumping rope in elementary school. During my first grade year, there was a city-wide marbles, jacks, and jump rope contest. To be eligible for the contest, I had to first win at the school level. I won!
The rules of the city-wide contest were simple: two adults turned the rope and the student would run in, do a certain number of jumps, and run out without hitting the rope. During the first round, each student jumped once before running out. During the second round we jumped twice, etc.
As the article stated, “Rope jumpers near the sand pile sometimes got confused and lost count as the contest wore on. Twice competitors jumped out before they were supposed to.”
One of those jumpers was me! I didn’t “lose” the contest because I hit the rope; I “lost” because I forgot how many jumps I was supposed to do on a certain round! It was quite disappointing, but I was thrilled to find this newspaper clipping showing I’d won 3rd place.
Were You in the Paper?
Have you ever looked for yourself in an online newspaper? If you haven’t, give it a try and let me know what you find! The first step is finding which site carries your hometown paper.
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