It's Saturday, and the first thing I did today was read the newspaper. Last Saturday morning I read the Saturday morning newspaper; like the Saturday before, and the Saturday before that. It’s a tradition in my home.
I don’t know when reading Saturday morning papers became a tradition more broadly. According to Britannica something like our modern newspaper began appearing in western Europe and eastern Asia in the first half of the 17th century. Perhaps the earliest recognizable London daily newspaper, The Daily Courant (which took its name from the Dutch corantos meaning "currents of news") was first published on March 11th of 1702 by Elizabeth Mallet. Moneyweek tells us that editions of The Daily Courant were pretty thin, consisting of "a single sheet with two columns, and adverts on the back" - bit like our Monday morning papers, really. The Daily Courant offered reprinted articles from the continent as well as limited (politically safe) local news written up by Mallet herself. Typically, The Daily Courant pushed sensationalist stories, showing a modern understanding what sold well and thereby attracted advertisers. Alas, the technical limitation of her 18th century printing press prevented her from putting out a fully modern, 20th century newspaper. There were no fashion spreads, no pictures of cute animals, and, most important, no full-page funnies.
Wikipedia credits the Americans with the first modern, full-page funny papers, circa 1900; typically published Sunday morning (as opposed to our more conservative Saturday printings). When I was little, my grandmother would sometimes wrap presents in colourful funny pages – delightful and important wrapping paper you sit and read if you removed it carefully enough. Otherwise, Saturday mornings, I had to sit and wait while my father laughed his way through the funny pages. Then I learned to get up early if I wanted first dibs on the Saturday funnies – or, as my interests matured, the school sports section, the recipes, the crossword, and the front page.
Competition of another sort showed up when I had my own children. When my twins were born, I specifically asked for “Saturday morning paper time,” which didn’t seem to prevent my oldest from climbing into my armchair to see what was so interesting about Saturday’s news.
I read our Saint John newspaper daily. I feel my day is missing something if I don’t read the paper. I also read local community papers when I can. When I lived in Grand Bay - Westfield, I always read the monthly River Valley News and its successor The District. In Saint John, I follow the quarterly Around the Block community newspaper. When I travel, I love finding small local newspapers like The Island Times (Grand Manan) or The Grand Lake Mirror (Chipman). Last summer, while in Calais, Maine, I picked up a copy of The Quoddy Tides, billed as the “Most Easterly Newspaper Published in the United States.” I was impressed by how many stories it had about New Brunswick’s Charlotte County, and I became a subscriber. In the Oct 9th edition, I learned about a fire on Grand Manan, about St. Stephen’s municipal budget decisions, and how students at Campobello Consolidated are adapting to Covid-19 rules. (By the way, the Deer Island Home and School Association is collecting items for this year’s online auction to raise funds for outdoor activities for students – it’s in the Quoddy Tides.) This 40-page paper, published twice monthly, offers birth and death notices, opinion pieces, photo spreads and job ads.
The Quoddy Tides also prints a generously sized crossword puzzle. I mention this because in my parents’ house, where daily newspaper reading still goes on, I’ve begun hearing complaints about how small the local paper’s crosswords have become. So when I am done reading my Quoddy Tides, I pass it along with the crosswords unsolved – another bit of newspaper I share with my dad. It’s a tradition in my home.
Cheryl Brown (@CherylAnneBrown) is co-creator of the Storytent and Bookwagon programs, QLNB's Community Literacy Coordinator, and long-time advocate for and facilitator of a variety of family literacy initiatives. In these posts, she has been documenting and sharing snap-shots of some of her daily reading.
