- by Anne Finlay-Stewart, Editor

One day someone said that the Owen Sound Hub reminded them of the Owen Sound Herald, a weekly newspaper founded by then-Mayor Eddie Sargent and his sister Marion in 1951. I had never seen a copy of the Herald at that time, so I didn't know whether to be flattered or insulted.

I have since been gifted with three copies of the Owen Sound Herald, including the inaugural edition from September 6, 1951. I am not getting much done today as I am reading every word – articles and advertisements.

This fascinating gift, which spans two decades and begins before I was born, has inspired me to write a series of articles based on the Owen Sound Herald in 1951, 1961 and 1968.

These will not be judgements on the past nor on those who reported and reflected on the news of their day. I understand that that was then and this is now. 

What I hope they will be is an opportunity for my young readers to see where we have come from – the culture in which their parents and grandparents were raised. I hope my older readers laugh, feel proud of how far we have come, and wince at what we once tolerated or even embraced.

You will see headlines that could have been written yesterday, and ideas you will wonder why we ever let slip away. I'll try to show you what was on at the movies and what your neighbours were wearing and driving.
What you could buy for 98 cents, and what was going on in the city politics of the day.

And so we begin.

Nostalgia comes from two Greek roots meaning “homecoming” and “ache”. To me it is more than a “wistful longing for an irrecoverable past”; it is also the painful realization that for some that same past in the same place was difficult, even cruel.

Here is just one example from the “Over the Fence” column on the front page of Volume 1, Number 1 from 1951. It hit me like a rock. I had to do some Googling. There is so much to unpack I'll just leave it with you.

“We like the comment of Ted Reeve in his column in the Toronto Telegram last week with regard to the West Point cheating scandal. Quoting the Moaner [Reeve's nickname], he said: I cannot see why in hell anyone needs so much education to be shot in the head by a Chink or a Squarehead.”