News-Record.com

That's the headline of a United Press story from the March 7, 1951, paper, that our librarian, Diane Lamb, showed me.

Circulation of English-language daily newspapers in the United States reached a record circulation of 54,877,000 copies a day in 1950, N.W. Ayer and Sons new directory of newspapers and periodicals showed today.

The 83rd annual edition of the directory recorded that it was the 11th consecutive year that American daily newspaper circulation has increased and added an estimate that more than two out of every three Americans now read a newspaper every day.

While I'm tempted to call those the good ole days, it wouldn't be accurate unless you were a newspaper owner. Rather, they were the easy days, when newspapers were the only game in town.

More interesting to me were two other stories on the page:
* A work stoppage in the woolen industry threatens to "halt urgently needed expansion of the armed forces." The Army said, "Our new troops must have clothing, blankets and other woolen items."
* "Bakers throughout bread-loving France went on a 24-hour strike today. Forewarned, most housewives bought large supplies of bread yesterday."

Beneath the newspaper circulation story is an advertisement for Karo syrup, promoting "pancakes and hot buttered Karo. Bring 1 cup Karo to a boil. Add one-quarter cup butter, stir, serve hot. Ummm!"

I wonder how many people today use that as pancake syrup.