- (FBE) Today, you're going to be reacting to a newspaper.
- Oh. - Political newspaper? (chuckles)
- (FBE) You're gonna be reacting to a newspaper
from the day you were born. - 1922?
- It was World War II when I was born.
- World War II had just ended.
And it was, you know, countries are starting
to get themselves back together.
- We were in the throes of a huge recession.
Yes, I was born, but I didn't live through it,
because I was too young to know.
- (FBE) So you'll all be looking at the New York Times
that has been scanned digitally, where you can look
at the full newspaper and click on any article
that has been archived over the years,
and you'll get a chance to see what was happening
in the world on the day you were born.
- I'll be darned. I've never done that.
- I love it. I wanna see what happened
before I was born or when I was born.
- (FBE) So, here's what the front page looked like.
- Well, it's kind of interesting. The first word I noticed up here
was the word "Tammany."
Tammany was a very powerful organization.
- Wednesday, April 16, 1947. I was born on a Wednesday.
How much-- th-three? Get out. Three cents?
- Three cents! Wow.
It's like a freebie.
- You've got "Harding may," blah, blah, blah.
"Reds here jubilant." God, they still were around then too.
- (FBE) So, this does have the entire full New York Times
from that day, so you can actually click through some of the pages
and see the entire full newspaper.
- How fun is this? I'm looking at the ads,
you know, how things have changed with the cigar ads.
Silk ties, pure-- a lot of silk.
- Knickerbocker Ice Company. But that was in New York.
We had-- here, we had... Yelloway Ice?
- Attempting flight from New York to Rome.
Airplanes were everything. That was the new invention.
Flying in the air like a bird,
nobody believed what could happen.
- (FBE) So now, we going to take you through a few
notable articles from your paper. - Okay!
- "Scientists uphold evolution theory." (chuckles)
Yeah, they weren't sure we-- the evolution thing
was here to hold. The first awareness came,
I guess, when I was maybe 10 or 12.
You know, people were-- you still heard bits and pieces.
"Well, evolution, they don't believe that that theory is good.
We don't come from one thing to another."
You know why they deny it? Because they can't comprehend it.
- (FBE) Yeah. And then it's scary.
- "Germans see door to arms talk shut."
The Germans were playing games in those days.
They knew where they were going.
- "Germans clearing coast of Holland."
During the war, in the Philippines, the Japanese really was mean to us.
They were holding the babies up, and then they have
this thing with the knife, and then they would kill the babies
by throwing-- yeah. That's why my parents had to hide me.
It's scary. I don't wanna live in war.
- "Vandergrift is reorganizing Marine Corps to make it
more flexible for atomic war." Ooh, that doesn't sound good.
They're making sure that the Marine Corps is ready
or their fleets are ready just in case.
You know what happens when they drop those bombs.
- "India is disturbed by Gandhi's threat."
"Britain silent on plans." Boy, he was a thorn
in their side. They did not know...
exactly how to handle Gandhi, and they never did.
- "Bootlegger's friend sued," and asks for ali--
(chuckles) That's great.
Probation was still in effect when I grew up.
And my mother was a-- you know, like all the modern ladies
of their day, they were all flappers.
Even at five years old, I could remember when my mom and dad
were going out. My mother had this cute little hat on.
You know, I'm saying to myself, "Where do you get the booze, Dad?"
(laughs) at five or six.
- "Pay rise is voted to state workers.
The pay increase is 10% for those receiving less
than 2,000 a year." (scoffs) Oh my g-- well,
we think about the expenses from before are not as big as now.
I was making, like-- wait. 250 every two weeks.
But we survived.
- "Hoover asks for new and stronger effort,
laying Maine upset to the depression."
I don't remember seeing pictures then
of people in food lines, because I was far too young.
I was born in '32. I was nine years old
when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.
THAT I remember.
- (FBE) How do you think that newspapers do
in terms of giving you a time capsule-esque look
into how your life was going on?
- Oh, there's no question about it. That's all we had
for communicatin'. We didn't have television.
Radio wasn't even as good as the newspaper in those days,
'cause you couldn't see it. A newspaper, you could read words
and you could see pictures.
At my age, I tend to do a lot of reminiscing.
You know, I'll sit back and relax on my lounge chair
and sometimes I'll drift on, you know, things that happened
in my life as a young kid.
- All the articles, all the stories does make me think about old times.
Of course, we get it now more from television
and we get it quicker, and we get it at the moment.
- This is so much fun
just to see what was happening on the day I was born.
This is one of the most interesting times I've had here
just to-- never thought of looking up a newspaper the day I was born.
- Hey, guys. Ethan here from FBE. Thank you so much
for watching this episode of Elders React.
And if you enjoyed this episode, you've got to let us know
in the comments. Or if you wanna see the elders
take a look at anything else from their past,
please let us know there. Bye, guys.