Old News

I'll admit it. I'm a research snob. The Roman Empire? Ancient Egyptians? Western culture during the Cold War? Not for me. I would rather research early 1900's Americana  than any other subject or era. And even then, the key word is "early." Take me beyond the mid 1950's and I start to  lose interest. I'm not sure why that is. Maybe because once I get to the year of my birth I get that sense of  "been there, done that..."  I sometimes think maybe this narrow focus is in my genetic makeup. Or that maybe wanting to travel back to 1908  isn't so much a wish as it is a memory. Besides the appeal of simpler times, maybe it's because small town America just over the year 1900 seems so familiar to me. Ever since I was a child, I've been fascinated with those times. When I was around 10, I started collecting antique photographs, studying every detail of clothing, hair, background. Studying faces, almost as though I were searching for something or someone.  Okay, silly, I know, and  this blog definitely isn't about proving or dispelling the concept of reincarnation. No doubt this feeling of remembering those times is really all about the lifetime I've spent reading about them.  A lot of research, and as I said, a lot of wishful thinking. But still.....

Today's news? Not so much. Try to get me in a discussion about current events and I'll go mute on you from my lack of any real knowledge. But ask me about the events, the people, the businesses, the movers and shakers or the society news of 1910 Buford, Georgia, and I'll talk your ear off (or write a weekly blog). One of my greatest research pleasures comes from reading Buford's old newspapers-- the Buford Advertiser, the Rural Citizen* and even the Buford High School newspaper, The Green and White. While the Rural Citizen was more centered on Buford's agricultural and political news, the longer lived and better known Buford Advertiser truly was  a "hometown" paper. It was the town's main source for print news for 48 years, from 1916 until it was phased out by larger Gwinnett Daily News in 1965. The paper carried the basics of the big national news stories of course,  but even these were sometimes relegated to it's back pages. Local events, accidents, club news, arrests, births to deaths, the Buford Advertiser covered them all. Society columns, "housewife" pages full of dated advice, and classified ads filled several pages, and provided a unique insight into the daily lives of Buford's townspeople. Church news was covered in depth and sometimes filled two whole pages with Sunday School lessons and fully transcribed sermons. Societal relations in Buford can be traced in those early Advertisers, as mentions of race and segregated news stories eventually faded away over time and reporting became unified.

Reading the classified and merchant ads from those early editions are as equally interesting to me as the headline stories. A 1945 "Houses to Let" ad that reads "Five room house with electricity, $53 a month," captures my imagination almost as much as the 1917  front page story headed "2 Officers Nab Joy Juice Plant Near This City." I would have loved to have answered the Allen's Department Store help wanted ad looking for a "ladies accessories saleswoman " in 1930 as much as I would have liked being part of the crowd drawn in by the 1919 Advertiser headline:"Buford Will Turn Out To See The Big War Machines"--an exhibition of a touring Tank Fleet consisting of "six camouflaged trucks, one tank, and 2 German guns captured in the Chateau Thierry and Argonne campaigns." Every event or opportunity I read about from Buford's past both connects and educates me to the town's history in some unique way.

But as much as I love the Buford Advertiser's old news stories and ads, it's the society columns that give me the greatest pleasure. They were filled with what might be considered mundane information these days--usually just one or two lines about who went to visit relatives or who had visitors from out of town or out of state. Motoring to Cumming for a weekend was society column worthy, as were weekday shopping trips to Atlanta. In the 1940's and 50's the columns grew to include bridge parties, church events and engagement announcements, and were more specific about refreshments served and entertainments provided, though they still included brief mentions of visitors and  shopping expeditions. Yes, all seemingly mundane, but for me, so interested in the minutiae of the past, they are treasure troves, full of glimpses into Buford's daily life.

I find myself scouring these columns bit by bit, looking for names that are familiar to me. Simple to find, really, given all my research into Buford's history. Allen, Shadburn, Pirkle and Powers...all there, often more than once in a single column. But then there is the search for more elusive names. I have what I consider to be my "favorite" early Buford family, the Maffetts. Although there are other, more well known branches of the Maffett family in Gwinnett County, and even in Buford, "my" family was somewhat ordinary,  probably best known for running a boarding house on Garner Street for many years. But oh, how they interest me. With names like Octavia, Dixie, Birmah, Dred, Bliss, Scrap and Crickett (the last four all born by 1896, mind you), how could they not be fascinating? There's more to their story than just the names, of course. In my last post I wrote that I believe everyone has a unique story to tell, and I hope to tell more of the Maffett's story someday. But for now, given the family's somewhat low profile in Buford, I am thrilled to come across the merest mention of them, even something as simple as finding "Mrs. Scrap Maffett spent last Sunday in Atlanta" in a 1919 Buford Advertiser society column. "There she is, that's what she was doing on that day and in that year," I think with satisfaction. "I wonder if she went shopping? And for what? I wonder what Birmah was doing that day?" It's like reading about long lost friends. A connection, with a yearning to connect even more.

Old news? Doesn't feel like it to me. Instead it feels vital and new and infinitely interesting. Familiar, even. It feels like the title of the above mentioned 1919 Buford Advertiser society column. "Personal Items Briefly Told...News of People You Know As They Move With The Passing Throng." 

Rebecca

 *The Museum of Buford is currently researching the history of the Rural Citizen. It was published twice a month for a time in the late 1940's with John Hutchins as it's publisher and editor. We'd appreciate any other information anyone might happen to have.