So I was on an obituary hunt yesterday.  It was a drizzly nasty Saturday morning and I thought it was the perfect time to head on down to the Indiana State Library for a little research.  While I only found one obituary on my list of six hopefuls, I had a great time scanning the articles in these newspapers that ranged from 1884-1930.

Every once in awhile I would come across an article that was so funny I had to write it down.  I am going to report on my favorite two.

If you know me, then you know that I am a Groundhog Day fan.  Not just the movie, but the actual holiday.  Don’t get me wrong, I also love the film [amazon_link id=”B001KEHAI0″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Groundhog Day[/amazon_link] and am a full-fledged fangirl of Bill Murray.  Many of these newspapers will have just one line notes about, “Ms. Taylor is visiting her sister in Podunkville this week.” or, “Mr. Smith saw the first robin of the spring on his farm.”  The one-line response that The Zionsville Times had on February 7, 1884 to the groundhog prediction was, “The ground-hog had no reasonable excuse for not seeing his shadow.”  That was it.  Nothing else to the opinion.  Some things don’t change, including that crazy ground-hog.

The Danville Republican from March of 1897 had a really interesting report on a meeting that took place in Macon (maybe Georgia?  they didn’t specify).  The headline read, “Is Woman a Human Being?  This question gravely discussed at a Bishop’s Council at Macon.”  It was completely serious.  It let us know that while the discussion was held, no real pressure was put on anyone to feel one way or another.  If you feel they aren’t…then you are entitled to that opinion.  Awesome.

Another amazing thing about some of the older papers, the snake oil remedy ads.  Amazing.  Some papers they’ll take up half of most pages!  I love it.

I rolled through microfiche for hours and totally lost track of time.  I realized it was time to go when my stomach was growling so much I was actually in pain.