It was an ordinary day. Just got my latest copy of "The Saturday Evening Post." I have enjoyed 'The Post' for many years, but the older I get, the more I seem to enjoy their content more than what is written in other magazines I buy from time to time. The latest issue had stories about (A) "It's High Time To Fix Our Hospitals" which tells of an unregulated market in the treatment of our bodies generating profitable sickness rather than human thriving, (B) "The Quietest Place In America" which tells of Green Bank, West Virginia where there are no cellphones, no routers and no Wi-Fi, since the place listens for signals from deep space, (C) "Way Before Uber" which tells of the earliest car owners who discovered they could make money helping strangers get to their destinations, (D) "Who Put The Bomb" In the Bomb-Bah-Bomp-Bah-Bomp? which tells of 70+ years of Rock 'N' Roll, (E) The Postage Stamps That Gave Amelia Earhart Wings, (F) and a section called "The Vault" that are gems from the Saturday Evening Post Archives. The last one is always one of my favorite sections of the magazine. To give you an idea of what they include each time they feature "The Vault", I have posted one of the many stories they included this edition. See if you too don't enjoy the short story titled "Dating Tips Circa 1881."
Any bachelor wishing to keep "steady company" with a lady must direct his attention to the parents. He should begin by deferentially asking "pa" his opinions on business and politics. If properly respectful, he would be invited into the house to meet "ma." Then he should remark to ma that he knew her by her likeness to her sister, Miss Susan Jane (the would-be girlfriend); and when ma explained that she was not Susan Jane's sister but her maternal parent, he should refuse to believe it until the family had all protested that it was so. Then would he have been asked to "stay to tea," and his proper way would have been to take very little notice of Sarah Jane and converse continually with ma. Repeating this course of conduct during several calls, each made with some such motive to bring ma one flower seed or tickets to the agricultural fair, our young man would soon find that the "old folks" were regarding him with favor, and some Sunday afternoon pa would be mysteriously absent, and ma obliged to call on a sick friend, and Susan Jane and he would have the front parlor to themselves, and matters afterward would go on swimmingly.
Sound like something you might have enjoyed reading at one time? Wish I had read it years ago, right before I had met the girl of my dreams...my wife Carol. May have made it a bit easier to visit her more often. So, you now see one of the half-dozen stories that were featured in "The Vault" section of the magazine in this issue. Pick up a copy sometime and see what else you may be missing in "The Saturday Evening Post." Great reading for an evening when all that is on TV is re-runs or shows that feature a few people roaming through the jungle naked, trying to make believe they are all by themselves. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
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