Books And Magazines In Our Younger Days

 Which Would Seem Strange to Our Grandkids

"The World Book Encyclopedias"

Tommy Towery

LHS '64

This week I recall another item that our grandkids would not know much about, I'm afraid. In the world of "everything is on the Internet," I think they would think it was funny that we relied on a set of encyclopedias to gather the information we needed to do school reports. Not only would they not understand the books, but even more would not understand that they were sold by door-to-door salesmen, and the sometimes guilt trips they put on parents who would not buy them for their kids to help them make good grades in school.  I can't remember the price of the set my mother bought for my brother and me back in 1955, but I know it was expensive. I have read some guesses at them costing about $400 at that time. If that is true, then that would be $4,429.97 in today's dollars.

I do remember using them throughout my school days and they were still in my mother's house when she passed away in 2000. I was still using them when I was attending college from 1964-1968. They ended up at a Goodwill store I believe. 

I am surprised but when checking on the internet I found that as of 2022, the only official sales outlet for the World Book Encyclopedia is the company's website; the official list price is $1,199. A company representative said in 2018, that "thousands” of print sets are still ordered annually, mostly by schools that use them as teaching tools for library research skills; public libraries and homeschooling families are also frequent purchasers.

One of my childhood memories of encyclopedias came from a cricket. What do you remember most about the World Book Encyclopedias of our school years? 

It's been a relatively quiet week, but personally a bad one for sports. The Braves lost, Alabama and Auburn lost, and the Memphis Tigers lost.

I hope to get back to some more common memories in the weeks to come, and I have a follow-up story from Rainer Klauss to share with you.

I hope you remember that in many of my writings I am only trying to plant a seed to bring out your own memories (such as this issue's topic). I really want to print your personal reflections if you will only share them with us. 

This Week's Questions, Answers, Comments

David Mullins, LHS ‘64', "I sure will miss (Spencer Thompson) Spence. There was never a nicer and kinder guy."

Sherry Adcock White, LHS ‘64, "Tommy, that music was a real blast from the past. I loved hearing it. I was so sorry to hear about Spencer Thompson. We started first grade together at Lincoln and graduated at LHS in 1964. Thank you for all you do to keep us informed about one another. I think I’ll listen to Down Yonder again. ❤️

Elaine Hubbard, LHS' 66, "I cannot begin to tell you how important your weekly editions of Traveller are to me.  I suspect that you don’t hear from some folks as often as you should, but it isn’t that we don’t care.  We do.  Sometimes it’s hard to go back to those days and relive them or catch up and hope that things are nearly the same.  It’s hard.  But we really do appreciate you and all that you bring to us week-to-week.  I would never know about the deaths of many of our classmates without your weekly emails.  We do care and we do remember.  Sometimes we need to stop along the way and hear what is being said to us. Thanks also for your service during the recent reunion event.  We really enjoyed the venue, food, music and of course the friends. We are so fortunate to have you provide this service to us after all these years.  I don’t know of any other school, class, year, or other group who have been shepherded so beautifully throughout our aging years."