Thank you to Mr. James Payne for sharing his copy of the Tryon Daily Bulletin’s 25th Anniversary Souvenir Edition.

The edition was published Friday, Jan. 30, 1953 and has a shiny silver cover with blue lettering. The pages are yellowed and the edges tattered and torn, but it is a true treasure.

Mr. Payne has kept this copy for more than 58 years. Having been here for a while now I’m not surprised a reader would still have a copy and wouldn’t be surprised to find there are more treasured copies in homes throughout the community.

Once I picked it up and opened to the first page I was unable to put it down. Inside those yellow and worn pages was a glimpse of times past, the people who lived and worked here. I found the following article particularly interesting:

Something New

The government statistics were not consulted, but Mrs. Carroll G. Bennett has compiled the following new things that have come within the past 25 years to affect our lives.

Atom bomb; antibiotics; air mail; balloon tires; safety tubes; bazooka; bubble gum; cellophane; C. I.O.; diesel locomotives and ocean liners; hydromatic gear shift; hydrogen bomb; hi octane gas; dry ice; Irish sweepstakes; artificial radioactivity; Kenny treatment; iron lung; nylon; neutrons; plastics; penicillin’ plyofilm; sulpha drugs; television; talkies; uranium fission; frozen foods and meats; self winding watches; food mixes of all kinds; turbine locomotives (gas); (gas turbines); jet planes; home permanents; bobbie pins.

In 1953 turning on a television, warming up a frozen dinner and mixing a cake from a mix still held wonder and awe for many. I wonder what they would think of the new things that have come since then.

Betty Ramsey is the publisher of the Tryon Daily Bulletin. Her email address is betty.ramsey@tryondailybulletin.com.