Print

Over the semester, I have had the pleasure of talking to my grandfather about various mass media outlets and how they effected him. This will be my last blog entry for the semester and it will be about print. Print comes in many forms, including magazines, books, pamphlets, and most importantly newspapers. As it has been mentioned before, my grandfather grew up in small Missouri farm town. However, this did not stop my grandfather from getting newspapers and other print items. Growing up, his family received the Quincy Herald Whig, a farm journal, and on Sundays, the St. Louis Dispatch. His family would receive the newspapers only in the evening. This is different then some living in the city, who would received a paper up to 3 times a day.  My grandfather was most likely not getting the most updated information. For one thing, his family only got news once a day, and for another thing, they received their news from a town a half hour away. His family received there newspaper by carriers. I asked him if he ever was a newspaper boy. He relied saying, "no, I lived in the country and was to busy working on the farm."

When he was younger, my grandfather liked looking at the funnies or as we call them today the comics. He also enjoyed reading the sports page and some times a little bit of the front page. Some of his favorite funnies growing up and into adult hood include Beetle Bailey, Peanuts, and pickle.

Next, we moved onto books. Even though Canton is a small town, they did have a library. I asked him if he read many books, and his answer was, "Not as many as I should of!" Mostly he would go to the library to look at pictures of engines, steam locomotives, gasoline, airplanes, and elevators. He liked learning about how they worked and how electricity effected them. It's no surprise that my grandpa ended up being an electrical engineer for Boeing. His interest in the subject stemmed from a young age of going to the library and looking at pictures.  We also talked about catalogs. When asked about them he laughs, and said, "Yes, I would read them. I would look at them in the outhouse and then use them as toilet paper. It offered great bathroom reading." Times have changed only a little. Today, people still read magazines in the bathroom, but we don't use them as toilette paper unless, we are really desperate.

We went on to talk about the changes in the newspaper. According to my grandpa "they've gone to pot" He says they are full of way to many ads, there is no content, its too liberal, and has too much opinion. Some pretty strong beliefs. Of course this does not stop him from reading the newspaper. He still gets it everyday and enjoys reading the sports and sometimes the other articles. My grandfather will also read articles online and reads his books on his new Amazon Fire Tablet. One of my memories of the newspaper with my grandfather is filling out the sudoku puzzles with him, which was one of my favorite things to do with him growing up. Overall my grandfather still enjoys print items, but he is not resistant to the change of these items to the digital world.

The farmhouse my grandpa grew up in. Canton, MO

I have sincerely enjoyed talking to my grandpa about mass media, and how it has effected him. I learned a lot about mass media and my grandpa.

Movies

Out of all the topics we discussed for this project, movies is the one topic that I feel I can relate to most. For one thing, I still go to the theater today with my friends and family. Secondly, I still watch movies that my grandfather watched when they first came out. For my grandfather, going to the movies was definitely an event. Canton, the small town my grandfather grew up in, played host to the only theater in the county. The theater was built in 1941, and it was very nice for its time. The seats were plush and the building was air conditioned, one of the only venues in town that was. He talked fondly of going to the theater with his family and friends. He and his family mostly went to the matinees on Sunday, and in the winter, they would go on Tuesday nights to watch 2 short films. He also remembers going and watching news reels and a comic strips. His family and friends did not go much in the summer time, because everyone would be working on the farms. I asked him about getting concessions at the theater and he said it was too expensive but, he would have liked to get a candy bar!

My grandfather went on to say, that his favorite movies are, Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, and Its a Wonderful Life. Today, my family watches Its A Wonderful Life every christmas!  My grandfather liked going to movies, and said, that it's hard to pick a favorite, there are so many good ones. He went on to say, "They made all good movies when I grew up. Movies have gone to trash." I don't know if I completely agree with him on that one! When he was younger his favorite genre of movies were westerns and once he reached high school he enjoyed musicals the best.

His favorite actor was Gary Cooper and he had a little crush on Audrey Hepburn, but who didn't! I asked him if he had a crush on Shirley Temple and he replied, " She's the same age as me, why would I have a crush on her!" Which made me laugh. In 1983, my grandpa and his family got there first VCR, which to my grandmother was great because she could tape all her soap operas, which she still occasionally does today. My grandparents never bought movies though, they only rented. Today, my grandparents rent movies from Netflix and occasionally go to the theater. My grandpa's favorite thing to watch is documentaries, which shows where I got my love for history from. 

Television

Television has been around for the entirety of my life, but, for my grandpa, he was out of the house and in college by the time his family got a television for their home. Although he does say, that it was still really exciting to go home and watch the television. The town my grandpa grew up in was really small, so their TV was broadcasted from St. Louis, and the signal was really scratchy. He remembers visiting his sister in Chicago and the picture being much better. Needless to say, he enjoyed that visit for the change in the quality of the TV signal. Some of the shows he remembers watching, included, the Ed Sullivan show, Jack Benny, Syd Cosner, and The Red Skeleton Show.

He also recalls, that if it was, a good show, the whole family would watch it together. He talked about some of the commercials he saw for items like Ivory Soap, Coca Cola, Ford cars, and
beer. He added that there are way to many commercials and he doesn't know why anyone would buy things off of them! We also talked about how TV related to the family life. As parents, my grandparents did not restrict there kids on what they watched. With only 6 channels, there really wasn't much to monitor. They said their children would watch cartoons when they got home from school, and at night watching TV would be a family event. My mom still jokes today that she was the family remote. Whenever a channel would need to be changed, my mom was in charge of going up to the TV to change it. As the years progressed and TV evolved, my grandfather states that TV has become a way of life now. It's not abnormal to have it on all the time. His favorite thing to watch on the TV now is sports. He told me that going to the games is obviously the most fun, but watching it on the television is better than the radio.  Today, my grandma watches her TV shows on Netflix, while my grandfather mostly uses the TV to watch countless sports games. Overall, television still impacts their life today just as much as it did when it was invented.

Radio

Growing up, my grandfather may not of had indoor plumbing, his family did have a radio. The families radio would sit in the dining room. On Saturdays, the Hatchel household would gather around the radio to hear the Opera, which came from Chicago. My grandfather stated this was his mother’s favorite thing to listen to. On Sunday evenings, the family could be seen listening to classical music, which I think influenced both my Grandfather and his sister. I once, after visiting my extended family on my grandfather’s side, commented on how there was not a house without a piano. 

My grandfather and grandmother both talked about their favorite radio programs, these included Shadow Nose, Lone Ranger, Soap Operas (a genre my grandmother  still watches today), and station WTAD for the weather and news. Both stated that listening to the radio was a family thing; with only one radio in the house they would all sit around and listen to the different programs.  I can only imagine the arguments that may of arose from what program would be listened to. As my grandfather reached high school, he had an old radio that he fixed up and put in the barn. He would listen to it while he milked the cows. He talks about having to go into town to see Mr. Howard the local radio repair man, in order to replace the tubes. 

My mother tells me, that when she was growing up my

grandfather would do yard work in the summer with a small transistor radio listening to the Cardinals play baseball.  She even told me that one time he left it in the yard and they spent months looking for the radio. He ended up buying a new one, and once spring came around the next year they found it in the yard. Unfortunately, it no longer worked. Today, my grandparents have Sirius XM in their car and frequently listen to it, although in my grandfather’s opinion there are way too many stations. My grandfather will also listen to the MU games when they are not shown on television. My grandfather says that if they are not in the car, then they are not listening to radio, mostly because they do not even have a radio in there house! But, like my grandfather says, "who needs radio and sound when you have the music of nature surrounding you."

Sound Recordings

By the time Vinyl records and record players started becoming cheep enough to be put in homes my grandfather had already left home to go to college and join the air force. He does state though, that when he was home his family kept the record player in the living room. At home, his family listened to a lot of classical music and musicals, his mother loved musicals. My grandfather is an engineer so naturally he likes building things. He talks fondly of the time he was in the air force and he had his first vinyl, which was a 44-RPM player. In 1951, while in the service he had this player and made his own hifi amplifier for it. After his years in the service he went to the University of Missouri to get a degree in engineering. In college, he owned a 33 1/3 where once again he built an amplifier for it. When asked what kind of music he listened to he replied with the album "Something Cool," by June Christy and then David Brubeck's album "Brubeck's Jazz Festival at New Port."   

Both artist offer very smooth sounding music, what my sister would refer to as elevator music. It's easy to see why these were among my grandfathers favorites. 

He also talked about being part of a record club, which meant every month he would get a new record of something that was popular or that the club thought he might enjoy. This is really how he got into certain types of music and found out about Artist's. We went on to talk about if he had any censors on his music, but considering he was out of the house by the time he got a record player there was really no one to control him. He listened to whatever he wanted to and how ever loud he wanted to listen to it. Although, I don't think my grandpa listened to any music that would be considered risqué!

My grandmother chimed in at this point stating that her cousins were not allowed to listen to Elvis Presley because, her uncle was so appalled by his behavior. I don't think this was very uncommon at the time either. Elvis was young and his dance moves were a little risqué. When someone comes on to the scene and pushes the limits of what people think is acceptable there is going to be some naysayers. It still happens today. Once you start thinking about it, no one is against Elvis now.  Think about the artist's today that are seen as risqué, what will they be seen as in the future! As my grandparents have three children, I asked if they put any controls on there music. My grandfather replied, “Ya, to turn it down!” Today my grandparents don’t really listen to sound recordings. The only time my grandfather listens to music is when he’s in the car or singing in the church choir. My grandmother occasionally puts in a classical CD and I have even made her a mix CD of some of her favorite Pop songs of the 21st century.  My Grandfather states, “ I like the peaceful quiet of nature.” It’s a good thing they live in the woods where there is plenty of nature!

Introductions

This Semester I will be blogging for my semester long project in Mass Communication. For this project, I will be conducting interviews with my grandfather and grandmother. Through these interviews I will be discussing with them how the mass communication of sound recordings, radio, television, movies and print have shaped their lives.  I chose to interview my grandfather because he likes to tell stories and since my grandparents are always together my grandma couldn’t help but chime in her thoughts as well.  Let me introduce my Grandfather John. He was born in Canton, Missouri on December 17, 1930 to German Farmers. My grandfather was a farm boy through in through and he loves to tell stories of how he grew up without electricity, plumbing, and much more. My Grandmother Joanne, born December 1937  in Quincy, Illinois has a different insight into the subject. I conducted these interview's by meeting them in Columbia, Missouri for Lunch. 

A picture of my grandparents at a Mizzou Football game. They will be celebrating 54 years of marriage this June.