The Town Crier: Christmas sale

Published 12:45 pm Monday, December 16, 2024

For those of you in the middle of that famous season, you know, the Christmas shopping season, the Town Crier thought it would be fun to go back to Christmas Past and look at some of the sales and advertisements that used to appear in the newspaper.

I’ve got a copy of the Dalton paper dated Dec. 24, 1975, the Christmas Eve before the big bicentennial year. It was filled with Christmas greetings and holiday wishes from all over the community. It was quite the celebratory issue and it came out in time just for readers to sit there the day before Christmas and get one more “shot in the arm” of season’s greetings.

A greeting card to the town

This issue was like a greeting card from Dalton to Dalton. Chances were 100% that folks used some of the businesses advertising or dealt with many of the groups mentioned here. This was a whole section from the paper, from page 15 to 26 of that issue. Those pages were all about Christmas and the holidays. Regardless of what news (probably bad) the front page may have had, this section held something to put a seasonal smile on your face.

I was somewhat surprised by some of the ads in the paper as they were from companies that weren’t particularly retail in nature, and some were from companies we wouldn’t associate with such a festive season.

And then there was the surprise that some of the ads were from government agencies. Who knew they had a little money in the budget to send out a newspaper greeting to the citizens.

For example, there is an ad that shows a little boy and little girl in winter clothes and earmuffs singing “Joy to the World” and the phrase “Caroling Christmas Greetings to You.” This ad was from the tax commissioner at the time, Pryor Fitts. Maybe this came from his election campaign funds as opposed to his office.

On the next page is a big half-page ad with three little kids in choir robes singing. Their music books say “Christmas Carols” while the big quote above them sings out “Happy Holiday!” The text below says “An old-fashioned greeting bringing you the best wishes for the Holiday Season.” This ad is presented by “The Employees of the City of Dalton.”

Not to be outdone, a couple of pages later there is an ad of almost half a page with the top lined by a drawing of bells while below is a photo of a mom and two sons in a snowy landscape, with mom and one son pulling a sled across the snow. The text reads “Season’s Greetings,” “May the beauty of the season be reflected in the hearts of all men, bringing dear ones closer in the real meaning of Christmas … God’s love for all.” This is one of only four ads in this section that is a photograph, all the others being some type of artwork. The ad is from the Whitfield County Board of Commissioners. The other three ads featuring photos include two banks and a pharmacy.

The whole front page of this section is from Dunaway Drugs. The top left portion of the page is artwork of ornaments hanging on the branches of a Christmas tree. They’re in that really mod mid-century style from then. The headline reads “Blessings of Christmas,” and below the artwork is a paragraph wishing that the spirit of Christmas will “abide with you and yours,” and then it finishes up thanking all for loyal patronage and stating that they look forward to serving their customers in the future.

The rest of the page is a series of 18 photo portraits of the employees of Dunaway. You can tell what department they work in by looking at the background of the photos, including the ladies that worked at the lunch counter. Back in those days Dunaway had a large one, and other pharmacies in town had luncheonettes also, like Collier’s Drugs and Owens Pharmacy (where my dad told me that they had the best hot dogs in town!).

Another large ad with a big photo is from First National Bank, which was where Wells Fargo downtown is now. The Christmas wish from the bank came from “the Directors, Officers and Employees.” According to the text, the gold, frankincense and myrrh of our age is children’s smiles and laughter, warm love given and returned, and happiness unbounded. Sounds poetic and all, but a little gold these days wouldn’t hurt my feelings.

The photo they’ve chosen is of a pair of kids, a little girl maybe 5 and a little boy perhaps 3, coming down the stairs of the house in their pajamas. The little girl lights their way by holding a candle. I’m not sure they’d let kids that little handle fire these days in an ad.

The final photograph in the paper is from another large ad from another bank. Just about this time I think Hardwick Bank changed its name to Hamilton Bank … or maybe it was the other way around. Going French, they wish Dalton a “Joyeux Noel.” I’ll translate for you: “Merry Christmas!”

The photo for the ad is encircled by artwork to make it look like it’s in an ornament, which makes sense because the photo is of two very young boys, maybe 3 and 18 months old, coming down the stairs and laughing at the Christmas tree. Since they’re on the stairs, they are looking at the top of the tree and can see the star, as well as those ceramic ornaments that were so delicate, if you breathed on them too hard they would shatter. There’s also that tinsel we called “icicles,” long strands of aluminum-like strips that we would toss on the tree in great handfuls. Of course, with us kids decorating with it, the bottom half of the tree had plenty and the upper half had but a sprinkling of it. And yes, it was a mess to clean up. I recommend from experience that you only use the icicle strands on a live tree that you’re going to toss out after the holidays.

Some of the companies running the greetings I remember going to. There was Canned Sound audio, Dorsey Oldsmobile and McIntosh’s Shoes. Some of the businesses are still around like Maryville Jewelers (who wished everyone the “Best of Luck in 1976”), The Georgian Apartments and Helton Tire Center. Others are gone, like Burger Chef and Stroup Funeral Home.

Apart from all the Christmas-centric ads, there were articles about Christmas and Hanukkah. They covered everything from events that you could go to like the live nativity they held at Stone Mountain to historical info on how Christmas was celebrated in the colonial days or the Wild West, and Christmas traditions in other countries.

In this paper there were articles about the Christmas story being shared with others including GI’s far from home and Taos Indians celebrating the holiday. And what would a Christmas section be without some recipes? The ’75 season brought snack recipes for caramel peanut puffs, popcorn peanut bars and cinnamon sugared nuts, excellent replacements for Santa’s cookies on the mantel.

The artwork makes the memories

But it’s the artwork that went with all the ads that really make for memories when reading this old paper. There were plenty of kids, especially kids singing carols. There are a lot of “winter birds” including one cartoon bird family singing carols. There are the wise men on camels in several ads and also shepherds with sheep looking at that famous star. In one ad, Joseph leads a donkey where Mary and the Baby Jesus ride (clearly this is post-Christmas).

There is plenty of artwork featuring ornaments, including ornaments with writing on them such as “Noel” and the word “Joy” spelled out where the “O” is an ornament. There are scenes of “Olden Days,” one featuring a sleigh ride through the snowy landscape in a sight that has probably never been seen down here in Georgia.

Another old-timey scene has a Victorian Era family greeting us in their winter formal wear, the ladies with hand-warming muffs and the gentleman with a top hat. And there’s an early 1900s couple at the piano singing a Christmas song while the tree shines behind them. There are plenty of snow-covered churches, ringing bells and candles. And of course, there’s Santa. In some cases he’s the classic Santa, maybe sailing away in his sleigh or climbing down a chimney. In others he’s a caricature handing out gifts, and in one, you only see his feet as an elf helps him on with his winter boots.

Warm Christmas memories are one of the best things about the holiday, whether we’re telling stories around the dinner table, looking at old photos or singing the songs we always sing. It’s traditions that warm the heart during the cold months.

Looking back at the old paper is a great reminder of the community we come from and how we’re all interconnected. Page after page of Christmas traditions in the newspaper matched with the community’s Christmas well-wishing to each other is heartwarming indeed.

Mark Hannah, a Dalton native, works in video and film production.