I admit it, I am addicted to Google Analytics. I have such an obscure hobby that it is very gratifying to see that I am reaching people all around the world. What is even more fun is that the number of peole finding "Dreams of Space" per month is now averaging close to 1000 people. One of the postings that seems to attract lots of random Google searches is this one about "My Weekly Reader 1957-1958" from February 2009 so I thought I would do another about the 1960s.
http://dreamsofspace.blogspot.com/2009/02/my-weekly-reader-1957-1958.html
My Weekly Reader was a weekly newspaper distributed in school. It had basic readings about the news and questions we would have to answer. There was even a way for students to subscribe to a summer version so you would get your weekly news fix.
For elementary students this was a welcome break from school readers. The stories were interesting and fed our hunger for current events.
As the space age evolved this was my source of what was going to happen next in our space program. Sure I could look at magazines or try to watch the news (boring!) but this gave us something to talk about at recess.
Everyone's childhood seems endless so to find these fragile milestones of my past is a lot of fun.
And of course the best part of My Weekly Reader was that you got to take it home, so I have been luckily enough to rediscovery some child's stash that survived these 50+ (!) years
Thank u so much. I LOVED my Weekly Reader 1964 thru 1970. And I did indeed get the summer editions every year! Thanks for the memories. Lynn Underwood, Lebanon TN
ReplyDeleteI remember the Weekly Reader in elementary school, which was almost 50 years ago now. I have written a newsletter for my work place for almost 20 years, and guess what it is called?
ReplyDeleteReading about this makes me smile. The Weekly Reader is a reminder of such good memories; a time in life when teachers could have the windows open and you could smell the sea air. We would sit and read our magazines just enjoying childhood. Life was simple and so nice. Thanks for the memory.
ReplyDeleteThat's my memory too.
DeleteMe? I'm STILL WAITING for my personal commute helicopter to be delivered.
ReplyDeleteWeekly reader changed my life beginning first grade. Remember, reading space articles and especially post in 1966 when two teenagers handled emergency communications using drake equipment from south America. Cut out article and saved for years. Would later become Ham Radio operator as teenager and saved several ham radio life's visiting repeater in mountains of Idaho. Beyond, enter electronics engineering and hired as first group of F/A-18 Tech Reps that supported US Navy world wide and later under contract to Kuwait Air Force, Kuwait. Everything, years of employement as direct result of weekly reader. Actually, looking for that article to share with third grade class of wife at Upi Elementary, Guam. Ready to setup old Kenwood TS-520, key, antenna and share my experiences with children on show/tell. Then, leave around without transmitter disabled for those to listen to code and voice. Return the favor. If anyone can point me towards that issue ... Please. email: iguamtv@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteI am now 76 years old and I vividly remember reading in My Weekly Reader while in the second or third grade (1947 or 1948) in Freer (TX) elementary school that one day we would have cars that would drive themselves. At the time we thought this to be a crazy prediction, but it now appears that maybe it was not all that crazy after all.
ReplyDeleteThere was a story in one MY WEEKLY READER about a boy named Ignatius Bernard Mannington. It left an impression on me. It was probably in the mid 1960s. I'd love to read that again. Spoiler alert!*****
ReplyDeleteHis initials were IBM. He was a computerized robot boy but didn't know it and was horrified when he found out. So was I!
I am trying to find the same IBM story. 50 plus years later I still remember. I was surprised also. Where can I find it. Nothing coming up on google.
DeleteI remember the same story, but I don't remember the source. I can't remember My Weekly Reader, so I may have read it in another source.
DeleteMy favorite memories from grade school involve the anticipation on Fridays waiting for the Weekly Reader to be distributed by the teacher. Some time it came with books that had been ordered 2 weeks before.
ReplyDeleteThere was one issue that dealt with the up coming Aswan Dam and what they were doing to save the artifacts from being covered by the ensuing lake. I can’t find much on it when googled. I did a report on it in school at the time using Weekly Reader as my source material.
ReplyDeleteI have been looking for that Weekly Reader story for awhile. I was about 9 when I read it in school. I'm 70 now. That story stuck with me all of these years but I couldn't remember the name of the dam. I'm so grateful to see your post. I loved Egypt and everything about it from that first story.
DeleteThat was the temple Abu Simbel. That story fascinated me, it was an example Of nations putting aside their differences and working together.if you remember That was a very heights of the cold war. am also 70, So we were reading it at the same time. Six years ago I realized that dream on a trip to Egypt, after an arduous drive through the desert I arrive before sun up, and all alone stood in front of the temple as a sun rose In the east and filled the outer chamber with light. I’ve looked for a copy of that weekly reader for years.
DeleteThe one that showed Abu Simbel is one of only two that left an indelible memory (the other was about a pretty fox that had the same snout as my French poodle). I remember the photo showing how they were numbering the pieces so they could reassemble them on higher up land. I was fortunate in 1980 to actually visit the relocated Abu Simbel -- a dream come true.
DeleteThere was an issue that dealt with the building of the Aswan Dam and how they were saving the statues and other artifacts from the rising water.
ReplyDeleteBack in 1961 or 1962, when I was in First or Second Grade in Chicago, I read an article in the Reader about a city that had moving sidewalks called "Escalades". This was not too long after I watched some old science fiction movie at the local theatre that pictured a planet on which everyone went place to place on huge moving sidewalks. I immediately fascinated with the notion of finding such a city. My father was in the Navy at the time, and fairly soon after I read this story, we moved to Tacoma, Washington where my dad was re-assigned. The first thing I did after we settled in was to go out and check out the new city. I saw a bus stop and since I just got my allowance, I thought I'd go for a scenic ride around town (and having no idea where I was going made it even more fun). When the bus stopped in the middle of the downtown area, I looked out the window and was greeted by a large sign that said "ESCALADE". I literally ran off the bus, and there it was: a moving sidewalk full of people going down to the next street. Ever since, I have wanted to find a copy of that edition of the Weekly Reader. If anyone should by chance stumble upon it anywhere, I would be most eager to read it again.
ReplyDeleteRegards,
Dr.Kindorf@gmail.com
I remember in the 60s waiting for the mail to get a copy of it. Great times~
ReplyDelete