Taney County man finds WWII-era newspapers 'still in amazing condition' under carpet
FORSYTH—Joe Gideon wasn't alive in 1943, but it's a year of significance for the Kissee Mills realtor.
It evokes memories of his late father Jerry Gideon, a 1943 Forsyth High School graduate who joined his twin brother, Jack, in World War II shortly after receiving their diplomas.
The twins shared a tank during their time in the Army — Jerry was the operator and Jack was the gunner — and lived to tell about it. Three of their brothers also returned home to their Taney County families.
But Joe Gideon, 63, didn't expect to revisit the wartime era as he and his wife, Kim, began to revamp a 112-year-old Forsyth home they recently purchased.
As Gideon used his bare hands to peel back layers of old carpet, padding and linoleum last week, he tore his way into several relics layered above the pine floorboards of the home, built in 1910.
Vintage editions of the Springfield Daily News and the Sunday News and Leader — with perfectly legible print dating back to 1943 — began to surface with each rip.
"And they were still in amazing condition," Gideon said. "(The newspapers) looked like they were put down yesterday."
Newspapers often served as cheap source of underlayment and insulation in the 20th century.
More than half of the living room floor was layered with several pages of the newspaper, an inadvertent time capsule the Gideons scanned for hours.
It was a treasure trove of history.
An opening day preview of the Ozark Empire State Fair was prominently displayed on the Sunday front page of a August 15, 1943 edition, which exclusively featured stories about the six-day annual summer event.
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Another robust Sunday publication dated April 23, 1943 featured several local, national and international stories, including the war-time headline, "Have tremendous losses crippled Japanese war machine?"
"Nazi rear guard by Messina broken by Yanks," and the inflation-based "'Substantial reduction' in living cost promised" were among the front page headlines on August 17, 1943.
Dozens of advertisements conveyed the culture of the generation.
The Southwestern Bell Telephone Company — a precursor to the modern AT&T — took out ad space to remind users to "Please limit your long-distance calls to 5 minutes. Others are waiting."
Many of the Springfield-area businesses that advertised 79 years ago are now defunct. Lloyds Cleaners is among the few still in business.
"The fascinating part for me, my family has lived in the Forsyth area since the early 1900s," Gideon said. "So it was neat to be able to look back at newspapers from 80 years ago."
Gideon shared dozens of photos of the newspapers on Facebook, a post that generated hundreds of shares and comments.
"I've spent the better part of an hour scrolling through all these photos!" a woman wrote. "What an absolute treasure! Thank you so much for sharing!"
The Gideons carefully removed the newspapers from the home and have submitted a request to display the period pieces at the forthcoming Ozark Empire Fair, which begins June 28.
This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Taney County man finds World War II-era newspapers advertising fair
