You never know what you might find once you start cleaning up after a storm. Some of the things you find bring back memories, sometimes very old memories.
However, when you have a flood, you are taking off layers and layers of history. Sometimes you discover that the floor underneath the carpet (which was already there when you bought the house) is actually a beautiful hardwood floor that has been covered up for years.
Something like that happened last week in San Saba.
A Disaster Relief team from the SBTC (Southern Baptists of Texas Convention) was clearing out a house, piling up the flood-damaged pieces of the house on the side of the road.
They pulled up layer after layer of vinyl flooring, and under the third layer of flooring, they found several layers of newspapers. Many of them were of The Dallas Morning News. One dated February 5, 1956, had a frontpage headline that read 'Dallas Celebrates 100th Birthday.' Also among the newspapers were old editions of the The San Saba News from that same year!
The group doing the cleanup was not sure why there were layers of newspapers and said it was very unique and interesting.
What was interesting about it, besides the fact that it was there? They got a chuckle at the price of produce and other items found in the advertisements. You could hear one of them say, “look here at the price of turkeys!”
It was interesting to see the prices in the advertisements inside the paper. Examples: 10 lbs of sugar was 92¢; pork roast was 35¢ per pound; T-bone steak was 55¢ per pound. Oh how times have changed!
If you look closely at the photo, you can see the holes from the nails that were used to install the many layers of vinyl floor on top of the newspapers.
The home owner was out of town and was not available for questions. Because of that, the address will not be given in this article.
The group that found this hidden piece of history was a Disaster Relief Team from the Southern Baptists of Texas (SBT).
There was a story about this disaster relief efforts of this organization in last Friday’s newsletter. You can find it on our website www.sansabanews. com. Just search for:
SBTC DR Volunteers Continue to Meet Needs Following Texas Floods.
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Members of this particular group were from different parts of the state, even as far away as Seminole, Texas.
Here are the volunteers working at this location where the newspapers were found: Chad Lormand, Jean Ducharme, Gene Krenzer, Phillip O’Neal Hassell, Terry Frances, Coffman Carmele, Porter Joni Lormand, and the Seminole MEC group is Johnny Froese, Jasper Letkeman, Cody Klassen, and Johnny Loewen.
These folks sacrificed time from their schedules, their jobs, and the families to come and help San Saba flood victims and to share the love of Christ with them.
This group was hosted by First Baptist Church while they were here in San Saba. They stayed in different parts of the church and the parsonage. The church also provided meals for the group.
This is just ONE story of ONE afternoon of ONE cleanup after the devastating flood.
Let us share your story of “Uncovering History” during the post flood cleanup. Send to: editor.sansabanews@centex.net.
See also: More photos from "History Uncovered"