I awoke to a low rumble of thunder, and rolling out of my warm, comfortable escape of down pillows, slowly ambled to the window. Teardrops of rain, persisted from the day before, and slowly slid down the windowpane as the wind shrieked. The dreary mood of the day seeped through my body as I pressed my forehead to the glass, feeling the chill. I slipped into my navy blue slippers and padded into the kitchen. As I began brewing a fresh pot of coffee my dog, King, caught my eye. He was drenched to the bone, sitting diligently at my feet, with the Baltimore Sun still securely held in his mouth.
A couple beef jerkys later, I was finally able to sit down with my coffee and explore the happenings of the day before. A frown formed on my face as I read the date of the newspaper to myself (January 2,1955). Talks On Asia Opposed; Russia Offers To Free 2 Americans In Prison was the first article I read. It said that the two Americans were going to be let free, but only if 11 Soviet children were returned from Germany. Russia promised that the Americans were in good health. I then continued to read through the paper looking for more international news. Reds Losing Hold In Hungary caught my attention.
It went on to explain about people in Hungary who were not supporting the Communist regime anymore. There was a large fear that the Hungarian people may rebel. After that I moved on to another article about communism titled, 4,549 Reach Saigon From Enemy North. It was about American troops that let thousands of refugees from Ho Chi Minhs home province go. They had been under his rule for nine years and were led safely to Saigon. After reading all of these articles I realized that there wasnt much going on at the international level so I decided to continue browsing the paper.
As I continued to flip through the paper I realized that there were a lot of articles pertaining to national news. Then I suddenly came to the awareness that there was so much news because yesterday was New Years Day. I stopped myself and began to read an article titled 1955 Greeted with Revelry And Piety. The article gave many details on how the American people went about celebrating New Years Eve. Some 500,000 people crammed into New York City while other simply went to church. New York city was full of mobs celebrating the New Year with cow horns, fireworks, shouts, and confetti.
While this was going on in New York, a man in LA was giving free rides to people. Crump was a drivers education teacher who only wanted the holiday to be a safe one. He went around giving drunken people rides to and from parties. Wage Floor Rise Backed was the final article that I read concerning the nation. In Washington, President Eisenhower expected a rise in the wage to 90 cents an hour, but he expected it to go up more. They felt that the rise in the wage would only bring about good things. After this article I pondered about what went on locally in Maryland.
To my surprise, on the next page there was an article titled Police Using New Forms. Baltimore police would now be using new summary arrest sheets. The sheets would inform people of the names of all individuals in custody. Just below was another police related article involving 2 brothers arrested for a shooting at the Middle River tavern. The Tavern was on the first block of North Randolph Rd. in Essex. An argument between the two escalated, and they both ended up in front of the tavern firing at each other. One of them was shot in the hip but no one was killed.
Besides many other violence related articles, due to New Years Eve, there was also a lot of sales going on. If you were looking to buy something in Maryland, now was the time. Hahns on Charles Street in Baltimore was selling womens shoes from $6 to $12. 85. They listed their ad as an annual sale. If you wanted mens shoes you, could get them for $15 to $18 at The Modern Warners. It was located on 20 E. Baltimore Street. After reading on I came to the conclusion that not only were stores having sales but people were also selling items on the classifieds for cheap.
Doberman puppies were going for $3 and you could get a 1955 Lincoln Capri for $3995. Also in the classifieds women could get jobs as secretarys, bookkeepers, or even as clerks. Men were needed for construction, engineers, and loan supervisors. There was even an ad for Mail Boys ages 16 to 17, must have two years of high school minimum, and must apply in person in Towson. Yes! At last I came to the sports section. The first page was covered with scores from the college bowl games. The biggest one was Duke crushing Nebraska in the Orange Bowl, 34-7.
Duke was just to good for the cornhuskers, and they took home the #1 ranking. In basketball the Royals edged out the Warriors 96-92 and New York beat the Hawks 100-91. Dick Mcguire led New York with a big 22 points. Out of the corner of my eye I caught an article titled US Track Team Will Be Picked. The US was picking a team from the Pan American Games at Mexico City and they would compete in the Olympics. As I turned the page to read more I came to the end of the sports section.