I began serving the Union County Public Schools as the Supervisor of Federal Programs in school year 2005-2006. For the first 13 years in this position I was blessed to have Norma Jones as my Administrative Assistant. Norma was absolutely wonderful to work with. There are not enough words to describe what a help, inspiration and support she was to me.
One cannot predict the future, but it was evident that in the natural course of things that if I continued in this position that Norma would retire before I did. That sad time came at the end of the 2017-2018 school year. I thought long and hard about who the next administrative assistant might be. Norma was invaluable.
To make a long story short, the Good Lord worked it out. My administrative assistant is now Angela Davis Henderlight. She and I also work extremely well together, and she has proven herself a dedicated, loyal colleague.
In the course of settling into her new position, Angela came across some things that had been in storage that she thought would be of interest to me. One was a bound folio of copies of Ideals magazine ranging from January to November 1955. When I opened the front binding, the cover of the January issue revealed a picture of Abraham Lincoln as a youth reading a book by fireplace light. Of course this was an immediate hook for me.
Publication information inside the first few pages of the January 1955 edition indicated it to be Issue 1 of Volume 12, published bi-monthly (about every sixty days) by Ideals Publishing Company located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was edited and prepared by Van B. Hooper. A one-year subscription cost only $6.50, and a two-year subscription (twelve consecutive different issues as published) was only $12.00. Single issues were $1.25 per copy.
I looked up “Ideals Magazine” on Google and was directed to a link that described Ideals as “. . . a holiday magazine of inspirational poetry, artwork and nostalgia”. It
is no longer available by subscription as of 2015, but it is still sold in retail stores. At the magazine’s highest circulation level, there were eight issues published annually.
Ideals magazine has traditionally been popular with Christian families during the Christmas holidays.
The first edition was published during the Christmas holiday of 1944 by a public relations manager named Van B. Hooper. The magazine began as a collection of poems that were added to a company newsletter in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Ideals is a division of Worthy Publishing Group, based in Nashville, Tennessee. (Retrieved from reference.com “How Often Does an Ideals Magazine Subscription Come in the Mail? August 24, 2019)
It is easy to understand why such a magazine would become so popular. At its first release in December 1944, the United States and the world had just endured years of danger, anxiety and loss of friends and family resulting from World War II. This was a time that the American nation needed inspiration and encouragement.
The earliest edition of the magazine I have seen is the January 1955 edition, and its content was indeed inspirational and nostalgic. I would dare to say that literary critics would term it “overly sentimental” and “highly idealized”, and I would also say that was its obvious intent. It is a “feel good” publication.
And what is wrong with that? In a world that has become so impersonalized, it is interesting that all the crimes are still solved on television in usually one-hour episodes, and if not, then definitely almost always solved during part two of the same story line the following week. The criminals still get caught, the bad guys are put away, all the problems are solved, the movies and romance novels all have happy endings—or if not, as my mother would say, “That didn’t end right.” Movies, books and television shows that “don’t end right” usually have poor followings.
These highly idealized pieces of fiction are respites from a world in which many times things don’t turn out right at all. In the real world, crimes are not always solved, criminals are not always caught and punished, and our heroes and heroines don’t always come out the winners.
And this trend of idealism has continued for decades. A short trip through the January 1955 issue of Ideals is a prime example.
Post-depression and war-weary Americans were treated to beautiful, peaceful, winter snow scenes to celebrate nature (birdhouses, flowers, fallen leaves, snowmen, countryside winter scenes, stars in the sky, skaters on icy ponds, flowing streams, Minnehaha Falls in winter, horses and sleighs); the joy of work (happy children doing farm chores); wonders and constructed creations to celebrate man’s ingenuity (ancient sailing ships, emerald cities, covered bridges, country homes and churches, barns, old machines, factories, streetlights, city skyscrapers); animals (dogs, kittens, squirrels in trees); people (fathers, mothers, children with toys, pioneers, travelers, old men on a bench); celebrations of literary achievement (mythical literary scenes, inkwells, books, parchments, writings on democracy); and historical figures and paintings (the Statue of Liberty, Washington and Lincoln).
All of these beautiful charcoal black and white, sepia or full color renderings (no actual, realistic photographs to spoil the idealized images) are accompanied by beautiful inspirational poetry, essays, and quotes by Edgar A. Guest, William Cullen Bryant, William Makepeace Thackeray, Cervantes, Shakespeare, Longfellow, Ben Franklin, Thoreau, Seneca, Ella Wheeler Wilcox (once a popular poetess, now becoming obscure), Alexander Graham Bell, Emerson, R. L. Stevenson, William Cowper, and other less known and anonymous authors on such topics as opportunity, success/failure, perseverance, nature, faith, character, literature, work, history, heritage, family, friendship, time, encouragement, self-worth, competence, democracy, sharing, opportunity, destiny, religion, success, teamwork, prayer, thoughts, and countless other inspiring themes that other readers would find.
I challenge any of you faithful readers to find a copy of Ideals magazine to read at your leisure, perhaps next to a warm fire on a cool autumn or cold winter night. I’m sure you would find it time well spent.