Upon reviewing great-grandmother's diaries we see that my Dad's Uncle Joe often appears at the house of Julia, his sister, to collect his magazine that comes there. That seems strange to me. Why would Joe be using Aunt Julia's address to subscribe to this magazine? Why not have it delivered to his own house so that Dora could read it first? Why would it matter? Why the need for such a contrived excuse to stop by to visit his own mother when obiously he stops by often for other reasons unrelated to the magazine anyway? And what was the name of this magazine to which Joe was subscribing? I really have no idea. Maybe some other family members would know but I have not yet seen any clues to the magazine title in the diaries. I certainly doubt that it was the "Theosophical Outlook" magazine, however. We were never interested in theosophical concerns down in Southern California.
And why would my own grandfather, Ralph Calkins, shortly before his death, renew his subscription to "Sunset" magazine for 20 years so that we later had the address changed to our house until it expired? We all like looking at pictures of flowers and gardening and food and remodeling projects but "Sunset" is such a West Coast magazine. There is not much in there that would apply to Florida and anyway there is no scarcity of home and garden magazines specifically targeted to Florida audiences so anyway we don't get "Sunset" anymore.
Another magazine that our family never reads here in Florida is the "National Enquirer" and its kindred tabloid publications of large, bold headlines populating the checkout lanes at the local grocery store, even though tabloid headquarters is not far away from here, even within driving distance. They pay their writers very well but I admit that I probably would not feel comfortable with having to do what they have to do, although they would probably never hire me anyway. I am not that aggressive and curious about things that do not concern me.
I cannot say the same for some of our other missionary families that we know of, however. It is well known that Lois Stewart Williams was known to read the "National Enquirer" and had copies of that around her house when we visited there. I personally choose a higher level of reading materials than that for myself, even sometimes preferring things that are difficult to understand but which provide a more systematic and useful understanding of truth, because anyway truth is stranger than fiction. I am not missing anything of importance by not reading the "National Enquirer."
