1902: The Ping Pong Craze!

I spent the morning cheering on marathoners as they crossed the finish line of the National Marathon in D.C. I was waiting with my friend Molly for our other friend Jocelyn to finish her run (apologies if I’m not using the right marathon lingo!). Anyway, she done good and I admire her for doing such a thing. I can barely run to the bathroom, let alone down the street! Let’s just say I never really learned to run or do anything much athletic thanks to the twisted Florida educational system that allowed me to take marching band instead of physical education in junior high – I guess they thought the marching counting as physical enough activity? I regret it now, but at the time I was thrilled to not have to spend an hour in the gym each day, particularly since I was shy of changing in the locker room.

So, in the spirit of physical fitness today, and all of those fabulous runners, I bring you something from a relatively new digital resource provided by my employer, the Library of Congress, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Browsing the newspapers in Chronicling America can be a lot of fun for someone like me, particularly if you use silly keyword searches (try searching for “hair care” (just look at this example), “etiquette boys” (led me to this great page of ads), “dancing girls” gave me this result, among others). And a search on terriers (near and dear to my heart), gave me these two pages: The Society Women and her Pet Dog.

Sorry – almost forgot about to the athletics! I particularly enjoyed this page, sent to me by a friend who works on the project: The Ping Pong Girl in Training. Now that’s more my style of athleticism.