Jim Kershner’s This day in history

From our archives, 75 years ago

Apparently, the weekend after Thanksgiving was already considered a big shopping weekend in 1935.

The Spokane Daily Chronicle was running a reader jingle contest on the theme of Christmas shopping. The contest was presided over by a fictional character named Howitzer Hoozit, who announced the winning jingle:

“Shop early, says Howitzer Hoozit,

You haven’t much time to lose, so don’t loozit,

Your bankroll won’t shrink,

If you have time to think,

It’s those last-minute buys that redoozit!”

The writer, Harold Foss, won $3 for that entry.

And what were people buying, in that Depression-era Christmas season?

From the ads in the Chronicle, it looked like some of the popular items included: “Fancy tea aprons” for $1 each; electric toasters for 98 cents; an electric train set for $5.98; a “rubber reducing girdle” for 49 cents; a red wagon for $5.98; and, maybe the best toy deal of all, a six-piece kid’s cowboy outfit, complete with shirt, chaps, pistol, bandanna, hat and lariat, for $1.49.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1947: The U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution calling for the partitioning of Palestine between Arabs and Jews. … 2009: A gunman shot and killed four Lakewood, Wash., police officers at a coffee shop. Maurice Clemmons, the accused gunman, was shot to death by a Seattle police officer two days later.