looking back
Phone-a-thons came before the invention of cell phones. At the Jewish Federation’s 1962
campaign headquarters in the Butzel Building in Detroit, volunteers used rotary phones and city
directories to reach out to donors for the Allied Jewish Campaign.
Courtesy Leonard N. Simons Jewish Community Archives
From the JN Foundation Davidson Digital Archive of Jewish Detroit History
B
Mike Smith
Detroit Jewish News
Foundation Archivist
78
ack to school. Three words that hold dif-
ferent meaning for different people. It is a
menacing phrase for kids. It means, alas,
summer is over; it’s time to get back to work. For
moms, it means “Hooray, I survived the summer
with the children home every day, and I now get
some respite for a few hours a day.”
For moms and dads, it means time to shop
for clothes and school supplies for the kids, and
work out who drives whom to which sports prac-
tice, dance class or after-school program. And, I
thought to myself, what would I find if I searched
for “back to school” in the Davidson Digital
Archives?
Well, I found 1,569 pages in the JN and the
August 30 • 2018
jn
Detroit Jewish Chronicle that mentioned “back
to school.” It was interesting that the initial use
of the term first appeared in the June 13, 1919,
and other early issues of the Chronicle, not for
a department store sale, but as a social item
regarding who was returning to college. The
phrase was also included in a poem, an ode to
mothers with school-age children, in the Sept.
22, 1922, issue of the Chronicle. It has a rather
unceremonious title: “Ma!”
In the Jan. 25, 1924, issue of the Chronicle,
the “Go Back to School” advertisement was
for “classes for men” at the Detroit Institute of
Technology. Times have changed. The Palace
Model Laundry placed a back-to-school ad for
its services in the Sept. 4, 1925, Chronicle, not-
ing: “What mother doesn’t have enough work …
without being burdened with ‘extra heavy wash-
ings?’” Indeed. The Aug. 24, 1928, Chronicle had a
brief ad from Hudson’s, simply pointing out that
it had expanded its Children’s Floor.
My favorite use of “back to school” from the
early years? I liked the advertisement from
United Dairies in the Sept. 11, 1936, Chronicle,
which had a very succinct message: “Back from
Vacation! Your Children Go Back to School!
Phone at Once! [to get more milk].” •
Want to learn more? Go to the DJN Foundation archives,
available for free at www.djnfoundation.org.