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Hard to imagine days before Google, but folks either used encyclopedias, called the county library or, apparently, the newspaper.
My first day as police and courts reporter on the Delta Democrat-Times in Greenville, Mississippi, I was arranging my writing pads, pens and checking out the electric typewriter when the phone rang. Bracing for my first call from a police chief or district attorney, I nervously answered.
“What was the dog’s name on Hee Haw?” the caller asked, seriously. I asked around the newsroom. No one knew.
“I’m sorry,” I told the caller, “but our Hee Haw editor is on vacation.”