Life with Liz: Message of hope

Just over 100 years ago, my grandfather lied about his age to join the Army and go off to fight in World War I. He was 15 years old. Born in 1902, he dropped out of school in 7th grade, and went to work in the mines, where he was a breaker boy and a “nipper” at the Coaldale Colliery.

A is currently in eighth grade, and G is in sixth grade. I’ve tried to wrap my head around either of those two bailing on school at their age and going off to work full time. I’m also trying to wrap my head around them running off to join the Army in another year or two. Quite frankly, I can’t.

Lately, we’ve been talking a lot about child labor thanks to the drama club’s production of “Newsies,” which is coming up next week.

The Disney musical is loosely (and I do mean loosely) based on the Children’s Strike of 1899, when the newsboys of New York City took on Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, the publishing magnates of the day. During the Spanish-American War, newspapers sold like hot cakes because of the headlines.

The publishers, sensing a greater demand, raised their prices. Newsboys, the “newsies,” would buy the papers from the publishers, and then resell them at a slightly higher price, usually resulting in about a half cent profit on each paper. If they didn’t sell all their papers, they would end up losing money.

Following the war and less pressing headlines, most publishers dropped their paper prices back to pre-war ones, except for Pulitzer and Hearst, who kept the prices up to increase their bottom line.

Although the newspaper distribution depended on the “newsies” to sell their papers, the robber barons took advantage of the fact that most of them were children and counted on them to have no say in the matter. Being kids, the idea of organizing and standing up to these publishing giants was daunting and made more difficult by the fact that there were plenty of other hungry kids who would willingly take their places. Kids’ allegiances were to their own neighborhoods and could easily be overrun by “newsies” from another neighborhood.

Knowing that my kids would sell each other out for half a cracker, or much less, I have no problem believing that premise of the play.

While the play makes the “newsies” more sympathetic by portraying them as orphaned, or homeless, the majority of real news boys were actually working to help support their families, sometimes balancing their job that earned pennies a day with schoolwork and other familial obligations.

Don’t get me wrong. In general, my kids are great, and are exceeding all my expectations. Right now, I’m honestly impressed at how well they balance getting good grades, participating in after school activities, including drama and band, and several sports teams. They pitch in around the house regularly, but not without whining and protest.

They’ve also played the game where they do a bad job intentionally, hoping that their poor performance gets them fired. They will procrastinate until the last possible minute. Quite frankly, if we were relying on them to get a real job done to put food on the table, I suspect that we might go a little bit hungry sometimes.

My own grandfather died long before I was born, so the stories I heard about him came from my father and my uncles. Although he had a propensity to wander, when he wasn’t running off to enlist in the Army, or later, the Sea Bees, he found employment over and over again in the mines, eventually working as a dynamite salesman, and traveling all over the East Coast. Before his own death, one of my uncles wrote up a short biography of the man that I’d never met, describing him as “a man of limited formal education, but with intelligence and courage in abundance.”

That description aptly describes the protagonist of “Newsies,” Jack Kelly, as well, and much like my grandfather, Kelly dreams of a bigger, brighter world and longs to get out and see it. Trying to place either of my teenagers in that position boggles my mind. In some ways, I’m glad that my kids aren’t facing that kind of hardship. I am firmly in the camp that childhood should be enjoyed for what it is, and, although it’s tempting at times, I am not going to turn my kids out in the streets to toughen them up. My children are much more likely to develop texter’s thumb than to lose a thumb in a swinging mine door or conveyor belt. My grandfather died at a relatively young age (67) from complications from COPD, brought on by a life in the mines, and getting gassed in WWI, two things that I hope my children never have to encounter, regardless of what career they choose.

At any rate, I’m grateful for the tireless work of the advisers, cast and crew, who will once again be putting on a fabulous show for our entertainment. I will enjoy watching A strolling across the stage, portraying on of his all-time favorite historical figures: Theodore Roosevelt, who was coincidentally the president in the year his great-grandfather was born.

I’m also enjoying watching A stretch his comedic chops this time, instead of the serious, dramatic role he played in the fall musical. I guess G has come the closest to re-enacting a scene from his great-grandfather’s life, as he has been hard at work helping to assemble the sets and will be working as a member of the stage crew, messing around in the darkness to bring the scenes to life.

Of all the things I hope they, and everyone who watches the play, take away from it is that this isn’t entirely fiction. Currently, a message of hope, and a message of the “little people” being able to effect change in the world is desperately needed. I’m hoping that my boys realize how privileged they are, and that regardless of that privilege, there is room for improvement, and they can be the ones to achieve it. If you’re in need of a little inspiration yourself, I highly recommend the Tamaqua Drama Club’s presentation of “Newsies,” March 19 at 6 p.m., March 20 at 7 p.m., and March 21 at 2 p.m. Now is the time to seize the day and go see it!

Liz Pinkey is a contributing writer to the Times News. Her column appears weekly in our Saturday feature section.