Publisher of ‘Nostalgia Magazine' calls West Plains his home and our history his passion
By PAUL DELANEY
Staff Reporter
Byron King arrived in Spokane 30 years ago and did so in the middle of one of the most notable events in the city's history.
Now for a big chunk of time ever since, King's been documenting much of our area's history with “Nostalgia Magazine.”
“I came to Spokane on May 18, 1980. Yes the day Mount St. Helen's blew her top off,” King said. “I got here late the night before the blow up and was at the Whitworth College graduation for a friend, when we went outside during halftime, we saw the effects.”
The next day, May 19, amidst the lingering fallout from the grey grit with the sulfur smell, King, a Medical Lake-area resident, started business operating a typesetting service. He has been here ever since.
“Nostalgia Magazine” is in its 12th year, King said. It's one of many publications he's developed including periodicals on local sports, construction, antiques and automobiles, just to name a few. “I've done a lot; I just didn't have any money behind them.”
“Nostalgia,” “has really struck a chord though,” King said. “The niche of this and the heart-strings we pull is just incredible.”
It was the interest of listening to the older generation tell stories that served as inspiration for “Nostalgia.” “I loved to sit around and listen,” the 50-something King said. “One of my real good friends was constantly telling me stories and doing a lot of writing and said, “well let's put some of them in print.”
King is very familiar with national publications that chronicle days-gone-by. “I said let's make a local twist to it. Let's keep the local stories, the local flavor and see what happens with it. It caught on real quick, real fast,” King said.
So why has “Nostalgia” hit the bulls-eye?
“I think we've always liked talking about our past,” King said. “We like to remember. We always sit around and talk about what happened yesterday, last year, the last generation.”
Usually the conversation goes back to the good old days and what we used to do, King explained. “There's just a love for that. It's not that they're so much better, or easier. It's just in our minds we think that that was a better time.”
With plenty of written history to go by, King is able to offer observations on some of our current problems with the economy and how that helps fuel the success of “Nostalgia.” “I think as things get worse today, especially economy-wise, we reflect back on how much better it was,” King said.
During the Great Depression, versus what King calls “the Depression of today,” people knew how to survive a lot better than they do today, King offers. “They had no debt; they had no money, but they had no debt,” he said. “We have no money and we have a ton of debt today.”
Over 1,700 stories have appeared on the pages of “Nostalgia Magazine,” and King was able to single out some that have both tickled his funny bone and tripped his emotional trigger.
There was a time when Whitworth University – then college – was going to excavate for a new building. “I'm thinking this is in the 1950s,” King said. “The students went out and got a rock and did some hieroglyphic painting on it and buried it where they were going to do digging.”
Sure enough the excavators found the rock. “It went all the way back to the Smithsonian before they realized this was a hoax,” King said. “The kids are telling the story today because they think the statute of limitations ran out, I don't think there was any crime committed.”
King loves the stories of the human struggle the most, however. One of the most touching stories is one about a family in the 1930s who went to Grand Coulee Dam to get a job. The dad got badly hurt and ended up in the hospital.
“Mom and the two little kids stayed there and tried to survive” King said. “And they talked about how happy they were with literally nothing.” Their meal would consist of a catsup packet split in half between two bowls, providing the family a weak version of tomato soup.
“And they were just thrilled they had a meal,” King said. “They got a Christmas cookie and they split it three ways between mom and the two kids.”
Those kind of stories really touch you, the married father of two grown children and native of Hesston, Kan. said. King left the Midwest for the Northwest when he chose to attend and later graduated from Seattle Pacific University with a marketing degree. He then spent two years in technical school in printing technology.
While “Nostalgia” has featured many accounts of the Depression-era, “the first car stories are always fun too,” King said. So are the first jobs people had. “Today we get a job for $10 an hour and we think that's poverty wages,” King said. “And they were thrilled at a dollar a week.”
Stories come from dozens of contributors. King, who admits he's no English major, employs a copy editor and sends the stories there for some polishing.
“Nostalgia” is King's most successful venture yet and potentially poised for expansion, with immediate plans for an online edition and another that will be sent via e-mail. King is exploring the possibility of producing editions of “Nostalgia” for other cities too.
“Nostalgia” circulates throughout the greater Spokane area, into North Idaho and Eastern Washington. “As folks hear about the magazine who have moved away from Spokane and grew up in Spokane, they are an instant subscriber,” King said.
The magazine has subscribers in every state, but none overseas. Trying to mail outside the United States, “is just no fun,” King said.
King has also published a series of historical books, including one on Natatorium Park, Spokane's long-running amusement park that was once along the shores of the Spokane River across from Spokane Falls Community College. He's also produced a series of pictorial histories, “Spokane Then and Now.” And he'll publish your personal history too.
The struggling economy has forced King to make some adjustments to the magazine. In January, he switched over to bi-monthly print schedule. “Just a couple of people complained,” he said. “ We're making it a little bit larger, King said. “Just don't stop it,” were the requests of readers.
How can he stop? There are far too many great tales left to tell and more history is made every day.
Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].
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