₦airaland Forum

I read a lot of publications when I was growing up. Nigerians loved to read back then and there was no shortage of titles for them to read. There were newspapers and magazines that covered virtually every area of human interest.

1) Daily Times, Vanguard, Punch, Concord

Old Man originally bought Daily Times Newspapers. It was a proper newspaper at that time and I remember the main cartoon in the paper. The star of the cartoon was an old man who smoked a pipe and who always eavesdropped on other people’s conversation and always made comments about what he had heard. In this way he provided commentary about political, social and economic issues in the society. His name was Pa Johnson and he got his own comicbook called Fun Times in the early or mid-1980s.

Video: Channels TV interviews Moses Osawe, the creator of Pa Johnson and Gabriel cartoon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfHIGLu9wrk?si=DA51H6kwMszFFJ9-

However we had stopped buying the Daily Times by then. Daily Times was bought over by the Federal Military Government which proceeded to run down the company. The paper was probably the oldest newspaper that was still being published at that time (it was founded in 1925). It was the largest newspaper company in Nigeria and it published many newspapers and magazines, had one of the largest printing presses. It owned the Times Leisure Services (guest houses, motels, entertainment promotions) and also owned the Miss Nigeria beauty pageant. The government destroyed all these businesses.

The newspaper became quite boring, did not actually report the news and was filled with obituaries (we called it Obituary Paper) and government propaganda and so we staged a revolt and convinced Old Man to switch to two similar, newer and more exciting newspapers, Vanguard and Punch.

Vanguard had one of the best sports pages of any newspaper in the early and mid-1980s and it had a “National Newsreel” and an “International Newsreel” on its second and third pages. The National Newsreel had pictures of events that had happened across the country, while the International Newsreel had pictures of events that occurred around the world in the previous 24 hours. I followed the 1987 Palestinian Intifada on Vanguard’s International Newsreel.


The paper also had a “Page 3 Girl” feature. These were pictures of girls in skimpy swimsuits and bikinis which were published on the third page of the newspaper. Several other papers also had the page 3 girl feature. The Buhari government forced the papers to stop the practice in 1984.

Vanguard had great journalists and columnists like Bisi Lawrence, Chris Okojie, etc. It also had a full page of cartoons and it had the famous Mr and Mrs cartoon on the front page.

The Mr and Mrs cartoon was started by a cartoonist called Lawrence Akapa. He was not satisfied with starting one of the most famous cartoon strips in the country, so he left the Vanguard and started a magazine called Top News. It was one of the worst magazines in the history of Nigeria. It was filled with fake news, doctored pictures and outright lies. I remember that it ran a crazy story about a Nigerian girl that it claimed was Michael Jackson’s girlfriend. It also claimed that Tosin Jegede had died during an attempted abortion. Lots of people petitioned the police and the NUJ about the activities of Akapa’s Top News and the NUJ was forced to launch an investigation and publicise its findings at a press conference. The NUJ’s press conference about the magazine was shown on the NTA Network News. Tosin Jegede was at that news conference with her parents (so that everybody could see that she was alive). Michael Jackson's supposed Nigerian girlfriend was also at the news conference. She said that she had never met Michael Jackson and that she didn't know how Lawrence Akapa superimposed her picture on a picture of Michael Jackson (remember that this was before Adobe Photoshop became popular). There were many other people at that news conference that complained that Akapa used their names or pictures to cook up false stories. He was also in the habit of stealing pictures from foreign magazines and concocting fake stories about the pictures.

The Punch had very interesting entertainment pages (especially the Saturday Punch) and the paper was far more interesting than the Daily Times. I think it also had the page 3 girl feature. The National Concord was the backup newspaper that was bought whenever the vendor did not have Vanguard or Punch.

Then, in the late 1980s, National Concord introduced Weekend Concord. This was a magazine within the Saturday Concord newspaper and its primary focus was entertainment. Weekend Concord had interesting interviews with music and TV stars, information about concerts and fashion shows, song lyrics, etc. Therefore, Saturday became a three paper day; a day when we bought Vanguard, Punch and Weekend Concord.

Photo of Weekend Concord

There were also many other newspapers that we bought occasionally. There was the Nigerian Tribune (Awolowo), the Nigerian Observer (Bendel State Government), the Sketch (Oyo State Government), the Lagos Horizon (Lagos State Government) and the New Nigerian (a northern Nigeria newspaper, it was also bought over and destroyed by the Federal Military Government).

There were many great columnists in those newspapers. This is the legendary Oracle, Professor Sam Akpabot.

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This is the Oracle!

I read his column in. . .was it the Sketch or the Tribune? He often predicted the results of football matches (he got a few of them wrong). He was a musicologist and an academician (he lectured at UNN and Ife). He was also a broadcaster.


Despite the fact that he was a famous musician, he often sat with the Nigerian Football Supporters Club during Green Eagles matches and he played the trumpet with them. The NTA usually interviewed him at half time.


What I want you to listen to is his pronunciation of the following words: "Dodo", "Moi-moi", "Ero".


Sam Akpabot - Oni Dodo (1978).



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPp3FiJpg0k

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Lots of stars usually watched Green Eagles matches back in the day. The NTA had feature in which they interviewed stars that were in the stadium at half time. They interviewed a lot of people, but at the moment I can only remember Power Uti (wrestler) and Sam Akpabot (musician, musicologist, academic and journalist).

The quote below is from the description on the YouTube video, but they omitted two important parts of his life, so I'll briefly write about those parts.

Sam Akpabot was an athlete at Kings College (football and track & field). He later worked as a sports journalist at the Daily Times in the 1970s. He had a sports column in the Daily Sketch and later in the Nigerian Tribune in the 1980s. The column was called "The Oracle".

Sammy (Samuel) Ekpe Akpabot (1932-2000) was a Nigerian composer, professor and author. He was born in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State Nigeria.

At the age of eleven Sammy came to Lagos for his education at King's College, a school often referred to as the 'Eton of Nigeria' and where European music was taught. It was, however, in the Church that Samuel Akpabot received the most significant introduction to European music. He was a chorister at Christ Church Cathedral, Lagos.

A scholarship enabled Akpabot to travel to England in 1954 and enroll in the Royal College of Music in London. There he studied organ and trumpet. Akpabot subsequently left to study music at Trinity College.

In 1959 Akpabot returned to Nigeria and became a broadcaster with the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation.

Samuel Ekpe Akpabot, renowned musicologist and composer, died in his hometown of Uyo, Nigeria, on August 7, 2000. He was 67 years old and until his death had been serving as a lecturer at the Institute of Cultural Studies, University of Uyo.

IKEBE SUPER!
You’d find the likes of Nakson and Pa Jimo here.

2) West Africa Magazine

West Africa Magazine was an international magazine about West Africa and it had some of the best African journalists on its payroll (and many more stringing for it). The magazine was owned by the Daily Times for a long time, but it was published in London and maintained its editorial independence, even when the Daily Times was owned by the Federal Military Government. I would have loved to list all the star journalists that worked for and with the magazine, but I’m scared of the anti-spam bot.

The first few pages of the magazine were dedicated to the major stories about (and affecting) West Africa. Then there are news columns that highlight the local stories in each West African country. This is done in a country by country format and the major countries like Nigeria, Ghana and Ivory Coast get more space (sometimes running into several pages for a single country), while the smaller countries (e.g. Gambia and Cape Verde) might only get a half or quarter page column.

The columns that fascinated me the most were the 60 years ago and 40 years ago columns. West Africa magazine was founded in 1917 and major stories that were published in the magazine 40 and 60 years ago (1920s and 1940s) were published in those two columns. I remember an article that was published in one of those columns. Adolf Hitler had written to African, encouraging them to fight against the British and French who had colonised them and the Sultan of Sokoto, Sir Siddiq Abubakar (1933-1988) wrote a reply to Hitler.

Old Man got free copies of West Africa Magazine for 15 or more years. They were stamped with the words “Complimentary Copy” and this was how I knew what “complimentary copy” meant.

3)Time Magazine & Newsweek

These were the two main international (political and business) magazines at the time and we got them weekly. These magazines also featured other areas of human interest such as music, fashion, automobiles, movies, TV, etc. but their primary focus was on international politics and economics. They covered the Iran-Iraq War, the Lebanon Hostage crisis, the Challenger Shuttle disaster in 1986, the 1988 US presidential election, the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II, the US Embassy bombing of 1983, etc.

4) Prime People And Vintage People

These were the major Nigerian gossip magazines at that time. Think of them as the Linda Ikeji Blog and Stella Dimoko Korkus of the 1980s.

Prime People was founded in 1985 and it quickly became the biggest selling publication in Nigeria. Whenever the vendor came to the house, rather than the office (which was usually at the weekends), my sisters would immediately request for Prime People in addition to the two papers we bought every day. I believe Prime People usually hit the newsstands on Fridays.

Vintage People appeared in 1987 due to a split in Prime People.

Prime People covered stories about who was having an affair with whom, who bought what car, why did a star leave a TV series, disputes between music stars, how much did a famous person’s coffin cost, etc.

Prime People and Vintage People competed for exclusives and scoops on the Wedding Of The Century (Lanre Tejuosho weds Moji Okoya) in 1987. They reported about the items that the two families were procuring for the wedding and the cost of the wedding, who attended the wedding, who was on the bandstand at the two all-night parties (Sunny Ade and Ebenezer Obey), the gifts that the couple got (including cars and houses), the souvenirs that were distributed at the wedding (including Eleganza products), etc.

Prime People also reported the insane Harold Shodipo scandal in the 1980s and early 1990s. A wealthy man, Chief Harold Shodipo, who is a good friend of the Ooni of Ife, sued for divorce from his wife (they had been separated since 1983). He claimed that the Ooni of Ife was having affairs with both his wife and his daughter. The wealthy man’s daughter, who was a young lawyer, appeared in court as the Ooni’s counsel. Years later, the wealthy man’s daughter got married to the Ooni of Ife (who was her father’s former friend).

I think it was also Prime People that broke the story about the affair between Bianca Onoh and Odumegwu Ojukwu.

Vintage People deviated at a point and started publishing stories about juju and all that crap (they wanted to add something extra to the gossip stories that they regularly published. They wanted something to differentiate them from Prime People). That put me off a bit. However, I still read them occasionally because two of my favourite journalists from Prime People, Desola Rajifuja (later Desola Bakare) and Kunle Bakare both moved to Vintage People. Kunle wrote about cars and I’ve forgotten what Desola’s column was about, but I never missed it. They later got married.

5) Ebony and Jet

These were two black American lifestyle magazines that were very popular in Nigeria (especially Ebony).

Ebony Magazine backed Vanessa Williams during the Miss America scandal. Vanessa Williams was the first black Miss America. Lots of black Americans (and Nigerians) felt that it was a huge achievement to have a black Miss America. However, during her reign, Penthouse Magazine published unauthorised nude pictures of her. It was a huge scandal and she was eventually stripped of the title. Many black people felt that she was being victimised because she was a black person. Vanessa Williams went on to have a very successful music career in the 1980s and a film and television career since the 1990s.

Ebony also covered the 1988 election (despite the fact that it is not really a political magazine) primarily because for the first time ever, a black man, Reverend Jesse Jackson, was a strong contender to be the presidential candidate of one of the two major political parties. However, Reverend Jackson lost the Democratic race to Michael (I’m not going to type his surname because of the anti-spam bot).

Ebony Magazine usually ran articles about black American music, movie, TV and sports stars, famous black politicians, fashion, health, food, cars and other issues that affect black Americans. The magazine was so popular that it played a part in one of the biggest riots in Nigeria’s history.

The Babangida Government’s Structural Adjustment Policy (SAP) had made a lot of Nigerians poorer in the late 1980s. Nigerians had tried to adapt to the situation, but people were frustrated and angry. Then the government increased the price of petrol and this led to the first SAP riots in 1988.

Then a rumour spread in February 1989 that Ebony Magazine had ranked President Babangida as the richest black man in the world. Photocopies of the alleged article were quickly distributed across the country. The article in the photocopies stated that Babangida was the richest black man in the world, that he was worth $700 million, that he owned a refinery in France and that his wife owned a boutique in Paris. The article also claimed that Babangida owned a Swiss watch factory and that he and his wife owned one of the most exclusive schools in Switzerland.

Of course the article was a lie. Ebony did not publish any such article. However, the photocopies set Nigeria on fire.

Student unions held meetings at universities across Nigeria and began massive protests in cities across the country. The protesters in Lagos tried to march to NTA Headquarters on Victoria Island. They overran the police checkpoint on Independence Bridge but were felled by a hail of bullets at Bonny Camp. Students of University of Nigeria went crazy when one of their colleagues was killed during their protest, so they attacked policemen and marched to the prison, chased away the prison warders and set the prisoners free. In Benin, Uniben students also marched to Benin Prison and set it on fire. Three people were killed during the protest in Port Harcourt, while students of the Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria burned cars and sang songs against the Babangida government. At least one person was killed during the protest in Ibadan.

The Johnson Company, which published Ebony, denied that it had published any such story. The front page of the May 1989 edition of Ebony carried stories about Bill Cosby and his wife and Smokey Robinson. There was no story about Babangida in the magazine! People did not care. Nigerians had had enough of Babangida and SAP, so the riots continued.

The government arrested Dr Tai Solarin and took him to SSS Headquarters, 15 Awolowo Road, Ikoyi. Dr Solarin had been actively involved in distributing the photocopies. I watched the NTA Network News that night and saw as they grilled Dr Solarin. The SSS showed him a genuine copy of the May issue of Ebony Magazine and asked him if Babangida was featured in the magazine. They asked him if he knew the origin of the photocopies that he was distributing (he didn’t). It was a particularly depressing night for me because Dr Solarin was one of the heroes of the pro-democracy movement and it was embarrassing to see him being shamed like that on national television.

Ebony Magazine's real cover story (it had nothing to do with Babangida).

6) National Enquirer

This was the biggest gossip magazine in the 1970s up till the early 1990s. It was like the TMZ of that era. The National Enquirer covered the death of Marvin Gaye, the Vanessa Williams scandal, numerous rumours about Michael Jackson (Brooke Shields, Tatum O’Neal, the hyperbaric chamber, Bubbles, etc.), stories about Princess Diana, the Whitney Houston and Eddie Murphy rumours, Elizabeth Taylor’s numerous weddings and many more gossip stories.

The magazine even published pictures of Elizabeth Taylor’s wedding at Michael Jackson’s house, even though access to the wedding was restricted, the couple had stated that they wanted the wedding to be private and Elizabeth Taylor had sold rights to the wedding to People Magazine. I first saw pictures of the gazebo and the photographer that parachuted into the wedding venue in the National Enquirer.

Oprah Winfrey hated the National Enquirer and she never missed an opportunity to tell people that she did not read the magazine.

Photo: I followed the Donald Trump romance battle in the National Enquirer. Wife Ivana Trump vs mistress Marla Maples (later Marla Trump).

7) Hello, OK and the Sun

Hello Magazine was like a British version of the National Enquirer. They also focus heavily on weddings, so you can also think of it as a being similar to Bella Naija. Ok Magazine appeared later as a rival to Hello Magazine.

We also occasionally got copies of The Sun, but I wasn’t really into it because they published a lot of weird stories about aliens arriving on earth and giant Russian dogs (they reminded me of Vintage People when it started publishing a lot of juju crap).

8 ) Reader’s Digest.

I absolutely LOVED Reader’s Digest! It featured a lot of seemingly random, but very fascinating articles. These were held together by regular columns and cartoons that were extremely funny. These funny columns included Laughter The Best Medicine, Humour In Uniform and Life In These United States. These were my favourite columns.


9) Picture Novels.

I can’t remember any of their names, but I read a lot of picture novels back in the day. Most of the stories in the picture novels are similar to the kind of stories you see on Nairaland’s Literature Section. The stories were usually about romance, travel, etc. but each scene was accompanied by a picture of people acting out the events in the scene.

10) Right On!

This was a magazine about black American music. It usually contained lyrics of songs, interviews with the stars, posters, information about future music releases, etc. It also had a pen pals section. Right On! Highlighted stars like Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, New Edition, Booby Brown, Prince, etc.

Photo: Cover of Right On! Magazine, Michael Jackson vs Prince.

11)Ikebe Super, Lolly

These were slightly erotic and very hilarious comics.

Ikebe Super followed the exploits of the Ajasco Family and their friends Boy Alinco, Miss Pepeye and Pa Jimoh. Ikebe Super was not very explicit but there were lots of sexual inuendos, especially in scenes that featured Papa Ajasco.

Lolly was a much more sexually explicit comic book. It starred Dauda The Sexy Guy, whose solution to every problem was sex. In fact, I would describe him as a rapist. He often got into trouble because of his sexual escapades.

12) Benbella

This was an action/detective comic book that was popular in the 1980s.

13) Newswatch

This was the most popular Nigerian politics, economics and current affairs magazine. It covered major political stories and it was shut down several times by the military governments of the 1980s and 1990s. One of its journalists, Dele Giwa, was killed by a parcel bomb and several of its journalists were arrested.


14) Guardian Express, Evening Times, Lagos Weekend

Guardian Express and Evening Times were evening papers that were popular in the 1980s. Guardian Express was owned by The Guardian Newspaper, while Evening Times was owned by the Daily Times. There were several other evening papers at that time, but I can’t remember their names.

The evening papers usually hit the newsstands around 4:30 or 5pm, so they were able to report the major events that had occurred that day (government decisions were usually made during office hours, but TV stations did not air their first news broadcasts until 7pm, so the evening papers bridged the gap). The evening papers usually carried the first stories about riots, changes in government policy, etc.

However, such major stories did not occur every day and the evening papers needed something to fill their papers with, so the evening papers were better known for publishing (1) weird and funny stories from divorce court (2) weird crime stories (3) TV and radio schedules of almost all radio and TV stations in the country (4) weird and sometimes funny stories about sex and (5) cartoons, crossword puzzles, jokes, riddles and quizzes.

The evening papers were usually sold on weekdays. They were not sold at weekends.

Lagos Weekend carried similar stories as the evening papers, but it was sold on Fridays, so it did not usually publish the breaking news that the evening papers published. Instead it published information about concerts and events that were to take place that weekend.

15) Drum Magazine (the Nigerian edition) and Spear Magazine

These were Nigerian versions of South African lifestyle magazines. They were published by Daily Times and were very popular in the 1970s. They published stories about African musicians, politicians, sports stars, food, fashion, health, social issues and other issues that affect Africans. They also had a “girl of the month” feature (Miss January, Miss February, etc.) which was like the page 3 girl feature in the newspapers. Drum Magazine vanished from the newsstands in the early 1980s. I still don’t know why.

There were many Drum-like magazines that were published in Nigeria in the 1970s, but I can’t remember any of their names. I remember that they were smaller than most magazines (they were novel size) and another significant difference between them and Drum was that they oftentimes featured half naked women. You might be reading an article about food or fashion and you turn the page and see a topless girl at Bar Beach. It was quite jarring.

16) Complete Football and National Sportslink

Complete Football is a monthly football magazine that appeared on the newsstands in 1985. It features everything about Nigerian football, from the national league to the Super Eagles. It contains the Nigerian league table, stories about the exploits of Nigerian players in Europe, posters of Nigerian footballers, stories about Nigeria’s exploits at Nations Cup competitions and columns by football experts like John Masteroudes and Segun Odegbami. It’s probably the oldest Nigerian sports magazine that’s still in production.

National Sportslink was a weekly sports newspaper that was popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s.


17) World Football, Shoot and the magazine whose name I can’t remember

World Football was the most popular international football magazine at that time. Shoot magazine was a popular British football magazine. There was another popular football magazine but I can’t remember its name. I bought this third magazine not only because of its football stories, but because everybody connected with it was completely insane. It was one of the funniest magazines that I’ve ever read.

I followed the exploits of Zico, Careca, Maradona, the three Dutchmen (I am scared of anti-spam bot), the three Germans (I am scared of anti-spam bot), Gary Lineker, Dino Zoff, Paolo Rossi, Baressi, Bergomi, etc. via these magazines.

18) Foreign comic books

I bought, exchanged and read innumerable foreign comic books. There were the strange and bewildering horror comic books like Uncanny Tales and Strange Tales, the football comic Roy of the Rovers, the war comic book Commando and its naval equivalent whose name I cannot remember, the hilarious British comics Beano and Dandy, the hilarious Franco-Belgian comics Astrix and Obelix and Tintin, the Marvel and DC universes (including their Nigerian counterparts), Dennis The Menace, Archie and Veronica, etc.

17) Nigerian versions of foreign comicbooks

There's something missing in the list above and coincidentally that thing has been on my mind in the past 2 weeks.

Nigerians read voraciously before SAP. There were very many magazines, newspapers, comicbooks and other publications in the 1970s and early 1980s and they made a lot of money.

However SAP came and sapped Nigerians so how would you think of spending money to buy magazine when you don't even have money to buy food? So many publications died off.

There's a type of publication that came just as SAP was beginning to SAP Nigerians.

I'm sure that you've heard of Marvel and DC comics. Well, they belatedly realised the power of the Nigerian market and they made Nigerian versions of their comics.

So you would see Superman, Spiderman and other such comics, but they were published in Nigeria by DC and Marvel, they had Nigerian office addresses, Nigerian adverts, etc.

As I said, these came in the late 1980s when SAP had started sapping Nigerians, so they didn't last long.

18) Playboy and Penthouse

These were the most popular pornographic magazines back then. Latoya Jackson posed for Playboy twice, in 1989 and 1994. I had the 1989 edition. This was at the height of her feud with the rest of the Jackson family (a feud that was extensively covered by the National Enquirer).

I have recently found out that the feud was instigated by a man who practically kidnapped Latoya and used her fame to get money.

Penthouse published unauthorised nude photos of Vanessa Williams which cost her the Miss America title.

More photos of Prime People and Vintage People.

Damn, this give this Nostalgic feeling. Men feels like a lot have changed in this world...

No more honesty amongst us

We also read a publication, "Sadness & Joy"

Daily Times used to publish a weekend paper called times international I think

I remember that paper for publishing a very comprehensive article in 1990 about the Trobules in Northern Ireland. Helped precocious young me ( at the age of ten, yes, used to read far too much newspapers that my mum proposed that I be banned from reading the papers!).. understand what was going on

Funnily enough you didn't mention magazines like Quality magazine once edited by May Ellen Ezekiel (later married the actor Richard Mofe-damijo) of blessed memory

Some Comic strips I remember

MOJO - vanguard - (when i remember some of its racy content - i suspect that is where Nigerians coined mojo as a slang for corn]
Modesty Blaise - daily times
Garth - daily times
Kaptain Africa - vanguard
There was a political cartoon in guardian I cannot remember the name of

Also may Ellen Ezekiel (MEE) started her own soft sell magazine - classique

Then we had hints magazine which had one of idiagbons daughters on its first cover

TELL magazine
Eight more characters needed.

From the look of things, the old days where glommier. Nepa still dey do wetin dem dey do then. No much improvement.

That was then, not now.
Cun be like the past of Nigeria better past the future.

We used to refer to all newspapers as Daily Times. I used to say Dele Times back then as a kid

Ikebe super was the first I could identify as a kid but I could not read, I would only go through the pictures. I started reading many years later in late 80s/early 90s. My favourite were Hints magazine, Hearts and Better Lover. I loved Sunday Punch too (my dad always bought it), Tunde Fagbenle was my favourite column. It was Tell magazine that evoked the spirit of activism in me. I loved reading Gani Fawehinmi's interviews. That's why as a secondary school student in 1994, I joined June 12 protest with my classmates.

.. gone are those days

Those are the days when we still have the reading culture intact, the emergency of internet in the early 90s change the whole atmosphere.

Na so o we dey read back then!

Social media don spoil everything!

Wow. Very impressive. This has made my morning.
My mom used to buy ikebe super regularly and I remember reading this particular edition of it.
Also, did anyone catch that headline in Prime People about Fela and Femi Kuti clashing in Europe? Imagine, Fela was already touring Europe establishing a name and legacy for himself long before the father of that useless nuisance from Ojuelegba, Wiztrash made the unfortunate decision to donate the stunted sperm that birthed him.

What about this legend,
Dauda the ........ guy. 😁

Salako01:
From the look of things, the old days where glommier. Nepa still dey do wetin dem dey do then. No much improvement.

It is not true, it is mere nostalgia. Nigeria has never been a 'good' country in the way some people remember. It is simply that life became less complicated due to modern access to things like the internet and mobile phones. In the past, there was no electricity or good roads. Very few people could afford imported used cars, build sizeable houses, or send their children to higher institutions. I remember in 1994/95, families couldn't even afford a loaf of bread or a whole tuber of yam, raw yams were sold in slices and using a kerosene stove was considered a luxury. While those specific things are changing, life remains very difficult.
However, with more corruption, yahoo and ritual, life seems to be softer now.

Good old days. Those were the days reading culture was top notch not now. Hints, hearts , tell magazines fun time are absent from the list.