Local Happenings

The other night my great-aunt and her daughter came over to visit my parents. My father and his cousin started reminiscing about their grandparents. My great-grandfather, T.A., was a reserved man of English stock, while my great-grandmother, Sarah, was a more talkative Welsh woman. They lived in a classically rough-and-tumble mining town in Utah. The stories were quite amusing, either at the contrast of these personalities or the exciting events of life in a mining town.
My great-grandmother apparently made the most delicious cinnamon raisin bread. My grandfather had a copy of her recipe which was printed in the local newspaper. He made it for many years in his bread machine, and it was quite tasty. When he passed away this year, however, the recipe went missing. The article was found, but it was torn, so not all of the directions or ingredients were there. I asked my great-aunt and her daughter if either of them had the recipe, and they answered "Oh, well, your grandfather had it."
My only chance is to find it in the newspaper, although without the date it could be quite a daunting task. After some digging around online, I discovered that several years of their local paper have been digitized and are available to search for free. While it didn't have the recipe (it only goes to 1922), I did discover quite a bit about my great-grandparents social life from the "Local Happenings" section. Here's an example:
"Saturday evening a number of friends pleasantly surprised Mr. and Mrs. T.A. at their home at the sub station. The evening was spent in games and music after which a nice lap luncheon was served to the following guests . . ."
I'm impressed that they were able to provide a nice lap luncheon to the long list of surprise visitors.
Apparently my great-grandmother and her daughter-in-law attended this fun evening:
"A tremendous success was scored by the ladies of the Sewing Circle on the evening of August 11th when instead of the regular evening meal they invited their husbands and other members of their families to join them at the old Romansville spring in an old fashioned Wiener Rost. Fifty two people sat in circles at the camp fires toasting wieners over the hot embers. Flaky biscuits with pickles and jellies together with the hot dogs formed the main repast followed by ice cream and cake. After the meal the grounds were cleared and old fashioned games were played. Several of the men received sharp reminders of their boyhood days when in search of firewood hands and bare arms came in contact with an old friend namely the stinging nettle of swimming hole fame. A thoroughly good old fashioned time was enjoyed by all and a vote of appreciation is hereby tendered by the men."
This one is my favorite:
"Mr and Mrs TA entertained at a Halloween party last Saturday evening. All the guests were dressed as ghosts and spent the time in dancing and playing games. At midnight refreshments were served to the following . . ." The entry then lists twenty nine people who were in attendance.
I want to host a Halloween party now where everyone dresses up as ghosts!
As much as I love reading these entries, it's got me a bit worried about my posterity. It's a bit gruesome to think of my great-grandchildren checking out my entries on social networking webpages. Will facespace or mybook be around in a hundred years? Will future genealogists be trained in navigating internet archives?