ZIPPO: Kathryn Gates of Mechanicsburg shared a pop culture reference to a Zippo lighter.

Page 164 of the novel “The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley” by Hannah Tinti, published in 2017, reads, “Lily pulled out her tobacco and rolled a cigarette, licking the paper and then pinching and twisting the ends. She snapped the wheel of her Zippo, then put her boots up on the dash and opened the window a crack. She tapped ashes into the small sliver of air as rain splattered both sides of the glass.”

What an interesting character, too.

TEACHERS: A reader shared a sample of a teacher’s contract from 1923 that was published in a recent newsletter.

According to our reader, “The enclosed page from the Allegany (NY) Historical newsletter may be of particular interest to those who think their workplace rules are intolerable. Rule #1 probably explains why so many of my teachers were old maids (no disrespect intended).”

We’d like to point out the contract is specifically for a female teacher.

Rule #1 that our reader refers to is “Not to get married. This contract becomes null and void immediately if the teacher marries.”

Other rules in the contract include:

• “Not to loiter downtown in ice cream stores.” We must say, this one left us stumped.

• “Not to dress in bright colors.”

• “Not to ride in a carriage or automobile with any man except her brother or father.”

• “To be home between the hours of 8:00 p.m. and 6 a.m. unless at attendance at a school function.”

• “Not to leave town at any time without the permission of the chairman of the board of the Board of Trustees.”

Teachers were to have no makeup, no hair dye, no cigarettes and no beer, wine or whiskey.

The contract promised the hefty sum of $75 a month.