In the Newspaper

More newspapers are going bust, and I'm sad about it. I read two papers a day. They are as regular as the sun for me. I depend on the morning paper for my horoscope. I also like the editorials because they give a voice to the community. But there is so much more. I like the physical act of skimming a paper. The predictability of it. Seeing something in print that catches my eye. Moving over the page and being drawn in by a headline. Looking to see if my favorite columnist wrote something interesting today. Reading the details of a story I only heard "teased" on the TV News, and "knowing" something that no one else around me knows yet, because I read it first.

My love affair with the paper started early. I can still remember reading the class lists to see what school teacher I would have in homeroom in the fall. It was exciting to actually have a picture IN the paper. That first happened when I was in 4th grade. I still have the photo.

I can think of twice that my face actually graced the front page of a paper. Both times were candid shots that I had no idea were even taken, and didn't know until I saw myself in black and white the next day. A small thrill, but an unexpected pleasure all the same. (and no... it wasn't a "mug shot.")

I recently got to take advantage of a search engine at Ancestry.com that lets you search old newspapers. I spent hours doing searches of family members who had passed on. I looked at decades of old bowling scores, traffic accidents, births, deaths, weddings and even a big house fire right here where I live from 1947. What a strange way to see your hometown newspaper. Sifting quickly through articles from decades ago, long forgotten. The old gas station on the corner was in one advertisement and looked as it did when I was a kid. I saw a picture of my dad in his younger days when he managed a baseball team from the plant where he worked.

Newspapers document our lives. In a tangible way.

You know, this whole Goosepath thing will be gone someday. It's digital. Someday in the future, either the website people will pull the plug, or I'll hit DELETE and this will be gone.

And that makes me sad, too.