When I was growing up, a newspaper was suppose to print news. The Framingham News was careful not to hurt the feelings of the people in town, as they printed stories,and news. Everyone in the neighborhood got the paper.My younger brother was a paper boy, he made a small amount of money each week for delivering the paper by bike. When he was sick, I had to do the delivery for him. The paper had to be delivered just as the mail had to be delivered.
The postman for our neighborhood, though I can't rember his name, was a daily fixture, alive in my mind, as he walks down Hollis Street, and Waushakum Blvd, where I lived on the corner. Somehow in my mind the news paper and the mail were interlinked., they both connected us to the world. Air Mail brought news of my uncles fighting in the war, news that they were okay! Mornings the paper would arrive in a stack outside our door, while the dew was still on the grass. Frank, my brother, would put them in a special bag used to fold them for delivery then he would jump on his bike pedalling off as fast as he could, and I would read the paper!
It was important that I got the paper first. It was full of so much "stuff", not only the "funnies", but what was happening in the world. The war was ending, and peace was coming to us forever and ever! I was so glad that we would never have another war,(I thought). I learned so many important things in the paper, I learned patriotism, from reading about the difficulties and dangers of war. I wanted to become a double agent and help our country win the war. After looking up in our newspaper, the latest movies playing in our town, I was off to the movies, to the Hollis Theater, the St George, or the Gorman. Yes, we had three theaters in our small town.
Tears come to my eyes now, writing this , as I watch out of the corner of my eye, a televised movie of my childhood, The Halls of Montezuma, yes, those days of war as a child protected in this country, still cause a great pain in my heart.
In my book , Secrets of the Heart, the character Meggie talks about growing up in Framingham , about the newspaper and the war. It was a period that no one can forget! The newspaper was our link to the world, along with the mail and radio, news commentator, Gabriel Heater that Mom and Dad listened to nightly and our President Franklin Roosevelt. Yes, I heard the words, "This is a day that will live in infamy", as President Roosevelt announced the attack on Pearl Harbor.
We depended on these links, to help us overcome our broken hearts. My uncles, went to war, they came home all of them, bringing ribbons of valor, a few were wounded, our family experienced many of the terrors, yet, we survived while clinging to our major link to the outside world, The Framingham News.
In my opinion the local newspaper can become important again, because there is a gap in the news. International news is not important anymore in the local papers, that is available on television, and internet. The gap in news is what is happening locally. People are naturally interested in what is going to reduce or increase their taxes. What is going on and how deep can you penetrate to find out that unnecessary burdens are being imposed on new ventures, costing jobs, loss of expansion . Towns and their representatives need accountability and journalists can bring that to the attention of the local newspaper readers.
Maybe it will come to be, who knows? Will our children hurry to read the newspaper before we get it, at the end of the day? I would like to hope so, maybe we can make them important in the local news, not just as athletes but as students., volunteers, and government trainees?
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