The Sunday paper

These tiger or day lilies have burst out this week. They are in hundreds of patches along Rte. 5, east to the New York state line. 

I remember my parents being faithful to their weekly reading of the local Sunday edition of The Erie Times-News, as they scanned the local section, crossword, obituaries, sports, society pages, local columnists, comics and just about everything else that each week's fat Sunday paper held. So, of course as things happen, I now look forward to the Sunday paper each week and whether I'm home or out of town (thanks to electronic editions) I keep up on this special edition of our daily paper. The family ownership of the paper has changed and lots of the stories are "canned" from Assoc. Press, USA Today or other national outlets, but it still has a lot of local appeal and that's what draws me first.

So for all you current or former Erieites or those of you who are in the same habit with your local paper, here's a snapshot of what caught me eye this Sunday.

* Strong Vincent, namesake of a local high school and Civil War general, is being honored once again, with a memorial in Waterford, PA, a small town about 10 miles or so south of Erie, on the site where he was born in the 1830s.

* 87 year old Doug Moorhead died this month. He was one of the pioneers behind the ever-growing and expanding grape growing industry here along the shoreline of east Erie county. Local growers credit him for the beginning of this unique Erie winery region.

* Twenty-five people became US citizens in Erie this month and they are pictured with the mayor and a local judge. We really are a city of 100s of immigrants.

* Golf and fishing and baseball are dominating the sports pages...local, regional and national. Our local AA baseball team, the Erie Seawolves,  is doing great this year--in first place in its division. We'll have to get to a game soon. They are lots of fun. 

* Dear Abby, or her daughter, is still dispensing advice, as are financial advisors and doctors, answering readers' questions on contemporary issues in their fields.

* The front page this week? The beginning of a 3-page story inside section A on the over $260 million that Erie County is being allotted from the American Rescue Plan to assist low income municipalities and school districts following the COVID-19 pandemic. Good  news all around.

* The obituaries covered 3 1/2 pages today. A few years ago the paper started allowing people to write their own obits and since then they have been much more interesting in comparison to a format that came out of filling out a standard form. This week I read Evelyn Anderson's. Evelyn died last Tuesday, age 94. She was the premier nature writer for the paper and was involved in countless organizations throughout her life, including help founding the Erie Nature Club which is today the Presque Isle Audubon Society. I looked forward to reading her column every Saturday for years. She and her friend Jean Stull knew everything that was growing in or flying through our area all the time. Her book Nature Watch, gave us the best of her 35 years of columns.

* Finally, it still carries a Sunday-like large crossword, not as challenging as the one from the New York Times my parents tackled each week but enjoyable for sure.

A beautiful summer day, a diet coke, and sitting outside with the Sunday paper! It doesn't get much better!