June 22nd, 2008
For the Love of Newsprint
I’m a long time fan of newspapers, especially on Sunday.
It began, of course, with the comics when I could barely read, but soon bled over to such sections as “Arts” and “Style” and, of course “Travel”. From my suburban home in Mansfield, Texas I could gaze upon photos of far-away places and follow the adventures of writers who visited exotic places like Greece, Paris, and New York City. My parents were daily subscribers to both the Dallas Morning News, which was in the front yard when we woke each day and the Fort Worth Star Telegram, which was delivered around 5 PM during the week. The weekends meant two papers to dig through. An early riser, I often spent a good hour with the Sunday Paper before others in the house awoke. As I grew older, I began to read other sections of the paper, and not just on Sunday. The front page told me what was going on in the world, and the metro section told me what was going on in my immediate surroundings. It was how we, as a society, got the details of our world. That was long before Cable News and the Internet.
There was nothing like laying on the floor, reading page by page…and finding at the end, my hands black from the newsprint.
The busy pace of life and responsibilities, and the availability of immediate gratification on information has changed how the average person finds out what is going on in the world. I, too, am apt to check out CNN.com during the day to keep up on the world, and though I subscribe to the local paper, it often ends up in the trash. Except on Sunday, of course, where I dig through the ads and, as I did as a child, devour sections like “Arts”, “Style” and “Travel”. In the last year, I’ve noticed, however, these sections have shrunk to much smaller proportions. Lagging advertisers, and the availability of immediate information has had an economic effect on my local newspaper, and it’s with sorrow that I see the book section reduced to one small page, where it used to be spread out to four.
I still make my home in the Dallas area, but the last couple of months have found me in Washington DC more. In the pace of hurry-up-and-go world, I have discovered again the comfort of the daily newspaper. The Washington Post, an institution in itself, is still a robust publication. As with all newspapers, The Washington Post can be found on line, but to me, there is still nothing like spreading out the paper and allowing the events of the world and the opinions of columnists unfold. Some mornings, I only have time to glance at the headlines. Often I will take a section or so of the paper to keep me company as I ride the Metro to the office. Newsprint on my hands is only inconvenient when I’m wearing something white.
On the weekends that I stay in the city instead of traveling home, I spend the first hour of my day indulging in the love I found as a child: The Sunday Paper. It hit me today, when I was reading the book section (a small pull-out section of lengthy reviews and recommendations), that this childhood love and habit was so much a part of my being. I’ve written a lot this year about spending time on things I am passionate about…and I can say that for the newspaper reminds me that no matter the form, I still have a passion for the written word. And love the need to wash my hands clean of newsprint after a well spent hour (or two) indulging in my love of the Sunday Paper…..
June 22nd, 2008 at 11:20 am
Lovely post!
I remember thinking, one morning very early in my marriage, as we lounged with bagels and the paper, that I was living one of those moments that had always defined “adulthood” to me.
I like the way newsprint smells. As if the weight of the information it conveys is imbued into every drop of ink.
June 23rd, 2008 at 2:17 am
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