I was born in Claremont, N.H., and my grandparents and many other family members still live there today. I can remember when I was young, watching my grandfather read the newspaper. He got two, the big paper from Manchester – The Union Leader, and the little local daily The Claremont Eagle Times.
Claremont Eagle Times
Now, the Eagle Times is not a big deal to most, but it was the local paper to a number of communities in southwest New Hampshire and southeast Vermont. Claremont, N.H. sits right on the state line and you can see many Vermont license plates on cars in town.
I also remember as I grew up, noticing the intersting tradition of seperate “paper boxes” next to the mail box on the rural routes outside of town. Many families took the Union Leader and the Eagle, and you knew who did because of the brightly colored boxes on posts in front of their houses.
It was my grandfather who encouraged me to become a writer and to “tell people stories.”
My parent’s wedding announcement was printed in the Eagle, as was my own birth announcement and a photo of my father as a private heading off to Vietnam. The paper was a part of small town life and it feels weird knowing that the Eagle is gone and I wonder what, if anything will take its place to cover the news about those small communities in that part of the country.
Leave a comment
No comments yet.
TEACH J: For Teachers of Journalism And Media 
Leave a comment