The "'News At It's Best': Part I" Story

Newspaper stories telling of the 225th Anniversary of LNP

It was an ordinary day.  Once again, reading my Sunday newspaper which today is devoted to the 225th Anniversary of the local newspaper.  For most of you, that's hard to get excited about, but for me, who started a neighborhood newsletter from the pup tent my Aunt Doris gave me as a Christmas gift when I was a youngster, it was an amazing story.  The story on page one of the paper was titled "Creating Community" and included a letter from the publisher and president of the newspaper.  Another story about editorial cartoons appeared in the "Perspective" Section while a full 30 page section talked about the workings of the newspaper, the editors of the papers from the past and a few reader's comments.  My story today and tomorrow will tell you a bit about the past 225 years of Lancaster's newspaper's history, but I'd be amiss if I didn't tell you that my favorite story in the paper today was the story about the 100th anniversary of the column known as "The Scribbler."  

"The Scribbler" Jack Brubaker

Lancaster County native Jack Brubaker has been "The Scribbler" for the past 40 years and I don't think I have missed more than a few of his close to 4,000 columns telling of life in Lancaster County, be it good or bad, but definitely hilarious.  I have written about "The Scribbler" a few times in the past and he too has written about me in a few of his 4,000 columns.  Jack grew up on a duck farm that at one time was a stop of the Underground Railroad.  Could be his love of the history of Lancaster was fueled by that fact.  Jack has also penned six books with names such as "Down the Susquehanna to the Chesapeake" and the "Massacre of the Conestogas."  The story featured in today's newspaper tells you a bit more about Jack and his love of Lancaster and history.  

One of Jack's books he has written.

During an interview with another reporter, he was asked to tell about the history of the column.  I have written about this before, but I can tell you that it first appeared on May 24, 1919 in what at the time was Lancaster's newspaper called "The Examiner".  Thus, "The Scribbler" is the second-longest-running column in the world; behind a column known as "The Beachcomber" in the London Daily Express which began in 1918.  The first "Scribbler" had just come back from WWI and wrote a rather serious column that for some time was on the front page of the newspaper.  Then, during WWII there weren't enough reporters available so they dropped "The Scribbler" column.  Eventually Mr. Gerald Lestz became "The Scribbler" and his history and creative writing drew me to his column.  That was when I first became a teenager and my parents couldn't believe I actually enjoyed reading a newspaper column when it appeared twice a week.  Gerald wrote the column for 22 years and then Jack took over.  

"The Scribbler's" anniversary cartoon.

At first Jack wanted to be a playwright until his college roommate told him he should try newspaper writing so he could write every day.  Jack also, just as me, grew up reading "The Scribbler" column in the Lancaster Newspaper.  He says the reason the column has survived for so long is the interest in local goings-on which can't be found anywhere else.  He tells that "The Scribbler" wouldn't be a column if it weren't for the readers who constantly send him ideas for the column just as I have done to the point that I may have become a pest.  He recently published a story telling about a Moravian Church in downtown Lancaster that I asked about.  Told in his column that it is in Church Heaven as of now.  I also wrote to him telling about this blog and how I have hundreds of Russians reading it some days.  Now, that interested him and I had to tell him how I knew exactly how many people from what countries were reading my stories.  Perhaps you read the story I posted a few weeks ago about his column he wrote about it.  He ends his interview telling that his column interacts with the community and people of all ages.  He tells that he read it as a child.  History teachers read it. Lawyers read it.  Janitors read it.  Heavens, LDub reads it, sometimes the same column more than once to make sure I didn't miss anything.  Thanks, Jack for all you have done for the city of Lancaster.  Tomorrow I will tell you a bit more about celebrating the 225th Anniversary of Lancaster's trip through history via it's newspaper.  It was another extraordinary in the life of an ordinary guy.

PS - If you care to read more about "The Scribbler", type "The Scribbler" in the white box, top left on this page.