SCRANTON, Pa. — The past has come into the present, at least in Lackawanna County.
Sarah Piccini, assistant director of the Lackawanna Historical Society, showed us around a portion of the Penn Paper building—that part where today becomes yesterday, decades of yesterdays.
"What's here roughly goes back to mostly the 1940s," Piccini said.
What is here are many of the editions of the Scranton Times, numbered and dated; those of the Scranton Tribune will come later.
The world has spun around a chunk of times since these began to come out, but what each paper carries is a slice of life that we missed unless born to a certain era.
Even if alive, you likely wouldn't have heard all the news unless you had a paper.
There was news of the season-ending ladies' bowling league banquet.
News of World War II is here just as it came off the presses—the advances made, the battles fought, and finally, the victory that brought an end to the war in Europe.
John F. Kennedy won an election to become president. As it turned out, Bill Scranton won that year as well.
April 14, 1983, a major fire hit a building downtown. The paper's photographers were there. It was, after all, the news of the day.
The Polka Sonics had a picture taken in 1979 or 80. It was a good day.
In the 1970s, you could get a good hot dog downtown. The counter guy did a nice job decorating them.
The news and whatever pictures there were came together, and thanks to the work of talented folks from current and past generations, hit the streets and our homes as the daily paper.
All these years later, we marvel at their work, assembling the news of the day and then sending it out.
There will soon be a chance to see it all again, the way it was.
"We don't have much of what everyone remembers. I used to go shopping with my grandmother down to the Globe," Piccini recalled, adding that now we have those pictures.
Pictures to see, writing to read; history is now truly the present once again.