IT’S TODAY: You know you’re getting old when you can’t remember
your own birthday. Such is the case for Round the Square. We’re
almost positive the first RTS column appeared in The Era on this
date, Dec. 19, and in the year 1949.

That makes us 58 years old. Wow!

The column, started by executive vice president Joseph M.
Cleary, was intended primarily as a “readers column.” As such, Mr.
Cleary felt no need to identify himself as its author – after all,
the real authors were the readers themselves who submitted items
for publication.

We also know that the very first item – appropriately enough –
was a “Zippo sighting.”

Mr. Cleary has since passed away and with him went the
background story on what actually sparked the idea for such an
unusual column. Some have told us the idea was hatched by Mr.
Cleary and a fellow graduate of St. Bonaventure University who
worked in a similar position at the Olean (N.Y.) Times Herald.

In any case, the column “stuck” with Era readers.

RTS is said to be the longest-running front-page newspaper
column in the country.

Part of the reason for Round the Square’s longevity (and
success) is its enviable position in the upper left-hand corner of
each edition – exactly where the eye starts to tackle a written
document.

Much, too, is because of those “readers” who so generously
supply us with an abundance of material on every topic from Harri
Emery’s fateful plane wreck to Indian salve from Salamanca, N.Y.,
to the first mayflowers picked each spring in Lewis Run.

We’re not sure why people like to read us (if we can so
immodestly say) except that maybe we offer a welcome reprieve from
the din of bad news that so pervades today’s culture.

Our column, of course, started out with just our newspaper
readers who would drop by for a chat, or mail us an article of
interest. That still happens but we now also have an online
audience of former residents living hither and yon in the United
States who contribute items from their unique perspective.