FROM THE TOP: “It was Monday, Dec. 19, 1949. Without promotion,
without fanfare, something new appeared — for the first time ever —
in column one, page one, of The Bradford Era.

“The column bore the rather unusual name which seemed to be
unusual to create, ‘Round the Square.’ How can you round a
square?”

That’s what “we” had written of Dec. 19, 1996, recalling the
‘birth’ of this newspaper column on our 47th anniversary. This past
Saturday, of course, we hit The Big 6-0.

Back to the name of the column: “We thought of our Public Square
as a popular downtown location, toyed with the name and put
together three words which, at first blush, seem to be
contradictory — ‘round the square.’”

“ Simple. Easy to remember. Seemingly self-contradictory. That
was the name. And after 47 years, it has stuck, also with a
shortened form — simply RTS.

“RTS worked out as we hoped it would. The wide variety of items
proved of interest to readers. Quickly, readers started
contributing items. People wrote, telephoned and stopped by with
items.

“The format hasn’t changed over all those years.”

“As we have always stressed, the success RTS has enjoyed is the
result of the readers in contributing items and in coming forward
with questions and/or answers.

“ … One of our most satisfying solutions was helping a Warren
matron in locating her mother. She had been given up for adoption
at birth and had been looking for her mother for 30-some years.
After we had an item in RTS, we had a call from a Bradford Township
reader who believed the woman had an aunt in Limestone N.Y. Surely
enough, he was right.

“The Warren woman talked to the aunt and found that her mother
lived in New Jersey but lacked complete details on the address. A
sympathetic operator was most cooperative and eventually the woman
found her mother.

“She came to Warren, brought her family and brought great
happiness.

“So goes the story of RTS on its 47th birthday, a column whose
great strength is you — the reader.”