CELEBRATE: Today is quite the occasion for us — it’s the 69th birthday of RTS.

Over the years, we’ve shared countless recipes, told of strange or funny encounters, shared Zippo sightings and reported on things like gas prices, the first peepers of the season, the first snowfall, and the first signs of spring.

Recently, we shared Bradford’s connection to the hit NBC show “This Is Us.”

And we got quite a compliment from a longtime Era reader. He told us he wishes there was a way he could convey the importance of being featured in RTS with “This Is Us” executive producer Isaac Aptaker, whose mother is from Bradford.

The reader said, “When I was growing up, it was the best part of the paper. To be featured in RTS is like really ‘making it!’”

We agree.

This from Associate Editor Marcie Schellhammer: “When I was growing up, I remember my parents got The Era every day. Never did I imagine I would be working for that same paper that comes to the yellow box out in front of their house.

“And never did I imagine I would have the opportunity to write ‘Round the Square. When I was in college, I worked at a local grocery store. One of my favorite customers was an older gentleman I knew simply as ‘Joe.’ He would come in and talk to me about my college courses, and what I was studying.

“One day I was decorating a cake with an airbrush when Joe stopped to talk. He asked what I was doing. I smiled and replied, ‘Whitewashing a fence. Boy is it fun.’

“He immediately got the Tom Sawyer reference and we shared a good laugh. Years later, after I started working at The Era, I saw a picture of Joe Cleary, the man who started RTS.

“Sure enough, it was my friend Joe from the grocery store,” Marcie told us.

“I never worked with him, but I feel that connection nonetheless,” she said.

We estimate that Joe wrote more than 13,000 RTS columns in his life. We’re glad we have the chance to carry on that tradition.