I was running into town to drop of my Riverfest poster.  I had been working on it much of the day, and was delighted to head into town around 3 p.m. the day it was due.

As I headed down the hill by the school, I read the sign outside of the Narrowsburg Inn.  “Welcome, NHS alums.”

I dropped off my poster and headed to the former Narrowsburg Rural Central School, now named the Union, to grab some shots of the former students gathered there.

Before I even entered the building, I ran into George Schleur, Bernadine Reers-Konopafek, Rudy Reers and Elizabeth Reers.  Standing in the parking lot, near the newly installed electric car charging stations, Bernadine told me how she and her siblings had passed by The River Reporter building, the former Delaware Publications building on Erie Avenue the day before, just as Amanda, our production manager, was out sweeping the bluestone sidewalk.

Bernadine said that she had commented how well they knew that sidewalk, having walked on it, both ways (“uphill,” George commented), walking past the Delaware Publications, where the Delaware Valley News editor Claude Hector was at work on the paper and running a letterpress print shop.

She continued to reminisce.  

She said that she had fond memories on shoveling snow and skating on Little Lake Erie behind the building, the railroad era human-made lake, at the end of Main Street. She said there was something gratifying to shovel the lake and then to skate on it.

She didn’t know why, she just knew it as true.

Leaving them, I ran into Darryl and Betty Jirinec.  Betty told me that she had been the proofreader for the News from 1965 to 1971.  She and husband Darryl laughed about being from rival schools (Darryl graduated from Jeffersonville), and how they were both teachers who left the area in 1973 and now live in Auburn, NY.

I loved these encounters. They root my story to the greater story of the Narrowsburg community.

I feel fortunate to have arrived in town some 40 years ago as the older generation was still around. I worked with Claude Hector, setting letterpress type, on my senior year Christmas vacation; I met Tom DiGaetani, the founder of the Delaware Valley Arts Alliance, that same winter.

And I wonder how we will link these stories with the new stories that are emerging in our evolving community.

I tell people it is the role of the newspaper to make these connections.

And therefore, you can imagine how amazing it was that when I stopped by the NHS alum gathering, what I heard first were stories of the town’s newspaper.

It is good to remember that we stand on the shoulders of those who came before us.

And I am reminded what an honor and a responsibility it is to tell the stories of this amazing riverfront community.