Carriers identified
Once upon a time, boys and girls earned spending money and valuable work experience by delivering newspapers. It was hard work, getting up before dawn and delivering a route before the start of the school day, or, when there was still an afternoon paper, making the rounds before dinner time.
Observer-Reporter, there are currently no kids delivering papers.
As a way to reward its “newsies,” this newspaper held an annual carriers’ picnic through most of the 20th century. We knew that the current Mystery Photo was taken during the 73rd annual picnic on June 27, 1980. However, we did not know the identity of the boys until we consulted with our readers.
Cathi Cowieson Proudfit of South Strabane Township recognized her husband as the boy sitting at the rear of the canoe, his expression hinting that he might have just sat in a puddle of water.
”In this picture he looks exactly like our 11-year-old son. Robert was 12 in this picture,” she wrote in an email. “Thanks for sharing with our community.”
Proudfit was able to identify Matt Fergus as the boy climbing into the bow of the canoe and Ricky Hardy as the boy standing on the dock. Their identities were confirmed by several other readers, including Harold Fergus of East Washington, who posted the photo on Facebook. Proudfit believes the young woman at rear holding the canoe was an instructor and the location was Camp Buffalo.
Robert Proudfit works for Coca-Cola, and Matt Fergus is a Pittsburgh attorney.
That location is not conclusive, however. The YMCA’s Camp Buffalo in Blaine Township is famous for the tornado that struck it June 23, 1944. Miraculously, none of the 60 children attending camp was killed, although eight were injured. We asked county Commissioner Larry Maggi when Camp Buffalo might have closed.
”I remember when I was a state trooper being called there in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when it was pretty run down,” Maggi said.
O-R circulation department said multiple locations, including Camp Buffalo and Bobbie Brooks Farm and picnic grounds in Buffalo Township, hosted these picnics, but it could not determine where the 1980 event was held.
By the start of the 21st century, the number of youth carriers dwindled and the annual picnic became a pool party, or an occasional Christmas party while there were still enough youth carriers to make it worthwhile, and finally just a memory.
Observer-Reporter.