Change — It Hurts

By Frances Kolarek

Frances Kolarek-150 wideIn the 1930s—a time when streetcars crisscrossed Washington, D.C., and government workers poured out of their offices at 4:30 sharp—boys with bundles of newspapers hot off the press roamed the streetcar platforms and main intersections, hawking their wares. “Papers, getcha paper, ‘King Abdicates.’ Read all about it.”

In the District of Columbia, competition was sharp between the two evening papers, the Times-Herald and the Star. A recent Broadway show, Newsies, is based on an extreme example of such competition.

Working at the Times-Herald, I often heard the circulation manager begging the manging editor to ”Give ‘em a line they can holler!” Meaning that the newsboys needed a catchy headline that would arouse curiosity and guarantee a sale. Something like “ King Marries Wally — Will she be Queen? ” That would fill the bill.

Commuters who needed something to read during the streetcar ride home snapped up the newsboys’ copies.

The streetcar tracks are now long gone and the Post is the sole surviving newspaper of note in the Nation’s Capitol. Paper copies of newspapers are on the endangered list, as are magazines.

You can get it all online. While drivers commuting on the beltway may rely on radio reports (or so we hope), their passengers can read the latest news on iPads, shoot questions at Siri, take pictures with their iPhones, send text messages and, for all I know, perform a multitude of other chores.

Hurtling in like a comet, change threatens to overwhelm us. Dr. Vincent Deary, in his new book How We Are, allows that change hurts.

Even thinking about it hurts. I look forward each morning to my copy of The New York Times lying outside the door. Over a big mug of steaming coffee, I attack the crossword puzzle. And, although I consider myself a flexible person, I cling to this ritual like a survivor to a life raft.

Yes. Change hurts. And it might, like a tsunami, overwhelm us.

Readers — tell me what YOU think. Tell me, please. I’d like to hear. Let’s talk about this. Drop me a line at CollBlog2@gmail.com.