Poetic tribute to the Observer

To the Editor:
    I came across the attached poem about The Observer in a diary I was reviewing for the Brownville Historical Society. I am assuming that it had once been published in your newspaper. It is dated 1951.

Susan Worcester
Brownville

Tribute to the Observer
I salute you, Old Observer
Many years have I scanned your page,
Reading about my friends and neighbors
Men and women of every age.

I enjoy each weekly issue
And ever, I feel duty bound
To read the grist of advertising
Even the column of lost and found.

Once when I was young and carefree
Thousands of long, long miles away,
Homesick misery almost killed me,
‘Til the week got around to Observer day.

Eagerly I read its pages
Then shut my eyes and I was there
Back with a crowd of evening shoppers
Milling around in Union Square.

Time has flown since I went westward
Now it is that I can see
When I was young and very homesick
What The Observer meant to me.

                           — Fred F. Washburn