Panorama Magazine
Hazleton, PA - June, 1989
My grandmother passed away earlier this month, and my dad and I are in the process of cleaning out her home. I came across this magazine under the cushion of the green chair in the living room.
Panorama is a free magazine that is distributed to businesses in and around Hazleton. My Nana used to pick up a copy at the Blue Comet Diner after she and my grandmother went to church services at Our Lady Of Mount Carmel. She would read it and do the crossword puzzles either at the kitchen table on sitting on the front porch.
Seeing this brought back a lot of happy memories of those days. They're a type of happy memory that tends to get forgotten. It's not memories of a holiday, or a birthday, or a family vacation. There's no particularly funny story that was triggered by this. It's just the memories of everyday life - of being 8 years old and looking forward to my 9th birthday, and of going out on the front porch to sit with Nana and Grandma, or going in to the kitchen to make a plate of cheese on crackers and watch cartoons while I waited for Grandpa to come home from work. Memories of simple, everyday occurrences, each of which fade away gradually. It's only decades later that you're able to reflect on just how short of a time it was, but in the moment, it felt like it was the way life had always been and would always be.
Over the next few days, I'm going to scan and share some of the contents of this magazine. Maybe it'll bring back a few happy memories for someone else.
