For years, Houston had three newspapers: The Houston Chronicle, The Houston Press, and The Houston Post. Each had its own personality and news slant. Today, The Houston Chronicle is the last standing newspaper in Houston.
The eldest of the three, The Houston Post, which dated its founding back 111 years to 1884, unceremoniously closed its doors suddenly on April 18, 1995. On the tenth anniversary of its closing, 2005, Lynn Ashby, a long time columnist for the Post, described that closing. I recently found his article and some identified pictures of “posties” as they called themselves. Ashby’s description reminds me of the sudden closing of Enron in 2007 and the devastation to its employees, unceremoniously escorted from the building.
I do not know now how to use this information, but it seems important that it be preserved and accessible. Posties counted for something important. We roll on day to day listening only to the Now with breathless announcements: “The sky is falling! Be afraid!” Yet, if we keep just a sideways glance on history, we know that clouds drift in and out, but the sky does not fall. Tragedies happen, good people get hurt, but the collective We recover with a chance to make it right.
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by P. R. Thompson