Runs in the family, even though I was separated from the Rutherfords at age 13.
My great-grandfather John Rutherford came from England to Scottdale,
PA, and ran a book and stationery store (other Rutherford siblings had
shoe factories, coal mines, banks, and a steam engine factory).
My
grandfather took over the "bookstore" and became a newspaper distributor
for several counties. Untold numbers of paperboys worked for him, and
he sponsored 12 boy scout troops.
Some of the Boy
Scout troops had marching bands and they probably bought their
instruments at a local store called "Rutherford Studios." It was rumored
of the Rutherfords that any of them could pick up any musical
instrument and be able to play it within a few months.
One auntie secretly wrote poetry.
The news store was inherited by my Uncle Bill, a grumpy man with an
eye-patch who lived above the store. Rutherford News closed forever
sometime in the late 1970s.
As a child in Scottdale, I would cut up
magazines and rebind them in various ways and sell them to neighbors; I
also printed a mimeographed science newsletter and tried to draw
comics. By the fifth grade I was writing monster plays and staging them
in a local garage, and charging admission to the all the neighborhood
kids. People in town said I was just like my grandfather.
And here I am, a curmdugeon, publishing books and picking away at writing and music. Did I have any choice in the matter?
This corner building was the site of Rutherford News. Since it was built around 1880, it was probably always in the family.
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