One thing about writing for newspapers in the modern era is that one never knows who is reading your story and where that person is in the world.

The Internet has provided newspapers like The Herald with a truly global audience. Before the advent of the World Wide Web, stories published in The Herald were read by people having the newspaper in their hands.

Nearly all of the people reading The Herald lived in the Mercer County area. The exceptions, of course, were snow birds and people living in other states who got their subscription to The Herald by mail, three or four days after the day of publication. Writers, for the most part, knew their audiences, but the Internet has changed all of that.

People in all parts of the world read The Herald’s free online edition, and not several days after publication, but within hours. I find it fascinating to check a software program that we have that tells where in the world The Herald’s online edition is being called up. It’s literally everywhere — from Africa to Germany to Afghanistan to parts of Great Britain. You name it.

As a result, editors, reporters and photographers get reaction to their stories and photos about which they previously wouldn’t have heard a word. People living outside of the country had no way of seeing them. At last week’s Farrell Alumni Hall of Fame dinner, many of the guests were from out of town, and said they like keeping up with the area by reading The Herald online.

I hear from people from everywhere about The Herald, and about some of the stuff that I write. Not everything is praise, of course, but nevertheless it’s good to know that people are reading and reacting to a story, column or photo that has affected them in some way. That happened several times this week.

I wrote a recent column about a lengthy letter that the late Tom Perjol had written the staff at Sharon General Hospital about his wonderful treatment after suffering a heart attack in 1968. Tom had served as The Herald’s business, labor and industry writer for many years.

I got the following e-mail about the column from his daughter, Tina Perjol, who got a copy the old-fashioned way via the U.S. Postal Service:

“I received your beautiful tribute to my father several days ago, coincidentally, as my husband and I were speaking about the power of words. I was relaying to him a story I had just heard about a Tchaikovsky violin concerto that was reviewed when first played for a public audience.

“A German critic (and of course, the Germans gave no credence to the Russians for their musicality) dismissed it as ‘fueled by vodka.’ This led us to a long discussion about the impact of the written word; a longing for the days of less intrusion from technology when correspondence was through letter writing; when the anticipation of mail was through the post office and not through email; when correspondence was private and meant for the individual it was addressed to and not accessible to an entire address book ...

“Our discussion went on and the mail arrived. My stepsister, Toni McCamant, sent me your gem of a tribute to ‘old-school.’ Aside from perhaps being the most poignant observations ever written about my father, you captured the essence of him. Thank you sincerely ... I will frame your piece and forever have a little piece of him of which I wasn’t aware.”

I got the following e-mail from one of the online readers, Frank White of Gulfport, Miss., about last week’s column on inductees of the alumni Hall of Fame. One of the inductees, Louis Nicastro, talked about his days in 1940 as Farrell’s last male cheerleader. Frank and a couple of others note that Farrell had male cheerleaders after 1940.

“I read your article on the Farrell High School Alumni banquet with interest and want to send along a correction. Mr. Nicastro claims to be the last male cheerleader for Farrell High. I appreciate his effort as a cheerleader, but there were two other male cheerleaders after his tenure. Patsy Reda, and yours truly, Frank White, were the last male cheerleaders. We were on the squad in 1946-47. We did some flips but cheer-led along with the girls ...”

Pete Calleja of Sharpsville seconded Frank’s recollection with an e-mail of his own. “Just a little note on the last male cheerleader in Farrell High School. I don’t know if there were any male cheerleaders after 1948, but the great “48” class that included your mom Mary also had Pat Reda, who was an outstanding male cheerleader.”

On a more recent note, James D’Angelo, who graduated in 1993, passed along an e-mail: “In the late 1980s or early 1990s, Farrell had a few young men act as lifters, if my memory is correct ...”



Jim Raykie is the editor of The Herald and writes this column on Mondays. His e-mail is jraykie@sharonherald.com