The Old Familiar Place

True confession: while the history of American film contains plenty of movie set in newsrooms, I've seen only one: All The President’s Men. The newspaper movie I’d like to see doesn’t exist. It would be about these people.

Image from the former employees of Patuxent Publishing alumni page on Facebook.

In this place.

At last one of these, if not both, are Scott Kramer images

Oh, how I’d snap up tickets to see the major motion picture of what it was like to create the Columbia Flier newspaper in the New American City and follow its expansion into Patuxent Publishing, providing news coverage for area communities throughout our region. Perhaps this story wouldn’t have enough of the things that Hollywood movie studios like to market: sex, violence, or characters that can be marketed as plastic action figures.

That wouldn’t matter to me. I’d be happy enough to sit back with my popcorn and watch the story of the people who told the stories. This is the time period - - of Columbia’s early years - - that I missed. And I’d pay good money to see it reenacted on the big screen.

Here are a few of those people who told the stories. They gathered recently to remember those experiences of creating a brand new newspaper for a brand new place. They are photographed in front of the building that most of us associate with the Columbia Flier. The place where it happened, you might say.

Image from County Executive’s social media posts

Designed by Columbia resident and architect Bob Moon, the Columbia Flier Building has been a striking building along the streetscape of Little Patuxent Parkway since its construction in 1978. For 33 years the building was home to the Columbia Flier which ceased its operations there in 2011. - - HoCoGov website

The County has owned it since 2014, searching for just the right use for the space (or perhaps just the land itself.) At long last a decision has been made: the site will be redeveloped as a community center offering recreational, health and social services. It will be called “The Source.”

I like it. A new kind of source for Columbia. A city which is no longer new, but can still get excited to create new things.

I don’t know how a movie about the Columbia Flier building would end. Would it be when they had to leave the building? Or perhaps when the newspaper itself ceased to exist? As sentimental as it sounds, perhaps a movie like this might end with a scene such as this week’s reunion at the old familiar place on Little Patuxent Parkway.

Telling stories, sharing memories.

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