I wish you all a happy and prosperous New Year in 2025, but I figured now was as good a time as any to turn back the pages a century to see what our ancestors were feeling when 1925 burst into the “now”. The January 1st, 1925 Reading Times has the headline:

“Buy in Reading!” The Best Resolution for 1925 Prosperity

With the New Year, let us resolve to make it a banner year for Reading. Let us make it a prosperous year. We can do it. A simple formula for Reading is to shop in Reading. Keep the money circulating here. Believing that a “Shop in Reading” campaign will prove a benefit to all Readingites, The Reading Times has invited a number of citizens to prepare special articles on the subject.

More on that in a moment. An article titled “It’s All Over, Old man 1924 Leaves Town Downcast; Young 1925 Full o’ Pep” has caught my eye…

“Clear the way! Here I come!” So spoke a dapper youth, introducing himself as “Mr. 1925,” upon his arrival in Reading last night. He was greeted by newspapermen as he stepped from the Orbital Express. “I’m real glad to be among you,” he continued. “I think that I can do a great deal for Reading this year. Why, just look! There’s so much to do everywhere! Watch me clean up before next December 31st rolls around!”

A deep groan greeted his words. There, seated in the same chair Mr. 1925 had occupied on the express, sat an old man who had just boarded the train. The lines of care furrowed his face in every direction, and his long, gray beard was unkempt and stained. As all eyes turned to the source of the groan, he said: “That’s just what I said one year ago tonight.”

A moment’s silence. Then Mr. 1925 rose to the occasion. “I don’t know just who you are, old fellow, but if you think you’re going to throw a wet blanket on me you’re mistaken. Why, just look at me! I’m full of pep, and I’ll just tell you what I’m going to do. First, I’ll clean up this museum mess, then I’m going to pull the jail out of city park; next I’ll start a part of that $3,000,000 road building program, and I intend to see that Duval gets fired, and, while I’m at it, I’ll get Nuebling reinstated. Then, if I have any spare time, I’ll fix up this grade crossing squabble, and call it a year!”

Again the old man groaned, as tears began coursing down his wrinkled cheeks. “It’s tough,” he said. “I know it’s tough. I hate to break your heart. I even hate to tell you who I am, because I’m ashamed of myself. But, anyhow, I’m Mr. 1924. All was silent except for the hissing of the steam from a leaky hose.

The sibilant noise seemed to frighten the old man, who looked about to see if anyone was giving him a vocal solute at parting. Reassured, he began:

“One year ago I had high hopes, just like you. I was going to fix things up here, you bet! but that was one year ago. Between the reformers and the ax-grinders, misguided politicians and officeholders who are not politicians, but who hold themselves to be invested with the divine right of rulers, I have had a merry time. And now, after twelve months of work – and hard work it was – I can’t point to a single thing that has been done.”

“I had other ideas when I came here. I wanted to clean up the grade crossing, just as you do. I wanted to fix things up generally, but look at me now!”

“But maybe you didn’t go about it right,” quoth Mr. 1925. “Now I’m going to start off fresh. I am going to eliminate fire-trap schools. I’m going to try – only try, mind you – to get a decent International League ball club in Reading, and I’m going to fix up this museum business, the jail site, and the city bureau of water. And then, if time permits, I’m going to give Reading High school a winning football team, and the same present to Schuylkill College, and I’m going to build a new court house and city hall, and maybe I’m even going to divert some of the $3,000,000 that the Reading Railway announced that it might spend in the city during the year to my pet project – getting a light installed in the clock tower at the outer depot.”

“Then, too, because I’m going to work twenty-four hours a day, I expect to see the end of the Mt. Penn quarry litigation, and perhaps move the hillside memorial project a bit further than the architect’s plans. Yes, I might even see the University club, the American Legion and the Americus club get a club house, and maybe, before I leave here, the Hampden Park comfort station will be kept open all the time, instead of just now and then. Believe me, I’m going to do something around here, see!”

The old man stifled countless yawns while the youngster was speaking. Ete the lad finished speaking, he was sound asleep, but the explosive finale of the harangue brought him to his senses.

“It’s too bad,” he volunteered, “You’re all wet! Those things were my platform, but I never got far. First some people go into courts to keep the museum out of city park for reasons best known to themselves and before the year is out others want to go into court to make them build it in the park. Then there’s baseball – you know the old song: “In the Springtime the Bushers Bloom.” It looks good now, but wait!”

“It’s no use, youngster! Better quit before you start! Look over my record, and figure it out for yourself. I haven’t done a thing! Goodbye!”

“Oh, yes, you have,” shouted a member of the group, as the Orbital Express gathered momentum on the down-grade of the Winter Solstice. “Oh, yes, you certainly have!”

“Then in heaven’s name, what was it?” yelled the old man, as his whiskers became tinged with stardust.

“Why, you brought the crossword puzzle to Reading.”

“Sure enough,” he yelled back. “Guess it wasn’t such a bad year after all!”

BUY IN READING

Spend your money where you earn it — Keep it circulating at home and it will be like casting your bread upon the waters. Some of it is bound to find its way back to you. There is no good reason to go abroad to buy. Reading has famous stores in every line, well-conducted shops offering worthy merchandise at all times. The window displays and the newspaper advertisements of its various stores tell a fascinating story dailer — ever-new —- ever changing —- ever interesting.

Shirts and shoes, stores and furniture, ready-to-wear for men, women and children, hardware and dry goods, groceries and toys, radio sets and pianoes, jewelry and stationery, talking machines and autos, in fact, every human nexessity and luxury under the sun finds its way into our own home town thru the enterprose of the business men who have faith in you, in Reading and its future.

More and more people are buying in Reading because they can buy to a better advantage. But we want more, and still more to come here to buy, because every dollar spent at home helps to make us more prosperous as a whole; and, where the whole is prosperous, even the very humblest in the community is certain to have some of that prosperity reflected upon himself.

For civic pride’s sake, for loyalty’s sake, and lastly, for the sake of your own personal interest – Buy in Reading – Your own home town.

Perhaps the more things change, the more they stay the same.