Where did the Hilton Head paper get that goofy quote?

“There is nothing like a ‘now’ look with a ‘then’ face.” — David Falk.

Hold that thought.

First we must answer a question from a dear reader.

Donna Rombauer writes:

“I don’t know who is responsible for the selection of the quote of the day, but I would like to express my appreciation for this small but noteworthy feature.

“I start each day reading The Island Packet e-Edition online. I scroll to the quote with heightened anticipation when the top-of-the-fold story is about the (all-too-frequent) sordid happenings in politics. It makes me feel like I am sharing in an insider joke with some very clever minds. Thanks for beginning my day with a chuckle.”

The quotation on our paper’s front page has not always been small.

When the Packet was a tabloid-sized paper serving a tabloid-sized community, the quote was splashed across the top of the front page.

The odd name of the paper was there, of course. Beside it was an odd-looking boat belching more smoke than a pool hall. And dancing in the white space above was a random quotation.

It must have seemed appropriate that actual news struggled for attention down below in an upstart weekly in an upstart community of people who were never able to burn the bridge behind them, but sure did burn their socks, gloves and neckties.

Why would they dare to be so different? I don’t know how the quotation came to be, except to think it was another contribution of the first editor, the appropriately named Ralph Hilton.

When the first edition rolled off the press on July 9, 1970, the quotation high above the lead story (about the island population exceeding 3,000) was this:

“I heard or seemed to hear the chiding Sea

Say, Pilgrim, why so late and slow to come?

— Emerson.

The quotation kept its prominent spot after the paper went to broadsheet and all they way up to seven editions per week. But as designers restyled us over the years, it got smaller and now rests at the bottom of the page, tired of being the town crier.

For years, the last thing the editor did as another edition somehow got out the door was to pick a line from “Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations” and put a check by it in pencil.

Today, our extraordinary senior copy editor Sandra Ross thoughtfully picks a quotation timely for the season or the news from BrainyQuotes online. A book called “The 2,548 Best Things Anybody Ever Said” now holds up someone’s computer screen.

But the best quotation we ever published came in the big, bold style of Sept. 4, 1979. It was written by Garry Moore, a radio and television comedian and game show host who retired to Sea Pines. Here’s his story:

“One of The Island Packet’s most attractive features is the quotation at the very top of Page One of each edition — bits of poesy or philosophy dusted off from the great thinkers of the past. They give me courage to face the day with fresh resolve even when I don’t understand what they’re about. Which is more often than I like to admit. Ones, for instance, like ‘Life is a tilted samovar.’ — Leo Tolstoy

“Frankly, that one did nothing for my spirits one way or the other, but I figured if it was good enough for Tolstoy it was certainly good enough for me. Consequently, I spent the rest of that day casually quoting it to friends. Judging by their empty stares, it meant nothing to them, either, except that possibly I’d gone back to drinking.

“So come September 1979, I decided to think up one of my own. It is not only profound but answers a practical local problem.

September is a month that ends in R,

And so are the months that follow it.

So if you have been holding an oyster

in your mouth all summer,

It’s okay now to swallow it.

— Garry Moore”

This story was originally published July 25, 2017 at 4:22 PM with the headline "Where did the Hilton Head paper get that goofy quote?."