“We hope the Observer can help put people in greater contact with the shops, people, and events that touch their day-to-day lives.” So reads a house ad written by Mary and Don Hunt from the very first issue of the Observer, and it’s as true today as it was fifty years ago. We report local news, of course, but what makes us special is our coverage of the human stories unique to Ann Arbor. So when we were reflecting on how to report on our fiftieth anniversary, we decided to turn the mirror to our audience, and ask how the Observer has impacted them beyond staying up on what’s happening in our corner of the world.

We were delighted to hear not just from readers, but also advertisers, former employees, and past and present contributors. It was a powerful reminder of how tightly the Observer is knit into this community. Here now are some of the stories they shared. Some are surprising, some are funny, some gave us goosebumps, and you might want to get the tissues, just in case.

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My husband was born and raised in Ann Arbor, but we met at Berkeley and raised our family in San Francisco. We’d visit A2 from time to time, and I’d always open the Observer on my in-laws’ kitchen table. My favorite section was the Events Calendar. “Wow, Yo-Yo Ma is coming to town? And Ann Patchett? Plus so many free classes at the library!”

Fast forward almost thirty years, and my husband and I were getting tired of California. What should show up in our mailbox but a copy of the Ann Arbor Observer? My mother-in-law had gotten us a subscription. Even though we lived thousands of miles away, I would peruse each issue and marvel at all the fun things happening in the city. When we finally decided to take an early retirement, it was a no-brainer to choose Ann Arbor.

—Ann Kim

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Loved working as a graphic designer at the Observer as a youngster out of U-M Art School. It was one of my first jobs—paste-up on a light table, galleys proofed and rerun, some kind of headline typesetter, wax machine, maps made with Letraset tape, stat machine, etc.

—Christine Golus

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My husband Eric’s article, “The Denver Boot,” appeared in the September 1986 issue. In it, he recounts his story of finding a “Denver Boot” clamped to the wheel of his beloved 1972 Dodge Dart and the odyssey he embarked upon, humorously told.

This was the first time Eric was paid for his writing, and after paying the six parking tickets for which the Dart was booted, there was still enough left over for dinner at the Cracked Crab. In addition to a check for his article, Eric received fan mail from a young admirer, not exactly delighting me. The article also served as Eric’s introduction to my parents, who lived in Florida. They were both amused and impressed. All such great memories.

The best, however, is the fact that Eric did not indict me as the culprit responsible for the booting of his car. (That’s right—I racked up those tickets!) When I read this wonderful story and saw that no mention was made of my culpability, I knew this clever and talented young man was a keeper. We’ve been together ever since.

—Peg Eby-Jager

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I save all my Observers and use the covers to wrap holiday gifts in December. It’s one of my favorite traditions now!

—Abby Brown

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I’ve designed dozens, probably even hundreds of ads that have appeared in the Observer. The list includes many iconic local businesses and organizations that embody what makes Ann Arbor special—from Mast Shoes, the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation, and the Michigan Theater, to beloved restaurants like Zingerman’s and Jerusalem Garden. Back in the Analog ’80s, we submitted our “camera-ready artwork” as hand-cut and pasted mechanicals. Full-color printing was too expensive for most of my clients, but we might spring for the special “color of the month,” which would add a pop of color to the standard black-and-white fare for just a few extra bucks. As I near my retirement, I look back with pride on the contributions I’ve made to supporting our community. Long live the Observer! And thanks to all those, especially the advertisers, who help keep it going.

—Susan E. Cybulski

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In 1983, I was an art major at the University of Michigan when my painting professor assigned us to create a nocturnal scene. Using a combination of watercolor and pastel, I painted a nighttime view framed by the oaks in the Diag. Someone suggested I submit it for consideration as a cover for the Ann Arbor Observer. I met with Mary Hunt, and to my delight, the painting was accepted. It appeared on the cover of the April 1984 issue. After graduating, I stayed in the Ann Arbor area and went on to complete two more covers.

—Steve Burdick

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I often joked to the Observer editors and publishers that I should have paid them for the privilege of being a frequent cover artist rather than them paying me. Ann Arbor’s truly famous local artist Milt Kemnitz once told me that “being called a famous local artist is the kiss of death.” However, the recognition I developed because of the Observer covers was an incredible boon to my career and I have always enjoyed being known as a famous local artist. I am truly indebted to the Observer.

—Laura Strowe

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“I’m going to work for that woman.” A profile of human rights attorney Deborah LaBelle in the April 2000 issue of the Ann Arbor Observer had me on a mission to be part of her work on behalf of incarcerated women in Michigan. Deb hired me to manage the case files for a class action she had filed. … Working on it strengthened my commitment to support social justice initiatives, both personally and professionally. And the Observer continues to be an indispensable source of insights and information for me about life in Ann Arbor.

—Janet Max

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For many years, I gave talks at my children’s schools on “Fun and Weird Things to Do With Kids in A2,” based almost exclusively on the Observer entries. My kids have learned to roll their eyes at such experiences as tours of the water treatment plant or the back rooms of the old Natural History Museum, making papier-mâché dinosaur legs for the same, or watching the goats eat the poison ivy at Gallup Park. They refer to these as “cultural experiences” and still recall the more outrageous ones years later.

—Jerri Jenista

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When I moved here for residency, I came to love the Ann Arbor Observer’s monthly art covers. I decided to decorate my shoji screen with the cover pages to chronicle my time here. From my first Angelo’s brunch and art fair with my co-interns, to the many snowy winters that got easier each year both in and out of the hospital, I filled in the screen with these art scenes. By my fourth and final year of residency, the screen will be completely filled with Ann Arbor art, the backdrop of my many fond memories here.

—Jen Wang

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If you’ve driven through Washington St. and Fourth Ave. after 2013, you may have deftly avoided the idiotic man blocking traffic photographing a bookstore. That idiotic man is the proprietor of Literati Bookstore and, unfortunately, me.

Literati is my child, and I, its starry-eyed parent, take too many photos of a brick building to be normal. So imagine my thrill when I saw my kid on the cover of the Ann Arbor Observer. “We made it!” I exclaimed to my coparent, Hilary. “Our baby’s first magazine cover!” An illustrated green brick bookstore, a crosswalk, and no vehicular incidents. Perfection.

One day, a writer and bookseller, Santi Elijah Holley, contacted us: His mother, Susan Finley, painted that cover. We framed it with plans to hang it. Then Santi wrote us sad news: Sue Finley passed away. The illustration—a historic intersection of golden light—seemed more
nuanced and emotional.

I never contemplated Observer illustrators. But Sue Finley’s talents showcased our beautiful city. I now see Observer covers, and Washington St. at Fourth Ave., differently. We are not just individuals wandering sidewalks. We are just not singular buildings. Whoever we are—bookstore proprietors, children of artists, downtown painters inspired by urban aerial views—we are all here, intersecting.

After Sue passed, Santi and I climbed the stairs to Literati’s second story. We found windows overlooking Washington St. and Fourth Ave. And now, along with the stories that intersect the shelves, Sue Finley’s Observer cover proudly hangs.

—Michael Gustafson

Editor’s note: Finley’s June 2015 cover wasn’t the only one to showcase Literati Bookstore. In December 2017, Steve Gilzow did a beautiful rendition in oil:

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When my dad was diagnosed with ALS in November 1997, I knew it was a death sentence. I wanted music therapy so I looked in the Observer and found that the Women’s Chamber Chorus (now the Washtenaw Women’s Community Chorus) was accepting new members in January 1998. I joined and am still a happy member!

—Ann Ringia

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My first appearance in the Observer, in 1976, was as the subject of a feature story. Then I mostly appeared as a byline over the next nearly thirty years, especially after I started freelancing full-time in 1994, joining a corps of proficient journalists that the magazine helped keep afloat financially, and whose work enlightened and engaged the community.

—Jeff Mortimer

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My husband Eric Gettel posted a singles ad and I responded to it. This was in roughly February/March 1995. We’ve been married over thirty years. 

—Joy Beatty

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It was the summer of 1983, and I was young and single and living on a buffalo ranch south of Jackson, Michigan, where I worked as a reporter for the Jackson Citizen Patriot. The Observer was not available in Jackson, but a friend’s husband worked at the plant where the Observer was printed and gave me a copy each month.

It was not easy meeting young, single, liberal-leaning men in Jackson, which proudly (but incorrectly) claimed to be the birthplace of the Republican Party. At home, over dinner one night, I was reading an article in Ms. Magazine: “Finding Love in the Classifieds.” It encouraged women to be assertive in finding a partner. So I flipped through the Observer’s personal ads. One caught my eye, from a man who liked camping and dancing and was seeking “a feminine feminist.”

I responded to just this one ad, posted it in the mail, and pretty much forgot about it … until I received a phone call from the personal ad’s author a week or two later.

Jeff and I had our first date at Seva. We were married the next year and went on to have a son and a daughter, and now a granddaughter. And to complete the Observer circle, both kids ended up delivering the Observer in the Allmendinger Park neighborhood in the 1990s.

Without the Observer, there would be no Adam or Rachel or little Nora. Jeff and I would have lived different lives, probably in different places. The Observer changed everything.

—Janet Miller

You can find every Observer cover since 2001 at annarborobserver.com/issues. Our archive from 1976–2022 is at aadl.org/annarborobserver.