History revisited They say those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it. However, those who don’t revisit history are doomed never to enjoy it. With that in mind, this week the Independent debuts a new feature we’re calling “One From the Vault.” Each week, we’ll select and run an interesting photo from the archives of the Independent and the Register, as well as an explanation of its back story. The idea to do this stems from a reporter and editor’s recent search for a file photo of a local politician who served some 40 years ago. Flipping through the stacks of musty, alphabetized folders in our file cabinets, we couldn’t believe some of the buried treasures we stumbled across: candid photos of current newsmakers way before they were well known; important places that are almost unrecognizable today; portraits of people with the hairstyles and clothes that were signs of the times; shots of events that remain significant to today’s news landscape. It felt like a sin not to share some of these gems with our readers. To start it off, we gave the honors to arguably the most newsworthy figure in the Bayshore area of the past year, Keyport Mayor John Merla. This week’s “Vault” photo (see page 49) depicts a young Councilman Merla early in his political life, garbed in a puffy coat and hunting cap, calling attention to a problem of birds flocking in the borough’s downtown. Never what anyone would call a stuffy politician, Merla’s archival photo folder would be entertaining enough to run each week, and we suspect he might agree with us if he saw it. We hope our readers enjoy “One From the Vault” in the issues to come. If there is a particular photo subject you would like to see run, feel free to e-mail us at indy@gmnews.com, and we’ll see if we can find it.