If we were to assemble a list of all the specially designated days, weeks and months into a book, I suspect that book would be as big as an unabridged dictionary.
Though there are only 365 days in a year, the National Day Calendar group now tracks nearly 1,500 national days weeks and months. According to that group, October 1 was National Black Dog Day, National Hair Day, Fire Pup Day and National Homemade Cookie Day.
October 2 was National Produce Misting Day, National Custodial Workers Recognition Day, National Name Your Car Day, National Fried Scallops Day, National Manufacturing Day, National Body Language Day and World Smile Day.
October 3 was National Teacher’s Day and National Boyfriend Day. October 4, was National Cinnamon Bun Day, National Taco Day, National Golf Lover’s Day, National Vodka Day and National GOE Day.
When starting this notebook entry for this week, I planned to list all the special days observed in October. I soon grew tired of entering days I had never heard of.
When I came to October 5, I realized the list Google gave me was incomplete because it didn’t list National Newspaper Week, National Newspaper Carrier Day or Rita’s birthday which is October 9.
I consider all three of those to be more important than National Taco Day.
And since I have been the editor of this newspaper for more than 50 years, if I were asked to rank the month’s special days, national newspaper week would be close to the top.
If put to a local vote, I suspect the majority of area residents would agree with me.
The readers of a community weekly feel strongly about their paper. Hopefully, the majority like it, but I learned long ago you can’t please all the people all the time.
Years ago when the paper wasn’t ready for distribution until about 5 p.m. on Wednesdays, we sold on an average Wednesday afternoon 200 papers across the front counter between 5 and 6:30 p.m. We had at least one, sometimes two people working the front counter. Motor vehicle traffic was so chaotic I am surprised we avoided having a serious accident. I’m glad in those days we didn’t have the harvest traffic we are experiencing this week.
It made me a bit nervous to watch the eager buyers assembling outside our door waiting to be among the first to obtain a paper. I often wondered what would happen if the “mob” was unhappy with that week’s content. If the mob grew unruly, I knew I couldn’t duck out the back door as the newspaper had only front doors.
But those fears proved to be unfounded. The people gathered outside were eager to get the news and wanted a copy before going home to supper.
Now that the paper must be printed on Tuesday nights to meet the Wednesday mail dispatch time, the activity is spread more evenly throughout the day.
But it still thrills me to see people stopping to purchase a newspaper. To think people are willing to pay 50 cents for something I printed. Last week, as I filled the newspaper’s vendors and racks, buyers were asking for the papers before I completed my work.
Times change but the need for information is not going away, if anything it is expanding. Newspapers are well positioned to fill the information need. Emily Bradbury, the 43-year-old manager of the Kansas Press Association, was right when she recently said, “Local newspapers play a critical role in our communities making us all stronger and engaged citizens. Newspapers are dedicated to keeping you informed, whether it is a local issue or a worldwide pandemic, they are there to provide consistent news coverage you can trust.”
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And to shift gears, I’m more than 60 years tardy but I would like to congratulate the forward thinking citizens of Mankato who in the 1950s decided to install a steel swimming pool instead of the more traditional concrete pools other area communities were putting in. At the time I suspect the steel pool was more costly but it has lasted well.
This year with the pool closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, city leaders decided to schedule a major pool renovation. Years of accumulated paint have been sandblasted away to find only two places where the metal needed repairing. Those have been repaired and it appears the pool will continue to serve the Mankato community for many years to come.
It appears the community got a good deal when the decision was made to go with the metal design.
While decades have passed since I last swam in the Mankato pool, I remember it as one of the area’s best. I’m glad it will continue to serve the young people of Jewell County.
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Elsewhere in this paper we have included obituary of a longtime Republic resident and former teacher at the Republic School, Beth Sankey.
I now suspect I took her picture trying to catch a pig. It was nearly 50 years ago and I was in Republic covering a community celebration that included a pig catching contest. After that event ended and I had followed the action on down the street, Helen Sankey and another woman who I didn’t know approached and asked if I would take pictures of them trying to catch a pig. There was a stipulation, they would buy prints but I was not to publish the pictures in the newspaper.
They had enjoyed watching the youngsters participating in the pig catching contest and wanted to try their hand at it.
I agreed and we made our way back to where the pigs had been resting in the shade. The two women climbed into the ring and the pigs were released. I fired away as the women laughed while the pigs squealed. It was bedlam for awhile as the pigs tried to escape their pursers. The pigs may not have been having fun but the women were and getting to watch the action was my highlight of the day. It was have a great act to film with one of today’s video cameras.
Until now, all I knew about the second woman was that she was a Republic School teacher. I didn’t recognize her and she didn’t tell me her name. This week, I think I discovered her identity. She likely was the high school English teacher and play director. The two women were most likely sisters-in-law. I think it would have been fun to have been a member of a play cast she directed.
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A few days ago I was asked “When are you going to stop living in fear and reopen the front door of The Express.”
With 10 new cases of COVID-19 reported in Nuckolls County between Friday and Monday, the door will remain locked.
We can’t hide indefinitely in a fox hole but the risk of contracting COVID-19 is now the highest it has ever been in this area. It is time to stop ignoring the threat, double down on our precautions and follow the experts’ advice, and not the example set by our President.
Saturday I participated in a ZOOM chat with fellow members of the International Society of Weekly Newspaper editors. I identified with the member from near Sturgis, S. D. When asked about the motorcycle rally, she said she lived close enough to hear the Harley Roar. Asked if she attended this year’s rally, she said definitely not. In her younger days, she had but she considered it far too dangerous to have done so this year and strongly said the rally should never have been held.
Most of those participating in the chat appeared to believe their areas (be in country, state or providence) had relaxed prematurely and that in late fall we would see more people being infected than at any time previously.
That certainly is not good news but it appears to be what is happening. Earlier this week I read that Nebraska hospitals have filled 85 percent of the beds they have available for COVID patients.
COVID-19 is not a hoax to be ignored. It won’t go away on election day. It is a threat to be taken seriously.
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