Puffs

At one time I received three daily newspapers and at least five weekly newspapers. In 2023, I receive two daily and two weekly. Quite a change. I never did read each one word-for-word, but did scan all to find what I thought was interesting. I still do the same today.

However, last week I was asked if I read a certain commentary and said I did not and was urged to read it. I found it and did read it, and that is what triggered this week’s comments. As I’ve said in the past, newspaper writers sometime ‘borrow’ items other people write. This week’s words include just a couple of points ‘borrowed,’ but most are my own thoughts. His theme was on change . . . good or bad.

• It’s been several years since I’ve attended a movie (at a theatre) and the first item the other writer brought up was the price. Two tickets and a bucket of popcorn for $34.50. What a change! I may be wrong but $5 would cover a night at the theatre when I was younger.

• The next item he brought up as a major change was “Shorts in church.” He thought he was pretty ‘radical’ in his youth when he wore blue jeans to church. I think I mentioned a number of years ago when I was surprised by a young man (I’m guessing about 20 years old) attending a funeral with old, faded blue jeans on which didn’t even reach up to his waist line. I suspect he didn’t intend to show the deceased any disrespect, or even to God, since the service was in a church. However, that was what people today call “un-intended consequences.” Now, I know some blue jeans probably cost more than what I call my ‘Dress Clothes,’ and that blue jeans have become sort of ‘common,’ but I do not see how blue jeans and shorts show proper respect to any function you may be attending.

• Football . . . sort of a ‘national sport’ these days, but, was I ever surprised last Spring when a town the size of Superior was debating if they wanted to continue their high school football program because of the low number of boys wanting to play the sport. In the day 60 years ago, and still in many schools today, most all boys have an intense interest in playing football. I hope parents today still understand how sport activity in high school, or extracurricular activity at all, benefit a child during they growth stages.

• Pheasant hunting . . . What a change. The birds were once so popular that I had a friend from our Air Force days drive from Massachusetts to Nebraska for a long weekend of pheasant hunting. Back then, one of the major reasons for car repairs was the car-pheasant collisions. Today, a person rarely sees any of the birds.

• Buildings . . . In recent years building that are not that old are being torn down to make way for something else. Ya, change can be good, but sometimes you wonder. Shopping malls in Hastings and Grand Island (and I’m sure other towns) are being torn down to make way for something else. I don’t know the details in all cases, but I know that local ownership did not exist in at least one instance. I think back to 1922 and 1923 when the Nebraska State Capitol, Memorial Stadium in Lincoln and Sacred Heart Church in Lawrence were all built. They still stand after 100 years. Ya, it has taken a lot of money for ‘upkeep,’ but isn’t it worth it. The mall in Hastings, as I understand it was owned by an organization in New York and it was just not making the money the owner thought it should. As such they didn’t keep the building in repair, renters moved out and now the building is gone. Change can be good, or bad.

• Health Care . . . In years gone by, when people died, the reason was just that . . . “they died.” Today, many times a reason is given that most people don’t understand and that reason is several words that contain 60 or 70 letters a person cannot remember a month later.

• History . . . One of the more interesting subjects (at least I think so) to talk about. About 50 or 60 years ago the first ‘active historical exhibits’ were being built and displayed. A person could visit and see how things were done in the early years of the U. S. of A. One of the very first ones I visited had a printing shop in it and I had to go see it. Boy, was I surprised when I saw much of the equipment they had in it were supposed to be ‘antiques.’ Much of it was very much like the equipment I was using just a year or so before in the office of The Lawrence Locomotive. Kind of a shock.

Yes, there is always going to be change . . . it seems the only thing that does not change is change itself. It’s going to happen. Our job is to recognize it when it happens and try to insure that the change is for the better. Change, just for the sake of change itself, doesn’t mean very much. There has to be a good reason for it. And . . . it’s most likely going to cost money for one reason or another.

Good luck this week, a change comes in the form of schools opening up for the 2023-24 school years. I hope all the students and their parents change as they should.

A O