Susan Writes

A daily newspaper is one of those things I didn’t know how much I liked until I didn’t have it. And because a daily paper has always been a part of my life, I miss it.

            On summer days when I was a kid growing up in Pickett County, The Tennessean was delivered by mail six days a week, around 9:30 a.m., and I ran to the mailbox. I handed the news section to Dad, the sports section to Mom, because she was our family’s strongest sports enthusiast, and the living section, including the comics, was mine. 

            And then we’d swap sections.  I didn’t read all the national or state news, but the time I spent lying in the floor and scanning those pages are happy home memories.  From the living section Mom often clipped recipes and Erma Bombeck’s columns, some that I still have. Because Dad worked the crossword puzzle, Mom had to be careful not cut it out on the back of a recipe.         

            Sometimes our supper time conversations were about a newspaper article or a column by Elmer Hinton and it would be read aloud.  The thick Sunday editions were bought at a restaurant in town.  It stayed around the house until mid-week to be reread, and the colored comics were stashed for birthday gift wrapping paper.

            The only time of my life when I didn’t regularly flip newspaper pages was my college years, but as soon as Husband and I owned our first house, we got The Tennessean newspaper.  We added the Herald-Citizen when we moved from Hermitage to Cookeville more than forty years ago.  When it wasn’t possible to get The Tennessean delivered, I was thankful our local paper continued Monday-Friday afternoon and Sunday morning deliveries. 

            I take comfort in routine.  Six months ago, when the Herald-Citizen changed to morning delivery, I often waited until late afternoon to read it.  And after Monday publications stopped, I looked in the blue box under our mailbox several Mondays before remembering there wasn’t a Monday paper. I finally adjusted to morning publications and deliveries four weekdays and Sundays, and now that’s changed to mail delivery three days a week.

            I could sing the newspaper blues, but I won’t. I won’t because I know if the staff members of the Herald-Citizen could make a profit publishing six days a week and employing delivery carriers, they would.  I won’t because I appreciate that we still have a local paper.  I won’t because like many others, I read some newspapers and publications online, and that habit has contributed to the demise of printed publications.

            I won’t because I know I need to be flexible and accept change. Years ago, I was a classroom teacher and complained about having to record students’ grades on a computer instead of in a red grade book, but Dad didn’t sympathize.  He said, “Keep up or be left behind.”

            So, while I miss a daily newspaper, I applaud the Herald-Citizen staff as they continue to serve and provide news in our community.

Filed under: Everyday Life | Tagged: newspaper |