It is - after the fact

It is time to stop smelling the sneakers and start smelling the roses. By the time you read this, I will be on my way to retirement.

I have enjoyed my time here at the Anderson Valley Post. It was a return from working here some 12 or 13 years ago.

In 1995, Virginia Reeter needed some time off and I tried to fill her shoes while she was gone. They were big shoes to fill, and I don’t mean size-wise.

Virginia was a class act. Other class acts at the newspaper were Homer Bruce, Lyle Amblin and Doug Hirsch when they were at the helm of the Valley Post, or Valley News, depending on what time in history you are talking about.

They, as well as others, have all tried to give local news to the Anderson and Cottonwood areas for the last 126 years. The thing we were all guilty of – or were trying to do – was to give local news to the folks who lived in the area – telling about what was happening.

I have tried to bring the local sports news and features to you and I hope, in some little way, that I have done so – this is your area and you make the news – I hope I have recorded it correctly.

Times are changing. The younger generation is getting their news on the Internet, so it is a transition time from paper to net. I am happy that I could be a part of the print and part of the beginning of the Internet. Stories and pictures are now on both, so the younger and older generations can take their pick as to where they find out what is happening.

When this younger generation becomes the older generation, something new and now unknown will, I am sure, be bringing you the news. The important thing is that this is a community. It changes and it evolves, but once roots have been put down, it becomes you.

You make the news, your parents and children make the news, this is what community and local news is all about.