As a child growing up in the '60s, the arrival of The Kentucky Post each afternoon signified the return of our working parents was nigh. The thud at the end of the driveway meant the carrier had made his rounds and we should have supper simmering on the stove and the house cleaned up. Daily I would fetch the community news and sit on our front porch reading the parts of interest to any typical 10-year-old - the comics. The years passed but the routine continued and my regular reading each afternoon broadened to include first Ann Landers, then the front page, of course the advertisements, and soon to follow the editorial page. After all, an adolescent in the late '60s needed to be acutely aware that we were living in a changing world and I had a growing interest in the issues of our times - the Vietnam War and racial integration to name just a few.
Routine is good for children and families. It makes their life predictable and therefore allows them to think about more important abstract issues. We feel safe with routines as they tend to bring manageability to our lives. The Kentucky Post was certainly part of the family routine. After all, it has staying power (in journalism terms I think it's called "shelf life"). Just look at the ways we all keep it around. It's lined the bottom of many family picnic baskets, protected floors when the Dad paints the living room, small clippings celebrating a loved one's life and announcing their death now pressed between the pages of the family Bible, articles of interest about home mailed to far-off lands to loved ones serving in the military or a college student trying to stay connected. The newspaper is great to start our fires in the woodstove each fall and it protects our treasured holiday decorations. Shucks, it's also wrapped a few Christmas presents each December. And finally, I've been told, for over 10 years a certain weekly column would occasionally be clipped and hung on family refrigerators.
Throughout the 1990s I had the privilege to write a regular column on my life's passion - parenting. I was teaching parenting classes for the Family Nurturing Center when The Post called me to ask me if I would consider writing the weekly. I said "yes" immediately and when I hung up the phone I thought, "Oh my, what have I just committed to?" So I just started writing each week about my thoughts and sharing what I knew - that family matters and given the choice, most families would choose to be functional, productive, and happy. Sometimes I was referred to as an "expert" but I'll share a secret with you now - I eagerly went to the end of my driveway each week and was always thrilled so see my article in print. Even though I wrote it, I would reread it for the first time when it was in the paper. I was humbled to now be part of that long standing tradition. The Kentucky Post had been part of my family for years - now I was part of the Kentucky Post family.
As it is in parenting, our job is to work ourselves out of a job. The kids grow up and don't need us the way they used to. Perhaps it's similar with our afternoon newspaper. We're all busy people now, and they say we don't take the time in the afternoon to read the paper. We get our news on the Internet and over Blackberries.
But who will print our obituaries and what will we use to line our picnic baskets? I think it is a sad day in our community. We'll get used to it - we always do to change, it seems. I'm not sure what will connect us all one to another. But I pray we never forget that as a community, Northern Kentucky is like family ... and family matters.
Publication date: 12-31-2007
