GREG’S CORNER

By Greg Ritchie

Messenger Reporter

Editor’s note: Greg’s Corner is a new section for our Thursday edition where Messenger Reporter Greg Ritchie shares odds and ends from the job and unusual or interesting facts from across the world and across time.

MESSENGER OFFICE – I can’t speak for everyone, but I am excited that the schools are starting back again. It’s been a rough summer – not just for the agriculture industry, but for everyone who had to sweat through this miserable drought. The beginning of school means fall sports, school plays, cooler weather and holidays to come.

My mission – it is more than a job at this point – is to tell all the wonderful stories of the good folks in Houston and south Anderson Counties. A month into this I have already been able to meet so many people. And what people. This really is a special place. I don’t know who is luckier – the people born and raised here – who may take it all for granted. Or the people like me who found this place somewhere in the middle of their lives and thank God it exists.

Yes, of course we have problems. I hear some people say that we have all the problems of the bigger cities just on a smaller scale. I don’t doubt that, but I don’t get that same feeling living here as I would in a Houston or a Dallas. Living in those places is like a loud train that runs behind your house. You live there so long, you don’t even hear it anymore – not until a guest asks how you live with that thing. You just get used to the big city grind and don’t realize the toll it takes on your health – physical and mental.

So we shouldn’t forget what we have here. A community of good people. People who still ask how you are – and want to hear the answer. I hope to continue to tell our stories twice a week here in the Messenger. Because this is our newspaper, by us and for us. Thank you for reading it and telling others about us.

So many of you have found us on Facebook and commented or liked our stories. Others have written or called in with story ideas or information. Some have called just to complain, and that’s part of the job too.

My goal is to shine a light on, well, us. I want our great-grandchildren to find these papers archived and get a peek of who we were and how we lived. There’s no point in printing this two times a week if it’s not for us, about us.

So please continue to support us. Call with your story ideas. Email us and tell us what is new with you and your group of friends. Write and suggest your pastor for the Sunday Sitdown segment we do each Sunday.

Subscribe to the paper if you haven’t already. There is something so calming and timeless to sitting with a hot coffee reading the paper. Share stories with children. My attempt at proper grammar may do them some good. Most of what they read is written in a series of letters and numbers on a tiny screen. U C what I mean? 4 sure!

Bless you for bringing this little paper into your home and into your heart. We put a lot of work and love into it. Much like the good neighbors that live in this area – newspapers like ours are a rare commodity.