We made the newspaper! No, we're not featured in the New York Times, but we did make the front page of the Yankton Press & Dakotan. A journalist came to Hartington to interview us last week while we had lunch at the senior center. Check it out...a few of us are quoted.
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This article reminds me of the phrase often used by my extended rural family when I was growing up. "We'll notify the paper that you poured," was exclaimed during any kind of party, dinner or event where beverages were served. Whether they were teasing about the local newspaper or reminding everyone present that within very little time, the entire community would know all about the gathering, the point was made that "who pours" IS newsworthy.
To find ourselves so easily recognized within the community was very affirming and also a little disconcerting. Each of the pastors who guided our tour spoke of the public/private life of the pastor in similar terms. It is so good to be in place where people know you and you know them, where it is fairly easy to keep up with the latest activities, celebrations and sorrows. And it feels a little uncomfortable to not have the protection of anonymity one finds in more populated settings. It is a little easier to understand why young people want to leave a small town so they can do what they want without everyone knowing about it. And yet, as we discovered, so many come back. And why? Because the want the security of living in place where they are known. It was so good to be known, even temporarily by the people of Hartington.
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