"Eula Mae Daniels called Tuesday night to check on my grandmother."
This is a "news" item from my hometown newspaper. It comes out every Wednesday and is filled with items like this. Each community has a correspondent who writes about her neighbors. She gets a byline and loves seeing her name in print. So do the ones she writes about, like Eula.
Yep, America has more news sources than all the rest of the world: radio, TV, cell phones, magazines, daily papers, etc. But I betcha you still look forward to that weekly from your hometown. It's sort of a umbilical cord that keeps you attached to your hometown no matter where you live. There are over 3,000 in one form or another with names like Sentinel, Free Press, Blade, Herald, Banner, Sun, Dispatch, Courier, Clinch County News, on and on. These weeklies are like a diary for the county's citizens, recounting the daily lives of local people, publishing their social, religious, business and political news that would never be printed in the daily papers.
Many years have gone by since my youth. World War II is now history. I was in that war. My home county paper followed me through infantry basic training, then to Europe and eventually the Pacific. It was almost like a letter from my mother. I read every word and knew most of the names.
One happening I'll never forget: The mail had caught up with us. I sat on the steps of a village we'd occupied, reading my paper when a German shell landed nearby close enough to rock me backward. I held on to the paper and read it the next day!
You also probably enjoy the personal news from your hometown paper. Here are a few from mine:
"Mabel Rhodes called to let Floyd know that her brother and his cousin, James Thompson, were home."
"Neta and Homer Pace attended a singing in Rison on Thursday night." (Boy, do I remember that family and how they could sing the old time hymns!)
"Birdie Rogers called to check on Ida Mae. Everyone was fine."
"Cassandra and son spent Wednesday night with Gertie."
Such items stir up memories, some sad but most of them good. They also confirm gossip and maybe once in a while make more gossip!
I bet many famous folks, especially if they're from small towns, still subscribe to their hometown weeklies. Even though these weeklies have been called "gossip" in print, they are a connection we can always have no matter where we live or how famous we get. As one of my boyhood pals back then would say, "Ain't it wonderful?"
Denton Harris served in the 86th Infantry in World War II.