Columns

Family: it’s a fact that in my life, not only has my family always meant the world to me, but I wouldn’t be the person I am if it weren’t for my parents and of course my sisters, extended family, and the many friends in my life that I place as family members to my own personal life.

Next week the Clay County News will share the story of a Clay County family that has left an amazing impact on so many people’s lives. A family that has an amazing extended family in their own right, but a family that has left a lasting impact on so many people throughout their lives.

It’s that time of year that the CCN staff announces their 2021 “Person or Family of the year.”

The selection for 2021 is a true and very impactful family to many in the community that they live in, but also so many in Clay County and other areas. A family that gives back to those around them from their heart, not because “they have to,” but because it’s just who they are.

Much like in 2021, I’ve made a goal to read more, the only difference between then and now; however, is I’m not setting said goal to read one book a month, but rather at least six books this year.

Which seems reasonable given the fact that last year I read a total of five new books and re-read two other books...so hopefully I’ll accomplish this.

Anyway, I’ve already got a new book for you mystery lovers to read—“The Carrow Haunt,” by Darcy Coates.

I bought this book from the horror/mystery section of Barnes and Noble, and Coates appears to purely base her books in this genre.

“The Carrow Haunt” centers around the Carrow house, which first opened as an asylum for people to better their mental and overall health, before it essentially failed and closed. The owners then opened it as a resort; the house itself has more than 20 rooms and was constructed on the edge of a cliff about an hour outside of the nearest town.

Country roads, as I shared last week, oftentimes lead to stories that come to mind during my 57 years of life, and this Saturday’s trip of over 250 miles around Clay, Nuckolls and Fillmore Counties didn’t let my aging mind down.

When I do have the time, especially this time of year with eagles and so many other birds flying through the area, I find myself stopping often in front of an old house that has nearly fallen in and I just sit there and wonder what yesteryear was like in an old home.

One such home I came across for the first time when I passed along the “river road” between Highway 14 and Deweese, as I gawked at the jumpy eagles.

It was a grand looking home, and I’m sure some of the locals that know that road will certainly know the old place I’m talking about.

I love books, especially mystery, thriller, edge-of-your seat kind of books. But I also love TV shows and my holiday break was spent watching a lot of them.

New Year’s weekend was the perfect time to do absolutely nothing before we begin another stretch of busy at the paper.

Basketball and wrestling start up again this week, and on Saturday there’s the first speech meet of the season at Adams Central... plus everything in between.

I’m ready for it all, especially because of doing nothing last weekend.

Anyway, throughout the weekend a friend introduced me to several new shows, two of which we watched the entire first seasons of.

Granted, many of these shows probably don’t fall under too many people’s radar, but I’ll tell you about them anyway in case you’re interested.

Someone, I’m sure, is going to have a smartypant comeback at me this week with the Bull headline, and guess what, that is OK. But my thinkings over the New Year’s holiday weekend took me back in time, back to the days before electronic devices and thinking about what it was like before all these devices consumed our days and nights.

What do I miss? I miss things like hanging out with friends, even if it didn’t amount to a hill of beans as to what we were doing. Hanging out to me has become a thing of the past.

I miss getting a phone call from a friend, you know, on the phone that hung on the wall with a 30-foot cord so that you could kind of get a little privacy, while laying upside down on the couch, or in a recliner.

I miss when you went to a game, no matter what kind of game it was, that people actually talked and communicated in the stands, instead of having their faces buried in their cellphone.

As of Dec. 12, I’ve been out of college for seven years, and as of Dec. 13, I hit my seven-year mark of living in Clay County.

Seven years of having to deal with me. Aren’t you lucky...or something like that.

Time is truly a funny thing and I say that because how has it ONLY been seven years? I feel like I’ve been here for forever, and that college was much more than simply seven years ago, but here we are.

So much has happened in the past seven years that it’d be difficult to fit everything in this one column of mine. There’s been success and failure; frustrations and joys; happiness and sadness; and just about everything in between.

I still remember my first full year here—in my honest opinion I was more immature than I should have been, had no real clue what it took to live on my own, and I had a lot to learn. My first year was a real doozy.

Christmas time in the newspaper business is always a challenge, at least from my perspective. The holidays always come with the start of the winter sports season, and with the holiday season comes a large amount of holiday events. As I’ve said in many of our Christmas Wishes special sections, which are running this week, as you will see, it’s hard for me to really get geared up for Christmas until after this special issue is done and on the street.

As always, our staff put a lot of time and effort into the 20 pages of Christmas drawings and art, but none of what you will see this week can even be made possible without the great support of local businesses and organizations for sponsoring our elementary kids at Sutton, Sutton Christian School, Sandy Creek, and Harvard...WE ALL thank you for the support given each year so that we can bring you our 13th Christmas Wishes special section while I’ve been with the Clay County News.

This time of year usually means seasonal depression for some, stress for others, and an immeasurable amount of anxiety for the rest...or a combination of all three.

I feel like the winter season is when people’s physical and mental health start to decline, even if they don’t realize it.

Granted, I am not a doctor or anything like that, but health is something I’m passionate about and if you’re observant enough, you can tell when people are just having a down day, week or even month.

The reason I think this is an issue during winter is because there’s less sunlight, busier schedules, it’s cold as all get out, and it just looks sad outside (unless there’s freshly fallen snow on the ground).

So, if you feel yourself starting to tumble down that hill of unhealthy ways, I’ve got a list of stuff you could do to maybe perk your spirits back up.

Giving is living, at least that’s what I was brought up to believe. These past couple of years have been tough on all of us on many different levels. I’ve watched the central Nebraska area where I grew up in Buffalo County figure out that sometimes you have to reach out beyond what you believe in and feel in order to give back to what has been given to you.

For the past five or six years I have found a cause each year that I give to mostly in the memory of my parents, but in all honesty something that I can feel comfortable with from my entire family, including my sisters, my nephew, my brother-in-laws...so this year for the first time I ask all of you reading this week’s Bull column to step up as a family not just for your community but for your county and give back to what has brought back heart felt feelings for your family.

It doesn’t have to be big, nor expensive. It can be a monitary donation to a cause you support, but give at home, give from your heart.

In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, Operation Warp Speed was created as a partnership between public and private entities, leveraging federal support to speed up vaccine development. This was a major success for the Trump Administration who spearheaded the operation. Without these efforts and their leadership, the development, approval by the Food and Drug Administration as safe and effective, and distribution of multiple COVID-19 vaccines in record time would not have been possible. These vaccines played a large role in allowing us to safely gather with our families this Thanksgiving and for that, I am truly thankful.