What If The Future...

Let us pretend for a moment that we can change the future. For instance, what if some one or more of us came up with an idea that stood a good chance of bettering our city's economy. What if we stopped being stuck in past ways of looking at things and took a chance on changing our perspective. What if we did that?

I was looking through some some of the old newspapers I've collected over the years and found some that dated back to the days after I left the Navy. I spent my first year after leaving the Navy in Winamac, Indiana, a sleepy little town in northern Indiana, about 90 miles South of Chicago. As I was to get married in less than 22 months I needed a job. In spite of my Navy training in advanced electronics and missiles, I was unable to find a job in California that was any good. I was offered a job with this small town newspaper doing a bit of everything. The paper was owned by my parents. Sometimes it pays to have a tunnel to the inside of the future.

Shortly after starting work at the paper Dad came up with an idea for a special edition he called "Hello Summer!" He wrote the stories, both of us took pictures, and I sold advertising for it. By early June it went to press. The special ended up being four 8-page sections. We printed two thousand copies on a press that could print 8 pages at a time at a maximum speed of about 30 papers a minute if every thing was working right. It was an ancient piece of machinery! He and I worked 12 to 14 hour days for over a week producing the "Hello Summer!" edition. The local post office went into a state of shock when we brought it in for distribution.

No sooner was that project completed than dad came up with another idea. He wanted to promote tourism in the area as a way of strengthening the local economy. We bounced ideas off each other for several weeks and each time we thought we had something he'd present it to the local Chamber of Commerce and business community. Each idea was rejected for various reasons, mainly having to do with the closed minds of the locals.

The best idea we came up with was to promote a canoe race on the nearby Tippecanoe River, of "Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too!" fame. John Tyler was the 10th president of the U.S. and used that as his campaign slogan. Dad decided to run with the idea, with or without local support. By early spring we'd worked out the details and started work on it in earnest. Dad did most of the detail work as he made all the contacts with various river sports organizations, etc. My part was mainly confined to selling advertising and some photography.

Dad sent out press releases by the dozens and managed to put together a small committee of local businessmen to help organize and run the event. On race day in mid July there were 28 entrants. Not all were using canoes – there were lake and river fishing boats, and even a couple of guys who raced(?) using a galvanized tin tub. A couple of college boys handily won the race, turning in a time of under 3 hours.

Some of the entrants were not in it to win, but entered for the fun of it. Everyone had a good time, including many local citizens – much to their surprise. Some of the locals, along with a few from out of town, set up BBQ pits and hot dog stands. Hundreds of people from around the county and elsewhere came with picnic baskets. Several large Midwest newspapers and radio stations, including one TV station, covered the event.

Over the years it burgeoned into a week long event drawing racers from all over the country. The Great Tippecanoe Canoe Race was brought into the national circuit used by Olympic hopefuls and the college circuit. The race was terminated sometime in the late 1990s. During that time Winamac and the surrounding county experienced a growth in the local economy they had never seen before.

Taking advantage of the goodwill and interest that was generated in the county I was able sell quite a bit of advertising. Dad and I took some great pictures of the race and we put together another special edition based on the race. We printed over 4,000 copies of the 3-section issue and once more flooded the post office.

The two special editions were a lot of hard work, but were also a lot of fun. By the time we were finished with them I was hooked on the newspaper business and have pretty much stayed with it ever since.

A good local newspaper can go a long way towards aiding the building of a community's economic strength. Over the years my family has done all we could to support the towns and cities we served. Local newspapers are more than something to read when bored or to wrap fish in. I'm proud to say I worked for the Sidney Telegraph before it was amalgamated with the Sidney Sun.

So, let's learn from the past, put our local brains and resources into coming up with ideas that will influence the future of Sidney and Cheyenne County in a good way. We've done it before. Let's do it again.