Family ties bind papers together

Farewell, old friend.
Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper — Schleswig Leader, Thursday, August 30, 2007 – Page 3

No sooner had the town of Schleswig been established back in 1899, than a weekly newspaper was created to serve it. Max R. Hueschen called his paper the Schleswig Herold and printed it in German. In 1903, F.J. Branaka bought the Herold, rechristened it “The Leader,” and started publishing it in English, but kept a German section. Six years later, it was bought by R.E. Vaughan.

Vaughan kept the German section inside until 1910. In July, 1912, Vaughan sold the Leader to Glenn Kirkpatrick, who traded it for eight acres of land a year later to Joseph Dodd, who kept Kirkpatrick on as editor.

Between 1913 and 1917 the Leader had a number of owners but ended up with Henry W. Faul of Denison, who sold it to Percy Lyon in 1923. Lyon owned and operated the Schleswig Leader until his death in 1945, at which time it passed to his son his son, Robert B. Lyon. Lyon moved his offices to Mapleton when he bought the Mapleton PRESS.

Back in 1887 J. Edward McMullen moved his printing outfit from Centerville, Iowa to Charter Oak. He started the Charter Oak Times out of a little tar paper shack behind the grocery store that had been the sleeping quarters for the town wagon maker.

McMullen printed a big 7-column newspaper on PINK paper! Between 1891 (when the town was incorporated) and 1894 ‘the Times’ became ‘the Republican’ under a new owner and then merged with another paper, ‘the Herald’ and was renamed ‘the Times’ again.

‘The Times’ had several owners and locations during much of the 20th century being printed in a former millinery, a shoe repair shop, and a trucking office. It was owned by the W.M. Nellor family from 1938-1971. Then it was sold to W.F. Schrader who printed it in Wall Lake until it was sold to Lyon Publishing of Mapleton in 1981.

Eventually, Robert Lyon passed his business down to his son Edward “Mike” Lyon. When the Press acquired the Ute Independent and the Charter Oak Times, those papers were consolidated into the Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper. Mike and his wife Barb continued publishing the PRESS, the NEWSpaper, and the Leader until shortly before he succumbed to cancer two years ago.

The NEWSpaper has served not only Charter Oak and Ute, but also Soldier, Moorhead and Ricketts.

Issues of the Times and the NEWSpaper are on micro-film in the Charter Oak Library. Ute readers, please forgive me, I’m sure that there is historical information about the Independent as well, but I wasn’t able to find it in time to include it in this column.

Enterprise Publishing are the current owners of the Mapleton PRESS. Headquartered in Blair, Nebraska, Enterprise produces several small town newspapers including the Dakota County Star in South Sioux City and the Missouri Valley Times.

This will be the final issue of the Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper and the Schleswig Leader.
There’s a lump in my throat as I wrote that sentence. My wife wrote for Ye Aulde Bobcat and worked at the Press when she was in high school. Somehow she talked the Lyons into hiring me the summer we got married. I helped with the Charter Oak Centennial Edition and sold ads for the Crawford County platte book they produced that year.

It has been a privilege to contribute to the NEWSpaper sporadically ever since then.

It seems like the last several summers have been emotionally turbulent ones.
First we lost Charter Oak’s long time correspondent Jackie Pester to cancer. Then Schleswig’s gem of a corespondent Bonnie Schroeder left the Press office for the Hoffman Agency in Schlewig.

Of course the Lyon’s sale and retirement was a major transition and Mike’s passing was the hardest. He was a diehard promoter of the community and the Loess Hills.
And like people, newspapers are temporal and finite. Like people, their loss leaves holes in our lives.

Losing a paper has been compared to losing a school. Towns invest so much of their identity in them that it can be hard to face.

But I’m choosing to think of it not like a death, but like a marriage. I have three daughters, so someday, like it or not people are going to be comforting me with cliche’s about not losing a daughter, but a gaining son.

I don’t know if I was any great prize for my in-laws, but I think that Schleswig, Ricketts, Charter Oak, Ute, and maybe even Soldier readers will be pleased with how much more they get, beginning next week, when the Press becomes more of regional paper and not just a local one.
That’s how I’m choosing to think of it. Not like a funeral, but more like a marriage.

When one of my brothers-in-law recently re-married, we suddenly gained a sister-in-law, two more nieces and a nephew. Christmases may be even more crowded at Grandma and Grandpa’s, but that just means more laughter, more pictures to take, and more stories to tell.

This wasn’t some kind of a hostile takeover, we’re just bringing papers that were already the in same family under one name.

Some people will be sad, and believe me, in the words of a former President, “I feel your pain.” But please think of this as a gain, not a loss.

I may only work there in the summers, but I can tell you that the PRESS staff likes to think of themselves as a family.

You should know that they try hard to serve you and your family. We’re still your community newspaper, communities with family ties.

So here’s to family.
Your’s and ours.

"Uncle Brad" loves the St. Louis Cardinals and Dr. Pepper. I think it helps with all the headaches that come from being head-honcho.
"Cousin Ann" will always welcome you with a smile. When people don't know something around Mapleton, they come to the PRESS office and ask her!
"Sister Julie" in the Art Dept. has to run home a lot to care for her little ones. Like any young mom, she's become an expert on cleaning up barf.
"Cousin Carol" of the Art Dept. is a lefty, so it's hard to borrow her computer for anything since she keeps the mouse on the wrong side.
Can you tell that "Aunt 'Maddog' Michelle" would rather be behind the camera than in front of one. She our "utitlity player," that means she takes pictures, lay outs pages, and even writes. Originally she was a Michigander, but now farms with her husband around Castana. Beware of her home made salsa, it can peel the paint off your walls!

Equal time for 'Old Timers'

At the beginning of this summer I used this column to introduce you to some of the new people here in the PRESS office in Mapleton. And boy did I ever catch heck for it. Not from the new publishers or any of the new staffers, but from the old guard.

"What about us, huh, Ted?" One asked, "What are we? Chopped-liver?"

Okay, okay, even though I'm sure that some readers are ready for something light and funny, like cute things my kids have said or done. In the "Sex, Politics, and Religion" vein, I haven't written anything too spiritual in a while, and Lord knows there's plenty going on in politics.

That's alright, this is a subject that is close to my heart anyway. I consider myself insanely lucky to get to work here this summer and as I've said before, I'd just about give a limb to get the new publishers Mark Rhoades and Brad Swenson to let me work here every summer from now on. But it's one thing to get to do something you love, but to get to do it with people you enjoy and care about is even better.

Here are just a handful of the people who's names appear in the staff box on page two every week:

I don't know who's been here the longest, but I know who the core is, Ann Collins. Ann is our office manager who sits in the reception area up front.

If I'm not mistaken, she started working for Mike and Barb Lyon back when she was still in high school. Consequently, she knows these three newspapers inside out. Julie Haman, the new reporter for the PRESS and I joke that she's like Radar O'Rielly on the TV show MASH. If you need to know where something is, how something's done, or what's going on, you just need to ask Ann. Unfortunately for her, most of Western Iowa knows this about her.

People are constantly calling or stopping in and asking her for phone numbers, directions, on office hours- not ours, some other businesses'. Like a bartender, she also has to listen to everybody's problems and complaints. Sometimes about the paper or their ad or subscription, but more often than not, just about the weather or life in general, or city hall.

This summer I've been at the "ad desk" with Carol Cowsert. This suits me fine because Carol is who I usually get help with the computer from. She's also who I always E-mail my column to on Fridays during the school year. She's originally from Colorado and she tends to agree with me politically, so I like to imagine her as some kind of hippie flower child when she was a kid. Unlike me, she's quiet, pleasant, amiable and polite- so maybe the hippy thing is way off.

She's just about as hard a worker as you'll find. She works up all the ads, on top of building the Budget Booster, our ads for the Rocket, Greensaver, and Today's Action, and her share of Mapleton PRESS (and this page when I'm not here). She's the least likely to break for coffee and the last to leave for lunch. I don't know where we'd be without her.

There are some that we only get to see once a week like Elaine Teut, our Schleswig correspondent, whom I always call Evelen or Elaine or any other name. Former owner and financial officer Barb Lyon, was coming in to paste-up the Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper before I came. We still get to see her at lunch on Mondays or Tuesdays at Piccadilly Circus where we run into lots of other regulars. And of course Nancy Hanson, and Sheryl Bruhn and the rest of the Tuesday crew who all stuff, fold, sort, stack, tie and ship your papers every Tuesday; Howard Kruse, Delores Gosch and Molly Tullis.

Then there's Cathy Hanson, she and Nancy are sisters. They still have the same last name because they married brothers. Cathy's a hoot. She's like a great aunt or everybody's grandma or something. Maybe I just think that because she has so many stories about her grand kids.

At least once a week she bakes treats that she brings in for break
time. She used to do the print the T-shirts for the "Ink Spot," before
it was bought and moved to Castana. Cathy does lots of typing and
picture taking, but I need her proofreading skills most of all since
I\'m such an abysmal speller.

Carol prefers to have it quiet when she works, but on days she\'s not
here Michelle Kane plays Country radio for me. Michelle takes
pictures, does write-ups and builds most of the PRESS and helps with
the Booster and other papers. She and I both love spicy food. She
cans her own salsa, and does a lot of gardening, but we\'re told that
the billion cats that live on her farm have wrecked all her cucumbers
this year.

We don't always realize how fortunate we are in such small towns to have such superior newspapers, and these folks are much of the reason why.

There. Is this good enough for ya, Michelle?


At least once a week she bakes treats that she brings in for break time. She used to do the print the T-shirts for the "Ink Spot," before it was bought and moved to Castana. Cathy does lots of typing and picture taking, but I need her proofreading skills most of all since I'm such an abysmal speller.

Carol prefers to have it quiet when she works, but on days she's not here Michelle Kane plays Country radio for me. Michelle takes pictures, does write-ups and builds most of the PRESS and helps with the Booster and other papers. She and I both love spicy food. She cans her own salsa, and does a lot of gardening, but we're told that the billion cats that live on her farm have wrecked all her cucumbers this year.

We don't always realize how fortunate we are in such small towns to have such superior newspapers, and these folks are much of the reason why.
There. Is this good enough for ya, Michelle?

Shop Talk; Changes at the papers

At the time that I write this, I've been back working at the papers for a whole three days. It certainly is a little different than it's been, but I still really enjoying it. I thought I'd use this week's column to give you a bit of a backstage peek, so to speak.

First of all, to our Charter Oak- Ute readers, if you missed this page last week, we're sorry about that. It ran in the Schleswig LEADER, but we seemed to have gotten our wires a little crossed and sent in two page threes.

No skin off my nose. Nothing terribly funny or vitally important, I thought it was kind of sweet though. If you REALLY missed it, you can visit "http://tedscolumn.blogspot.com/2006/05/thanks-i-needed-that.html"

By now a few of you have met a few of the new people here at the newspapers. Publishers Mark Rhodes and Brad Swensen and I attended a Community Club meeting in Ute a couple of weeks ago. Last week the publishers were at the ribbon cutting for the new bank building in Charter Oak. They took with them Julie Hamann, the new reporter at the Mapleton office and Kathy Boehm, the new advertising representative.

Just yesterday (Wednesday June 7) there was a coffee at the Beef and Brew in Mapleton for community members to get to meet the PRESS staff.

I can tell you that Karen Soukup will once again be covering news in the Charter Oak and Ute areas and Elaine Teut is still our woman in Schleswig, even though that office is now closed.

All kinds of people have been asking me if I'm "still working at the newspapers" and "What do they have you doing there?"

Well, yes I am, but all kinds of things, I guess- are the best answers I can offer for those questions. This week I'm mostly doing what's called "pagination," that means I'm putting together the pages on a computer. That would make me a graphic designer. You'll notice that they're still running ads for a graphic designer. That would be because I'll go back to teaching in the Fall.

More and more of the layout is being done on computer. I'm sure that the hope is to do it all this way eventually.

For the sake of the operations here, I hope they find a full time graphic designer as well as people who can take over permanently for Karen and Elaine. Be that as it may, I'd give my left hand to get Mark and Brad to promise to hire me back each and every summer from now on. That's because for some of us "Newsies," the ink just gets in our blood.

My first impressions of the new folks are all good. As far as I can tell they are each consummate professionals.

Mark Rhoads is a fifth generation newsman. He values small-town publications and promoting local communities like no one else.

I haven't seen many people work as hard as Brad Swenson. Yet he has a way of putting everyone around him at ease and he's quick with laugh and grin.

Kathy Boehm strikes me as being very outgoing and highly motivated.

I can't believe the good fortune of the PRESS, LEADER, and NEWSpaper to have found someone like Julie Hamann. She told me that she'd worked for years for the Sioux City Journal before getting married. Her husband farms between Danubury and Anthon. She's even working toward a Master's in Journalism from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. How much more qualified can you get than that?

Even with the most competent staff in the world, no community newspaper can do it's job without a community. I make this plea a lot, and here it is again- we need your participation. Some weeks there's not enough content to fill even just four pages. Please send us your news tips. In fact, you can send us your own stories and digital photos directly.

If you ever take pictures with a digital camera or know someone who did, go ahead and E-mail them to us. If you haven't got internet access at home, nag a friend who does, or see if there's a library or business that will let you borrow theirs for a few minutes. If you still can't get online, come see us in Mapleton, we can probably find a way to get your picture off your camera.

Other weeks there may be more than enough news and pictures to fill six or eight pages, but barely enough ads to pay for even four. We need your support, whether that's purchasing an ad, renewing a subscription, or giving someone else a gift subscription.

E-mail me your story ideas at "ted.mallory@gmail.com"

E-mail Ann Collins, the Office Manager in Mapleton at "mpress@longlines.com"

If you ever want to send us something the old fashioned way, on paper, there are drop-off boxes in the Hoffman Agency offices in both Schleswig and Charter Oak. There's also a drop-box on the side of the NEWSpaper office in Ute. Send an actual print of a photograph and make sure you tell us who it's from and if you want it back and we can scan it into the computer and return it to you.

Want to talk to us directly? Make a local call from your home town and it will automatically be forwarded to the PRESS office in Mapleton.

In Charter Oak, you can call 678-3571.

In Ute, call 885-2247

In Schleswig, call 676-3414

Or you can always call straight to Mapleton at 881-1101. And when you need to fax us something, the number is 881-1330.

Obituary; Mike Lyon

Edward "Mike" Lyon
May 30, 1944-May 1, 2006

Edward "Mike" Lyon, 61, of Mapleton, Iowa died Monday, May 1, 2006 at
his home in Mapleton following eight years of prostate cancer and its
complications.

The Funeral Service for Mike was held Thursday, May 4 at 10:30 a.m. at
St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Mapleton with Rev. Dr. Scott Fiege
officiating. Burial was in Mt. Hope Cemetery at Mapleton. Norma Jean
Dose was the organist and Georgine Wessell was the vocalist.
Visitation was Wednesday, May 3 after 2:00 p.m. with a Prayer Service
at 6:30 p.m. all at the Armstrong Funeral Home in Mapleton.

Edward Michael Lyon was born May 30, 1944, to Robert Bayard Lyon and
Marie (O'Meara) Lyon in Ida Grove, Iowa. He moved with his family to
Schleswig, Iowa where he graduated from Schleswig High School with the
class of 1962. He served his country in the Iowa National Guard. He
was united in marriage to Barbara Glau May 24, 1964 in Schleswig.

Mike was a long time publisher, having been involved in the newspaper
business for over 40 years. He and his wife, Barb, published the
Mapleton Press, the Schleswig Leader and the Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper
until February of 2006. He and his wife also owned and operated Lyon
Photography, with a focus on wedding photography, for over 10 years.
They also owned the Ink Spot, a screen printing and embroidery
business until 2006.

In 1985, Mike saw the potential of using a laser writer to replace
compugraphic equipment in the publishing of newspapers. He was the
first in the nation to start a desk top publishing system. He sold
systems in Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and Minnesota and also
consulted with publishers in many other states.

Mike received numerous awards over the years for his newspaper skills,
some including the Master Editor Publishers Award, the Iowa Newspaper
Association's highest honor, the INA's Distinguished Service Award,
the INA's first "Friend of Iowa' Newspaper Award, and the Iowa High
School Athletic Association's News Media Award. He was president of
the Interstate Newspaper Association in 1984 and a member of the Iowa
Newspaper Association Board for nine years serving as president and on
numerous INA committees.

In the Mapleton community, Mike was a very active citizen. He was a
member of St. Matthew Lutheran Church, a member of the Mapleton Club
where he served on their board and as president, helped start a Jaycee
Chapter in Mapleton, served on the Mapleton Fire Department and was
one of the founders and president of the Maple Valley Development
Corporation. He was instrumental in bringing the Maple Valley Medical
Clinic to Mapleton. For his civic contributions to Mapleton, Mike was
awarded the Mapleton Outstanding Citizen Award and the Mapleton Rotary
Club's Service Above Self Award, both in 2005.

Mike had a great love of the Loess Hills and the State of Iowa. Since
his diagnosis of cancer, he spent as much time as he could
photographing the hills, country churches and rural scenery. His
photos can be found in the June E. Nylen Cancer Center, Maple Heights
Nursing Home, and Mapleton City Hall, as well as in the homes of his
many friends. He also published a book of his country churches along
with poetry by his good friend, Georgine Wessell.

Mike is survived by his wife and best friend of 41 years, Barb; two
daughters, Rebecca Lyon of Sioux Falls, South Dakota and Patricia
Barnard and her husband, Mark, of Hugo, Minnesota; one red haired
grandson, Damion Scobie of Hugo, Minnesota; one brother, Doug Lyon and
his wife, Dee, of Schleswig, Iowa; one sister, Sandy Rickert and her
husband, Phil, of Santa Fe, New Mexico; his mother-in-law, Marcella
Glau of Mapleton; plus other family members; and many friends and
associates in the tri-state area.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Bob and Marie (O'Meara) Lyon and his grandparents

Memorials may be directed to the Mapleton Endowment Fund in Mike's honor.

Honorary pallbearers were The Mapleton Fire Department and The Mapleton Press staff.

Pallbearers were Tom McNamara, Bill Monroe, Ed Maier, Keith Robinson, Steve Oberg and Todd Sadler.

Arrangements were made under the direction of the Armstrong Funeral Home of Mapleton

We need your news

Many kids have three favorite things about school; June, July and August. This time of year they get itchy to get outside and play.

Many of us teachers get an itch too. We start worrying about what kind of job we’re going to get for the summer.

When I was 14, I was chomping at the bit to find a job. By Senior year, it became a necessary evil. Working wasn’t so bad, but trying to find someone who was willing to hire you for 12 weeks, THAT was torture. Filling out applications, going to interviews.

Yesterday I interviewed for the new publishers of the Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper and the Schleswig LEADER. And much to my relief, Missouri Valley Times-News, Inc. decided to hire me for this summer. They’d also like me to try to send as much news and photos as I can in the mean time.

Of course, I have a lot of school year left and I can only do so much. We have a lot of Yearbook deadlines to go at Boyer Valley. But especially this summer, I want to help make this the best newspaper possible.

So, if you live in the Charter Oak, Ute, Ricketts, Schleswig, or Soldier areas and have an idea for a story, your own write-up, or photos... please let me know.

If you would like to visit my web log at “http://tedscolumn.blogspot.com” you can click on the link on the top-right of the page:

Where it says “Click here to send me a news tip for the COU NEWSpaper or Schleswig LEADER.”

Of course, right now you can still contact Sandy at the Ute office: 712-885-2247

Or, let Ann, Cathy, and Michelle, at the main office in Mapleton know: 712-885-2247

Fax 712-881-1330

mpress@longlines.com

You can also drop things off at the Hoffman Agency in Charter Oak, the NEWSpaper office in Ute, the LEADER office in Schleswig, or of course the PRESS office in Mapleton.

I’d love your feed back on this column. If you ever want to write a letter to the editor about it, just send it to mpress@longlines.com or leave it at one of the locations above. If you want to comment about anything on my web log, all you have to do is click on the “Comments” link that’s underneath each post

Also on that web site, just under the drop-down jump menu is a guest book.

If you visit online, please, say hello, leave a comment, and (only if you want to) your e-mail address.

You can search through two years of my columns online. One way is to click on the month & year links on the right side under the heading “Archives.” But there’s another easy way to search by topic. It’s the handy navigation bar on the top of the page.

If you’re interested in starting your own online journal, that navigation bar has a way for you to sign up. It’s free, and there are templates that they walk you through so it’s easy too. Think of it as your way of getting that “15 minutes of fame” Andy Warhol promised us all back in the 60’s.

If you’re interested in seeing any of my artwork and photography, reading about how I came to be a cheerleading coach, or keep up with what the Youth Fellowship (LYF) is doing at St. John Lutheran in Charter Oak, you can “jump” to other blogs that I have by using a simple drop-down menu on the right side of the page:

I hope you enjoy surfing the web and reading this column.

I know that Missouri Valley Times-News, Inc. and the staff in Mapleton want the Charter Oak- Ute and Schleswig newspapers to be the best that they can be. I’m looking forward to doing my part this summer, but remember the success of these papers depends on all of us. Please send us your news.

A quick review

I understand that this column is now being seen in the Schleswig Leader. Actually, I think it’s been running there for several weeks now. In the event that this has been at all confusing or even just a novelty- I’d like to clear up any misunderstandings this has led to and answer any possible questions that it might have raised.

First of all, I’m not Mike. I assume that you in Schleswig would know that but at least once a reader of the Charter Oak-Ute NEWspaper mistakenly thought that I was the editor. Definitely not. As Schleswigites know, the Lyon family started ‘the Leader’ then expansions and purchases led them to Mapleton and ‘the PRESS.’ Mike Lyon is the publisher.

Mike & Barb Lyon are good people. They’ve always been very kind and generous with me. Back in the summer of 2002 I managed to talk them in to hiring me for the summer and at the end I submitted an essay called “What I did on my summer vacation,” as perhaps the first installment of a weekly column for the Charter Oak & Ute paper.

The closest thing I think Mike has to an Editor, besides himself would have to be Bonnie Schroeder. When I submitted my first column, she said “We should have been doing this all summer.” She’s always been sweet to me too.

I thought for a long time about what to name this feature. I wanted to call it “Sex, Politics and Religion,” because wanted to be able to write about the things that we often avoid talking about. My hope was that I’d make readers think and get people talking about something other than just the weather.
But I was afraid that such a maverick title would scare readers off, so I just went with “Ted’s Column.” Generic, but safe. I figured it would also give me the freedom to not have to take myself too seriously all the time. Part of me hoped to become the small town Iowa version of Dave Berry.

So who the heck am I and how do I get off writing a weekly column in (now) two small town newspapers if I’m not Mike or Bonnie?

I’m Ted. I live in Charter Oak. I teach Art, Newspaper, Yearbook, computer Graphics, and coach Cheerleading down in Dunlap at Boyer Valley. Yeah, I’m a straight, married, middle-aged guy who coaches cheerleading- but that’s a whole ‘nother column.

I’m originally from the red, red state of Arizona. I was the Editor of my high school newspaper and dreamt of being either a syndicated columnist or an editorial cartoonist. I got my BSEd from Concordia University in Seward, Nebraska. I majored in History and in Art. Seward is where I fell in love with the Midwest and with my wife Bethany, a Neddermeyer from Charter Oak, who’s now a guidance counselor at Maple Valley in Mapleton.

So that’s who I am, but where am I coming from?

Sex: That’s not something I think we should talk about in polite company.
Politics: I always thought of my self as a moderate, pro-worker, pro-farming, lower-middle class traditional kind of guy, but dang, our country has really swung about as far to the right as it can lately, hasn’t it? Some people accuse me of leaning to the left, that may be so, but it’s only because I feel like the boat is a bout to capsize and I need a sense of balance, not because I want to shake the boat for shaking sake. I apologize in advance if I ever set you off, I’m a firm believer in agreeing to disagree but continuing to talk to each other. But like I said, my hope is to make you think and get you talking- better yet, write a letter to the Editor (Mike or Bonnie, not me).

Religion: By definition, this is what is the most important thing in anyone’s life, so it’s pretty difficult for me to not write about it. But if I say, "I will not mention him or speak any more in his name," his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot. (Jeremiah 20:9).

I went to Concordia because it’s a Christian college. I wrestled with whether or not to become a pastor and Beth and I taught for 7 years at a Christian school in Los Angeles. I’ve been the Youth Counselor at St. John in Charter Oak since we moved back. So, you can expect some faith issues in this column from time to time.
I’m sure that it drives some people batty that anyone can be a Missouri Synod Lutheran and a registered Democrat at the same time. I figure, Jesus was a radical, barefoot, long haired, unemployed, homeless guy who bucked the establishment and loved, accepted, spent time with, forgave, and was even willing to die for everyone and anyone no matter who they were. I’m pretty tame by comparison.

Somehow the good Lord and Mike saw fit to hire me again this summer, so who knows, even though Schleswig is really Bonnie’s beat, maybe I’ll get to meet some of you and try to sell you an ad. Even if I don’t I hope that you’ll keep reading and I hope you enjoy what you read most of the time.

The rest of the time, I hope you’ll send your letters to Bonnie so we can publish them, after all this is YOUR newspaper. The best way to keep it that way is to participate in it by contributing. Have a great summer.