Good-bye Spokesman-Review... A Tradition Leaving My Home

I was shocked and saddened when I opened a letter last night from the Spokesman-Review newspaper. As of December 1st I will no long have a paper delivered to my home. This is another of the cuts the paper has made recently. Since the first week I moved back to the Inland Empire in 1994 I have received a SR each and every day in my yellow newspaper box. I read Huckleberries online numerous times in a day. I also read lots of other news sources online, but I am a traditionalist. I like the print copy. I like to look at the ads and cut out recipes. I also like seeing stories in print. I realize I get a free online subscription for a year, but it just won't be the same. I grew up with my dad reading the paper cover to cover each day. My brother spent many hours studying sports stats. Routinely Mom cut out Dorothy Dean recipes that are still in her recipe drawer. I have yellowed copies of my grandmother's obituary.

I am also bothered by the fact that our school won't have any print copies in the library or in classrooms for students to read. Students love the internet, but if a copy of a newspaper is on the table, they are more likely to read it. As I remove my box from my driveway it will the end of era that started when I began to read. We will still get the news. I can download recipes. I can drive to a bigger town to get the Sunday ads, but we won't have a newspaper.

I will also put away our recycle box and figure out another way to start our morning fires.