Tara’s Takes
Since launching our new website and e-edition in April, we’ve seen an increase in the number of online subscribers. However, as much as I appreciate technology, there is something about holding that paper in your hands. Being able to hold it, to share it, to pack it away and bring it out to reminisce after years have gone by.
However, it’s not just the newspaper. If you climbed in my van right now, I have Natalie’s speech banquet program as well as programs from her concert last week and Ben’s band concert Tuesday night. In my purse, I have Olivia’s college graduation program from Saturday. Because of the time of the year it is, when you open my camera case, you will find a program from Marshall’s prom, Tracy’s prom, Milroy’s school concert, senior awards night and maybe a couple more. This is program season. And I cherish those programs.
For a while, Holy Redeemer School experimented with projecting their concert programs on a side wall prior to the program. I hated it. I wanted to know what was coming up next. I wanted to be able to look down at the name of the soloist in the most recent song. I wanted to remember the songs the kids did that year. One year Natalie sang a song about duct tape. We still talk about it and I’m pretty sure she can still sing it. Eventually, we’ll be taking about that song and won’t be able to remember the year she performed that. But the program will tell us.
At Olivia’s college graduation, you were allowed two programs per family or you could scan the QR code. Really? She’s worked so hard for her degree. Her dad has worked hard, too — building her up along the way, encouraging her, being a voice of reason, listening as well as helping financially.
I don’t want to look at a tiny program on my phone that will be forgotten after her walk across the stage. I want to see that name and degree in print. I want her to hold onto that with pride, maybe share it with her kids someday.
I love that the senior awards night programs talk about the kids’ future plans. As they finish a major chapter of their story, they have a path they think they are going to go down. The funny thing is, what you think you’re going to be doing and where life actually takes you can be completely different. Looking back years later is a fun reminder of how far you came.
Yes, because we cover so many events, we do accumulate a lot of programs. No, we don’t keep them all. At home I have many programs from my kids through the years saved. Brady’s came out at graduation. Ben’s and Natalie’s will follow. We’ll laugh. We’ll talk about the event and the people. After that, they’ll go back in a box.
What happens then?
Well, many, many years later, your grandparents will be going through all the things they’ve collected over the years and they’ll send you a folder with your name on it. It will be filled with treasures. I recently received one such folder.
First, tucked inside was a photo of my great grandma. I am super lucky because I had both my great grandmas on my dad’s side well into adulthood. Both of them met Brady and one even met Ben.
After that, I received a senior photo of my dad — full suit and all. It’s a walletsized gem. On my desk, I have a photo of each of my kids that show various stages of life — Brady’s senior photo, Ben when be played Cubs football, Natalie in her first year of soccer in kindergarten. Of course, I added my dad’s senior photo to that lineup. It’s a conversation piece every time the kids are in the office. It brings a smile to my face because I can’t tell you the last time I saw my dad in a suit. It’s a treasure for sure.
This particular folder must have came from my junior year of high school. It included a program from my induction into the RTR Honor Society. It was fun to look through the names and think of who I keep in touch with and who I haven’t seen since graduation.
I guess I was also student of the month in October of my junior year. I don’t remember that, but it was in the local newspaper and my grandparents cut it out and saved it. We had a good laugh as we read it and what the teachers had said about me. I must have had some of them fooled.
The part that really caught my attention on the Knightly News pages of the Tyler Tribute was the newspaper staff listing. There was my name as a member of the newspaper staff. When I was part of that I had no plans to work in the newspaper industry. I had my sights set on television and a career in public relations. Now, several years after high school, I am co-owner of a small-town newspaper and it is the best career.
In my journey, I had forgotten about many of the Knightly News projects I was part of and the night of the Honor Society induction. But these old programs brought those memories back. No, these aren’t things we frame and hang on the wall, But they are memories, parts of our journey and pieces of history to be shared later on.
My kids get a kick out of old moments from my childhood. I hope the many programs that have been shared this spring are held onto and someday used to bring back joy for people remembering these days.
