Don Kirkland
Don Kirkland
By Don Kirkland | Wrangler Independent publisher
Having worked for all these years on small, neighborhood-focused weeklies or monthlies as well as big-city dailies, I think I’ve developed some insight — some biases I guess you could say — as to which of these should be at the top of our collective go-to list for community news.
Even though I’ve explored this topic with friends and family, and thereby accumulated quite a diversity of opinions, I’m all the more convinced that the printed edition of our local newspaper — the one you and I bring in from our mailbox or driveway and thumb through with the same kind of familiarity we experience by exploring the day’s happenings with a longtime friend — that’s not going away anytime soon.
While certainly the dailies deliver an abundance of national, worldwide and yes, some local news as well, there’s nothing like the hometown paper — do I dare say Wrangler News Independent — that can be counted on to offer the widest selection possible of stories and photos about their community, their neighbors, the businesses and the businesspeople who serve them every day.
That includes me, of course, as well as the places we visit and do business with on a virtually everyday schedule. It’s the accompanying sense of welcome that brings me to our neighborhood Safeway store — the one where we’ve been shopping for the last 20-plus years.
And though I’m sure our loyalty to that particular and other favorite venues is based on a number of describable (and some likely indescribable) qualities, it’s also based on my personal relationships there than on another store that might provide a better roller coaster of up and down prices.
So yes, I suppose what this boils down to in storytelling terms is those previously mentioned relationships — the Safeway employees I glance around for after grabbing hold of a cart and heading, as usual, toward the vegetable section.
Yes, I see that Raul, one of the store managers, is performing his usual managerial duties. That Tracy is checking out customers lined up in her cash register aisle. That store pharmacist Darshan is either filling a prescription or offering counsel on the do’s and don’ts of the bottle he’s just filled.
That Roland, a college-age student who’s been a regular for quite a number of recent years, is ready and waiting with a smile and greeting for the next customer.
These are the people I consider friends, people I look for first, people I assume will be there to interact with — to enjoy — on my every visit.
Which brings me, disappointingly, to Roland’s announcement that his final days at Safeway are nearing due to an upcoming move designed to take him one step closer to a planned career as a social-work professional.
No matter what the place, who the people may be, how long the connection, I know I always miss my favorites when and if they move on.
But not forget to celebrate with them the expectations of something better. And, I’m sure it goes without saying, to refresh those memories of the days when my own life took off in new and exciting directions.
Don Kirkland is publisher of the Wrangler News Independent. Please send your comments to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines at https://www.yourvalley.net/civility-checklist
