One of the benefits of being a small-town newspaper editor is you get to know important people. I was pleased to get a letter last week from U. S. Sen. Richard Durbin, wishing me a happy birthday. “Dear Bud,” it read. (He calls me Bud. I call him Dick.) “It is a pleasure to wish you much happiness on this momentous occasion.” He continues: “A great many changes and events have occurred of the last century and you have been here to witness them all. When you were a child, airplanes, automobiles and telephones were new and exciting inventions. You have witnessed world wars, women winning the right to vote, the Great Depression… .” Wait a minute. My good friend the senator thinks I’m 100 years old! I don’t know how old Dick Durbin is, but I think he’s older than me. Next time I see him maybe we’ll reminisce about the Depression and women getting the right to vote. –Fletcher Farrar, editor and CEO
This article appears in May 2-8, 2019.
