Memories
Weekly Update 10/15/2023 to 10/21/2023 #195
Funny how one little word can spark a series of memories from decades ago. Before I share how “pecan” did just that, let me share some of my week serving as mayor of the best small town in America.
This week, we cut the ribbon on Seymour’s newest mural dedicated to the local arts. Artist Kyle Mcintosh has been dreaming of painting the wall at Burkart and Highway 50 since he was a teenager. The time wasn’t correct back then, but now it has come and been finished. His work highlights the local arts such as photography, theater, writing, and more. I say "and more" so that you will get out and check it out for yourself. Don’t just drive by and try to see it, but get out and walk the sidewalk so that you can get a real feel for the different areas that were covered. Thank you, Kyle, for the work, and I look forward to seeing what it can spark for the future.
This week, the Parks and Recreation board watched as the plaque for the Steve Coombs Field at Shields Park was presented to his family. Steve volunteered for over 20 years with the youth of our community via baseball. He was coach for many over the years and spent countless hours helping develop skills.
Recently, I had a chance to sit down with Hometown Innovations Podcast host Matt Greller to record an upcoming episode. I always enjoy sharing what we have worked on in Seymour as it may spark the next idea for another community much the same way others have sparked ideas for Seymour. We talked about several areas from the past into current projects and maybe even some future items we hope to explore. Thank you to everyone involved for the chance to talk about what we have going on in our little part of the world.
Well back to the word “pecan” which sparked many memories from my childhood. Memories of the baskets that we would pick up from the yard as they fell off of Mr. White’s tree. The taste, which at the time, I may not have liked as much as I do now, and even the memories of him clapping boards together at different times of the year to keep the birds from flocking the tree and harming that year’s growth. That memory even led me to remembering him yelling at us kids for coming into the fenced part of this yard when a ball would wander over the fence. I look back on those memories, even the yelling, with a smile because they were overall fond memories. This week, though, I also had a situation that brought back some not so fond memories. Remembering a time when I thought how on earth will we ever get through this. Now decades later I realize that it was a push to make sure it didn’t happen again. In hindsight, I am able to see how far we have come since then. Sometimes we allow the starting line to be moved over time and don’t see how far we have made it. I hope you will take a chance to look back and find something that you thought you would never get through and see how you have grown and improved since. If it is fresh enough, that is never easy to do, but it will get better as time goes by and soon enough you will look in the rearview and barely notice it is there. Today, I will leave you with the words of Euripides all the way back in the time of Ancient Greece, "How sweet to remember the trouble that is past."