Thank you!

I’m turning 51 this year.

Do you remember when 26 was old? In boot camp, the oldest guy in our company was 26, and we (the 18 year olds) called him Gramps.

My wife and I joke that we–well, she–stopped aging at 28, but after two and half hours of pickleball last night at VUJ, my bendy parts are reminding me of the reality.

When we started the Dubois County Free Press, we were 37.

The goal then was to simply tell stories about our community. I had written for a few magazines and worked for the Huntingburg Press for a short time back in 2007-2008, and I found that I enjoyed living vicariously through the people I met and talked to. I felt honored to tell their stories.

I still do.

I love this picture.

That’s really what it all boils down to, right?

I talked to Mrs. Seng for about 45 minutes and then watched her play Bridge for another 45 minutes. In that time, I went from not knowing her at all to being intimate with her in this one aspect of her life, at least enough to tell a story about it.

I nailed the story.

At least she thinks I did, and that’s what’s important.

A lot of people have signed up for our newsletter over the past few days. Over the years, we have grown a large following, but you, the readers, were largely just numbers counted in the back end of our website. Our traffic was simply a flow of highs and lows depending on the days of the week and the day’s events.

But now, we are a bit more intimate. You’ve given us your email. It’s personal, and I want to say thanks.

Thanks for a lot of things.

Thanks for emailing me and letting me know it is “council” not “counsel” after I published my first story about the Jasper Council.

Thanks for catching the one time I wrote “pubic” instead of “public”–one of my greatest fears.

Thanks for bearing with me when I ask asinine questions. (I always tell my subjects I asked dumb questions looking for smart answers.)

Thanks for showing me your tears, joyful or heartbreaking.

Thanks for forgiving us for our inadequacies and our mistakes.

Thanks for your trust.

Matthew Crane