Don’t be awastin’ your time

Off the Editor’s Spike by Darryl Wilkinson

How do you measure time? By a warm springtime sun finally come… by the intervals of the birth of your children… by birthdays … by 5 o’clock shadows and streaks of gray hair?

It’s much easier to lose than to keep track of time. The picture of a bright, happy young couple announcing their plans to marry in this week’s edition is like so many others, except this is a special time for Liz and me — and once again for the Lockridge family. And, I suppose like countless other parents letting go of some strings and happily adding new ones, you find yourself pondering the measures of time.

Time is one thing we all have in common. And mostly, we just let time slip away, often driven by the spur of the moment. I sometimes reflect on that while patting ol’ Pokey, our Golden Lab. He’s been a part of our family longer than our sixth grader, and, as the whole neighborhood knows, Pokey doesn’t get around so good anymore. That’s not so important. Pokey is a reminder about time limits which we each must ultimately face. But not today, ol’ boy, not today. You were the pick of the litter — Jill’s pick, to be precise, and that was just a yesterday ago.

I know my reminiscing like this is wasting your time. Time is too precious to waste.

My father, whom I wish more of you could know, knows how to kill idle time. He works it to death. There’s good in that, and it’s a good prescription for this dad on the brink of being too sentimental. And so I’ve added the reprinting of Gallatin’s tourism booklets to the project list already crowded with the completion of the Daviess County Millennium book and various Internet projects besides the newspaper/shopper routine.

It’s hard to believe the first printing of this 44-page booklet occurred nearly a dozen years ago. The visitors’ guide was written as a group effort, when Gallatin had enough volunteers for two or three committees within an active community development association. There was a deliberate effort to make the booklet as timeless as possible. Nobody knew how long 500 copies, sold to visitors at $3 each, would last.

Gallatin will never be confused with Branson, so the topics in this visitors’ guide are mostly historical. Gallatin offers a wide variety in the historically significant — Frank James trial, scientific pioneer Icie Macy Hoobler, Rear Admiral and Mrs. Cruzen, novelist John Selby, Missouri Gov. Dockery, publisher martyr “Uncle Wes” Robertson, namesake Abraham Alphonse Albert Gallatini, favorite son J.W. Alexander. And then there’s the list of noteworthy places like the squirrel cage jail, the Mormon site north of town, the former Grand River College.

Time is forcing revisions in the booklet, despite its timeless intent. What should be said of the McDonald Tea Room all fixed up and idle? What future for the A.T. Ray Home with the auction of its contents slated for March 31 and the property for sale?

A dozen years ago there was optimism on improvement projects when this booklet was printed. One of the cornerstones of the old Grand River College had been found “and there is interest,” according to the booklet, “in using it as a monument on the site in what is now know as the College Addition in south Gallatin.” Whatever happened to that idea?

It seems like yesterday when we published a picture thanking Chuck Davis for his masonry expertise in erecting that “Welcome to Gallatin” along Highway 6 on the nursing home property. That and the sign boards at the log cabin park still look fine. But Gallatin’s sign along Highway 13 coming up the hill to the square is faded, and the directional sign atop the hill at the junction is worse. I wonder how old they are? I notice we’ve missed putting a state championship or two on the Bulldog signs that also need touch-up with a brush (and I’d say that goes for the street poles around the business district, too).

That’s got me looking at our own business building, and my spring fix-up list is getting longer. Time’s awastin’.