Things I’m thankful for this year

Back when the news landed in your driveway, Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Furman Bisher once a year wrote about the things he was thankful for, from the absurd to the profound.

In this season leading up to Thanksgiving and Christmas, I’ll pay my respects to Bisher with my own list of things that I’m thankful for, a stream of consciousness, not in order of importance.

Well, I can’t ignore this medium for which I’m writing — a local news website that began as a 16-page broadsheet newspaper back in February 1993. There was no internet then, no websites, just ink on paper produced by Editor Dave Hamrick, me, one sportswriter, and a tiny crew of production artists and sales people, including Angela Bean, Judy Kilgore, Diann Cupertino and a former sales manager for the defunct Fayette Sun newspaper in whose vacant offices we typed our stories on the original 9-inch-screen Macintosh computers.

Dave and Judy and Diann are gone now — as are many others — but they served this county and its small businesses for years.

The paper started via a loan from direct marketing expert Frank Cawood, which we repaid after a few years. My gratitude to Frank and his CFO Tim Anders cannot be repaid. Frank enabled me to manage and own a business that has spanned 31 years. I am thankful beyond words to Frank, Tim, Dave, Angela, Judy, Diann and literally dozens of others who worked their hearts out to get that paper to the printer and then delivered over those decades.

I am grateful to the dozens of warehouse workers I got to know so well on the long nights waiting for those newspaper bundles to show up to be bagged and delivered. They were the unsung heroes of The Citizen.

I also want to thank those donors who have given us thousands of dollars — via their monthly $5 and $10 and sometimes more — to help keep this site operating.

And my deep gratitude to our long-faithful advertisers who have stuck with us from the days of print into the digital age. I want to mention specifically Smith and Davis Clothing, ProHealth physical therapy and Pilates, Georgia Bone and Joint, Pope Family Dentistry, Cronic Automotive, The Cathedral of Christ the King, Mowell Funeral Home, Yamaha, Golf Rider, Country Fried Creative and many others. Thanks especially to Ellie White-Stevens for keeping those ads coming and never losing faith in The Citizen.

And a shout-out to Joe Domaleski whose technical skills and business wisdom has helped us stay up and running for more than 20 years.

I have to say thank you to our long-time columnists: David Epps, who must hold a record for his 27 years of writing a weekly column, every week, without one missed column; Rick Ryckeley, who has been writing weekly columns since 2001; pastors Justin Kollmeyer and David Chancey, both of whom have written for us for more than 20 years; Steve Brown, former mayor and former county commissioner, who has written regular columns since 2009; and the recent addition to our list of columnists, Neil Sullivan, who writes on local education issues.

Thanks to all the amateur and not-so-amateur writers who email us stories about local people and events. And thanks to all the ones I have failed to mention. If you have ever contributed a piece to us — in print or online — I am blessed that you wanted to share that thing of importance with us and the public.

The paper went online in November of 1996, courtesy of code written by my late son, David, in his bedroom at our home on Abbey Road. The Citizen has since moved through html, Drupal and now WordPress as the code driving what you see before you now.

David got us started, and we’ve kept going through the end of the print newspaper in August 2019 — just months before Covid changed our lives. I am so thankful for what my son began, and I’m thankful for him. He died at age 53 in San Jose, California in October 2019.

I was hired at my first newspaper job covering Peachtree City and Tyrone. My eldest daughter Laura joined me my first year at This Week in Peachtree City in the summer of 1982. Laura during summer break from McIntosh High School worked developing black and white film and producing photo prints we pasted up on the layout sheets to produce the tabloid paper. She now is a family practice doctor working a couple of counties over from us.

I later wrote my first editorial at sister paper The Fayette County News endorsing Republican Paul Heard over the Democrat incumbent for a state House post. Heard won, and I got the first of many irate calls about the folly of endorsing a Republican in what was then a solid Democrat county. I remember the first: “What have you done?” said the outraged male voice. That or a similar screech has been heard several times in the ensuing decades.

Ah, I was young and foolish in those days. These days I’m just old and foolish. Just ask the mayor of Peachtree City.

I would like to say a word of appreciation to Mayor Kim Learnard. I believe strongly that she wants the best outcomes possible for Peachtree City residents. It’s just that some things she wants to happen are unpopular to a large segment of voters.

A good thing she has done recently: She has devised a procedure that allows the city chaplain to call for a moment of prayer before the city council meeting is called to order. Those who would like to pray may do so. After that she calls the meeting to order, leads the pledge of allegiance and calls for a moment of silence. That’s a reasonable compromise.

Speaking of prayer, I am grateful to my church — Flat Creek Baptist — for allowing a drive-thru prayer opportunity each week. I’m part of small team that offers to pray to God the Father in the name of Jesus Christ his son for those who drive through the front parking lot and roll their windows down. We are out there, outside the walls of the church for 3 hours every Wednesday beginning at 11 a.m. We would be honored, if you need prayer, you would drive through this coming Wednesday. No gimmicks, no offerings sought, no catches.

My deepest thanks and appreciation for my wife Joyce, who has taken time from her full-time career of writing and editing individuals’ memoirs to manage the administrative side of the website. I truly could not have done what I do without her.

Happy Thanksgiving! And God bless each and every reader and contributor.

[Cal Beverly, since 1993, is editor and publisher of The Citizen.]