Emotions can be a positive in life, depending upon how you react to the emotions. This week, as I pen the Bull, I think back to the fact that the older I get, the more emotions I show, maybe even the more opinionated I get, but the fact of the matter is, as I get older, day by day, and year by year, I’m 40 years removed from high school. I’m a so called “seasoned” newspaper fella, whether that is good or bad thing, I don’t know, as that’s not my prerogative, that is on you, as the readers of the Clay County News. Either you like it, or you don’t. In this world, “it is what it is.”
I reflect back to a conversation I remember having with my father, who is one of two people that I truly believe was, and are the drivers of who I am.
I’ve written a great deal about my dad, some called him Doug, the Duncan clan called him “Butch” (to this day I am not sure why they called him Butch, but they did), and the other person is my sister Tonya.
She’s a gem of a person. She’s stoic, she’s real and she’s forthright. She’ll tell you like it is. I don’t speak much about her, because she’s not about being in the spotlight, like me, she’s a “run under the radar” person, she has a heart of gold, she wears her heart on her shirt sleeve when it comes to animals (like me), but what I appreciate and love most about her, is she is real.
She’ll stress out like we all do, she’ll get the job done, but at the end of the day, when the work day is over, like me, she has a hard time shutting it off..the workday that is.
This year, as you will find, as I work my way through 2024, you’ll hear a lot about my dad, because this IS the year that I’ve reached, the point in life, where I surpassed by dad’s “death day” by 10 years, meaning that if the good Lord above lets me get to 60, I’ll have outlived my father by 10 years, as he passed away at 50.
Bigger than that, however, is that I’ll have reached 30 years with my dad, live and in person, and the past 30 years of my life with him gone. It’s that simple, it’s my own personal “30 for 30” if you will.
We at the Clay County News, (MY decision only), will not be entering any contest entries for our annual awards banquet with the Clay County News, because this year also marks the 30th anniversary of my dad being honored with the highest of honors with the Nebraska Press Association, the “Master Editor-Publisher” honor, and I will not take an honor above and beyond that honor he earned through a lot of “blood, sweat, and even tears” through his career. I just won’t.
But why does my sister Tonya fit into this mix this week?
It’s simple! She exemplifies what dad portrayed when he led the Shelton Clipper, the Gibbon Reporter, and at the end of his career, the weekly newspapers owned at that time by the Omaha World-Herald.
He could have got caught up in the corporate world business that is the Omaha World-Herald, especially these days, but he never did, at least not to me.
He knew life was about budgets, profits, and the overall bottomline, because that is the basis of any business, if the bottom line doesn’t look good, nothing else will. Dad was still all about putting on the street, a product that meant something, if at the very least a product he has proud of and to stand behind.
Tonya is of the same mold. She is proud of what she does, even if somedays, like us all, the work day is a grind, a challenge and taxing.
She works her tail off, but at the end of the day, she’s always there to take a call from big brother to toot his horn, be emotional with, or to just down right vent to. Tonya IS a trooper!
So, the long story short, as I begin to reflect the past almost 60 years, 30 with and 30 without my dad, and as I dig it to keep the newspaper business that he had a passion for, alive and very well, I also liken my oldest/ baby sister to dad’s mold...his mold of being business savvy, but one with a willing heart to listen and give feedback from the heart, whether you like it or not!
Ton, you are of the very same mold, the Doug Duncan mold, the Butch mold if you will, and whether you like it or not, you are the loving target of the Bull this week! Tor
