Celebrating a special day - again

The real celebration is the spirit of Hometown, USA

By Ken Tingley

When I was talking to Something or Other Publishing about publishing my column collection written from my years at The Post-Star, I mentioned the city of Glens Falls had a day in my honor when I retired.

It was a nice gesture by city officials that I’m sure few people even noticed. The proclamation is framed and on the wall of my office.

But that simple gesture goes to the heart of communities like Glens Falls. It is a place where people still care about one another and community is important - even newspaper reporters and editors. My publisher thought it was important too and devised a plan to make me a best-selling author by rallying the community around my book on the anniversary of Ken Tingley Day, which is today.

I was skeptical and frankly it all makes me a bit uncomfortable.

But when I look back at the book, at the collection of columns crafted over three decades, what I am most proud of is that it not reflects, not only the best of the community of Glens Falls, NY, but the best of all small towns around the country. If you grew up in a small town, you will appreciate these stories.

Margaret Sullivan, the media columnist for the Washington Post and an upstater herself, reminded me in her foreward to the book that newspapers are too often “in the moment.” They rarely get to tell the whole and complete story, just the one they know on that day on deadline.

“But here, once again, Ken Tingley manages something extraordinary,” Sullivan wrote in the foreward. “These columns are of their moment, but they also have lasting value.”

That has stuck with me in the months since I completed the book. I’m hoping that this will be an important part of the historical record for Glens Falls, but more importantly - like Don Metivier’s book before me - a chronicling of the spirit and heart of what has made Glens Falls and its surrounding communities so important.

For that reason, I hope Something or Other Publishing is successful in making me a best-selling author. I’d like to see our community celebrated all across the country as the ideal, a modern-day Hometown, USA.

I hope you take them up on their offer to preorder the book and get a free Kindle version with it. And at the very least, tell your friends and relatives about the book, about that community spirit it reflects.

Check out SOOP’s offer to make me a best-selling author. It will remind you of why you live in such a great community.