Some of these items aren’t things that were set down just last week or last summer.
They are things such as a 2008 flip calendar with a quote of the day about the First Amendment and freedom of speech. One of my favorites: “News is a verb…You can’t have a paper that’s only proper nouns.” (Pete Hamill, novelist, journalist, 1998)
Or a potato chip that I was served at lunch about a year ago at Hollerbach’s Willow Tree Café. The reason I had saved it in a plastic bag was because it had a cross-shaped cutout in the middle of the chip. I had planned to take a photo of it someday for posterity, but unfortunately the potato chip had cracked – so now it is in the garbage can.
I know I save too much stuff. What would I even have done with a photo of a potato chip with a cross in the middle?
Is the end of a year the time to look back or look ahead?
2010 has remained a flat year for the economy and has experienced its fair share of disasters – both natural and manmade. At least Seminole escaped hurricane season intact.
While there have been some bright spots during the past 12 months, maybe the best thing that we can say about the year is that it has put us in just the right spot: Providing us with a future full of opportunity.
Nobody that I know knows what 2011 will bring, whether for you or Sanford or Seminole County or schools or businesses, even The Sanford Herald.
Hey, we just try to report the news; we can’t predict it – even for ourselves.
What I can say, however, are some things that I’m at least hopeful for next year. Some of these are definitely things that will happen and some are maybes. Some are probably impossibles.
This is by no means a comprehensive list, but I’m at least looking forward to:
• Drivers learning to better understand how to go around Sanford’s roundabouts.
• Repairs on the historic neon signs at George’s Tavern and The Barn (specifically The Barn’s former dancing couple that now just stands at attention). Restoration of the historic Stokes Fish Market signs on the Sanford Avenue building would be a welcome sight, too.
• Better maintenance of the city’s parks, some of which are becoming weedy with uneven, dangerous walkways. Alleyways could stand a little attention by the city, too.
• Signs prohibiting panhandling, both in business and residential areas. Hopefully this would help curb those that make the frequent requests we see around town.
• Culmination of talks to swap the county’s empty State Attorney’s Office on 1st Street and the city’s recently unused police station on French Avenue, so both buildings can be put to use.
• The inaugural Love Your Shorts Film Festival, which will be Feb. 11-13. A new nonprofit group in town, which I happen to be a part of, is organizing the festival to be shown at the Greater Sanford Regional Chamber of Commerce. More than 220 short movies – each under 30 minutes – have been submitted for judging to be grouped in various categories such as comedy, drama, animation, etc.
• Some sort of a promoted walking tour downtown. Sanford has a great, compact area for visitors to explore the lakefront and historic homes and buildings. Some of those visitors are travelers waiting to board the Auto Train north, and they often have a few hours to spend while waiting for departure.
• The long-awaited Magnolia Square Market, a new deli soon to be opened by Theo and Linda Hollerbach .
• More lighted Christmas-ball decorations around town next Christmas. The nonprofit Sanford Historic Trust had a couple workshops recently to show how to make the balls out of chicken wire and strands of holiday lights. I’ve seen several hundred of the balls at houses all around town this season, and the trust hopes the project mushrooms each year with more and more residents making the decorations to blanket the city in lights.
• Continuation of the necessary improvements by the U.S. 17-92 Community Redevelopment Agency to make a more appealing appearance along one of the most-traveled roadways in Seminole County.
• More community and school board support for the school district’s aging Student Museum in Sanford, which provides a hands-on teaching experience for students and other visitors.
• Some more retail outlets in empty downtown buildings for things such as clothing, home-repair supplies and, of course, doughnuts and coffee. (I don’t drink coffee, but coffee shops attract people that support other nearby businesses.)
So what’s on your list for what you’d like to see in 2011?
Send me your thoughts at the address below. If we receive enough different ones for a list, we’ll publish them sometime in January.
Pronunciation Guide
That is “Pronunciation guide,” by the way.
Here’s the final reminder to send in your words for our new community pronunciation guide. Do people mispronounce some word repeatedly?
We’re compiling a list of persons, places and things that are sometimes spoken inaccurately.
Send your suggestions by the end of the year so we can create the guide to share with everyone.
Comments can be sent to Herald publisher Gene Kruckemyer at GKruckemyer@MySanfordHerald.com.