Things To Do...

I think we’ve all heard the reasons why people want to leave the small town after graduation because there’s “nothing to do in a small town.” When I hear a statement like this I think about nights like last Thursday. There was a Western Art Show meeting followed by a Project 56 meeting at the Chamber office.

Over at the Lions Legion Hall there was a hospital meeting. In Lind there was an open house for the middle school kids and parents from Ritzville and Lind. There was a play at the high school and about 9 p.m. the Ritzville Festivals float had its premiere on Main Avenue with the band following close behind.

Now a busy night like this isn’t completely typical but when nights like this happen, community support has been pretty good. I couldn’t make the hospital meeting but my wife did.

Honestly, attendance at any one of the meetings may have suffered because of all the things going on but in a small town that is understandable.

A couple of weeks ago, my brother Larry and I attended a 4A District soccer playoff game in Everett. We aren’t big soccer fans but our nephew was the referee and we wanted to watch him. Now these are big schools yet there were only a couple of hundred fans in attendance, which for a playoff match seemed small.

Maybe these people have too many things going on in their lives so they pick and choose because there are plenty of things to occupy their time. I’ve often told people that if you can’t find anything to do in Ritzville you aren’t looking or you don’t want to leave your home.

Coming up this weekend will be the Western Art Show in downtown Ritzville on Saturday and Sunday and the Alumni Banquet Saturday night. So once again plenty to do so venture out of the house and check out the great art and make sure you visit with the returning alums, which is always a treat.

Now many of those RHS alumni were great athletes and were fun to watch. We often forget that the opportunities we had here may not have played out the same if we were at a much larger high school. So many of the two and three sport athletes here may have only had a chance to play one sport at a big school.

If you are coming back this weekend for a class reunion or the alumni banquet just remember there are a lot of people who are doing their best to keep the lights on here in Ritzville and doing our best to make it even better.

We’ve had a fair amount of former RHS students who left Ritzville, went to work and raised families. When they decided to retire they moved back to their hometown and have contributed to its future.

Which means you can take the boy or girl out of Ritzville but you can’t take Ritzville out of the boy or girl. And frankly, there’s nothing wrong with that.

So I hope that many of you from Ritzville or are returning home will take in the festivities which include the car show on Sunday, the fireman’s pancake breakfast and the memorial service at the cemetery on Monday.

There are a lot of people who work very hard throughout the year to make these events enjoyable and entertaining.

I know there are a lot of things to do this weekend and it will be a lot of fun for anyone who comes back to Ritzville. I’m sure that by Monday afternoon I’ll be looking for a place to take a nap.