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I’ve been posting online essays since 1998, and when my essays were cited by the New York Times and the Associated Press, I presciently told me friends that in the near future newspapers would be obsolete.
Almost three decades later and newspapers may not be obsolete, but they have seen a drastic drop in circulation, and many only have an online presence.
Twenty-eight years later I’m no longer a big fish in a small pond, I’m just a minnow in an ocean of bloggers, podcasters, influencers and vloggers, and my online essays receive scant attention.
Recently in a letter that was published by the Bedford Bulletin I mentioned that I have lived in Lynchburg for 24 years and never visited the D-Day Memorial.
Bill a retired gentleman who volunteers as a tour guide and is also part of the maintenance crew, read my letter and sent me an email offering to give me a tour of the Memorial. His friend Reggie drove me to Bedford and back to Lynchburg.
Bill has an encyclopedic knowledge of World War II in general and D-Day in particular. No tour guide has ever impressed me as much with his knowledge of the attraction, respect for the visitors and love for his job. We were joined in the golf cart tour by his fellow volunteers, Steve and Reggie.
Thank God for newspapers like the Bedford Bulletin that are still publishing print editions, and thank God for kindly gentleman like Bill, Steve and Reggie.
Robert Paul Reyes
Lynchburg
