Thank God For Our Children — By Tommy Purser

National Newspaper Week is this month so now is as good as any time to reflect on what has consumed my life for the past 52 years.
I came to Hazlehurst to take over the helm of this newspaper in 1973, after a 2-year absence from newspaper work while I worked in the classroom teaching mathematics, my college major. During that brief, 24-month period of my life, I also coached football and basketball, something I had wanted to do since the time I, too, ran up and down the football fields and basketball courts of my youth …. along with playing golf.
Before my days as a teacher-coach, I worked at my hometown weekly newspaper for 2-3 years, so my time in the weekly newspaper business totals something like 55 years.
My childhood friend, Roy, who grew up to inherit the helm of his father’s newspaper first got me into this business. He was needing a sports editor and it appeared to him that I fit his needs.
Writing about my community’s young people playing sports was what got me started on this journey and, today, it remains my passion.
I get frustrated with politicians and self-serving adults. Writing about young people playing sports is my escape from the drudgeries of watching and reporting on the human frailties that rise to the forerfront in so many interactions among the adults of our species.
Thank God for our children. They keep me young and give me hope for the future.