DEAR READER:
An opportunity of publishing newspapers for the communities of
Gilroy, Morgan Hill and Hollister is learning what is happening
throughout our South Valley
– a valley that continues to grow closer with the time it now
takes to zip up and down the new 101 raceway. As close as new super
highways may make us, some old patterns hopefully will never
change.
DEAR READER:
An opportunity of publishing newspapers for the communities of Gilroy, Morgan Hill and Hollister is learning what is happening throughout our South Valley – a valley that continues to grow closer with the time it now takes to zip up and down the new 101 raceway. As close as new super highways may make us, some old patterns hopefully will never change.
Each of our communities has its own roots deep in tradition and Memorial Day is another occasion to observe those important customs. Today’s newspaper reports many of the great events taking place this weekend. One South Valley event filled with tradition takes place this week in Hollister.
Hollister, like so many Bay and Silicon Valley area communities has grown from a small town to a small city in the past decade – and has all the growth issues to prove it.
On Monday, the politically divided community of Hollister will come together to celebrate the completion of a $4.4 million city project. It’s an investment made not so much with the future in mind, as one to honor the community’s past.
The Veterans Associations of San Benito County will observe the rededication of the downtown Hollister Veterans Memorial Building. The old icon was dedicated on Armistice Day, Nov. 11, 1927, a day that marked the end of the first World War – a war thought and hoped to be “The war to end all wars.”
The generation that fought the first World War found their sons and daughters in a second World War. Then there was Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, Afghanistan and the recent Iraqi Freedom War, as well as numerous other engagements our veterans have fought when called to duty.
In an effort to recognize the rededication of the 75-year tribute to veterans and to those lost serving our county, our sister paper, the Hollister Free Lance, has published a special collection of Historic War News Front Pages exactly as they appeared on the front of the Free Lance between 1917 and 2003.
Our Hollister Editor, Bill Satterlee, who led the reconstruction of these historic front pages, wrote that in working on a project of dry history the work provided him a new meaning of that history. As Satterlee uncovered stories and names of long ago, he came across names of local farm town boys who were part of large families who did not return home from places like the USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor.
Gilroy, Morgan Hill and communities everywhere around the nation have paid the price of freedom with the blood of their young men and women. This Memorial Day Weekend take a moment and read those forgotten veterans park memorials and buildings and never let us forget those monuments which are as real as once were the men and women once honored names they memorialize.
To veterans everywhere, we thank you for your service.
William Barry, Publisher
wm*****@ps***.com
