Each and every year, the Great Bend Tribune receives hundreds of letters from area children to forward to Santa Claus. Some are right to the point. Some are sweet and caring, asking for presents for family and friends. Some are funny. Some are harder to read than others. But they are all cute. And they all remind me of when I was a young boy wanting everything in the Sears and J.C. Penney catalogs.

This past weekend we were in Wichita for my wife’s Legacy Bank Christmas party. We stopped to see our youngest son and his family before the party. While there, our grandsons, Kyler and Easton, made sure to show us their ‘Wish list” for Santa. I do give them credit for reaching for the stars.

As I looked at their wishes, I started comparing them to mine. Sadly, I don’t know what most of the items on their lists are. I thought it might be fun to compare lists. You tell me whose list is most practical and whose is the most fun.

Item 1

Kyler – Baseball jersey of any team.

Easton – Big giant monster truck.

Grandpa Lip – Gasoline prices to settle in at around $1.50, maybe $1.75 per gallon.

Item 2

Kyler – K-State football or basketball tickets.

Easton – Soccer cleats and shin guards.

Grandpa Lip – Prescription medicine prices to be affordable for everyone.

Item 3

Kyler – Rare Pokemon cards.

Easton – Spiderman slime.

Grandpa Lip – Medicare to keep pace with the rising costs of everything medicinal.

Item 4 

Kyler – Baseball, basketball and football cards.

Easton – Gold ring, gold bracelet and gold necklace.

Grandpa Lip – The ability to dance like John Travolta in “Saturday Night Fever” and “Urban Cowboy”.

Item 5

Kyler – Money.

Easton – Squishmallow.

Grandpa Lip – No animal be forced to live its life on the streets, in a shelter or tied up on a chain. Every living being deserves an opportunity to live in a warm, loving environment.

Item 6

Kyler – Gaming set.

Easton – Soccer cleats and ball.

Grandpa Lip – The people in the Golden Belt realize the importance of still having a newspaper dedicated to your hometowns, still featuring hometown people, hometown businesses, and still being printed three times weekly with an online presence as well. The Great Bend Tribune is the longest actively running business in Great Bend – in print since 1876.

Imagine if you will, getting home after work and not having your hometown paper in your mailbox. It would totally disrupt your routine. Where are you going to get your news. Sure, you can get briefs from other sources online, but for detailed, in-depth local information, you need your hometown newspaper.

I started reading the Wichita Eagle when I was six. I would get it off the porch, lay the sports page on the floor and read about my sports heroes before walking to school. I wasn’t the smartest kid in first grade, but I was the most informed. It’s been that way forever. I’ve never been the smartest, but at least I knew what was going on in my community.

One thing hasn’t changed since I first started in this business over 30 years ago. Newspaper people at the local level were taught to report the facts in a way that is easily read, understood and talked about the next day at work.

We aren’t going to hide the facts because the newsmaker threatens to hold back future information from us. We were hired to tell the story – regardless of who might be the newsmaker. The Tribune subscribers expect that from us. The Tribune subscribers deserve that from us. Newsmakers should expect that from us. 

Looking back at the Christmas lists, there are a few things from each grandson’s list that I would like. Several years from now, they will appreciate mine just as much.

 -Keith Lippoldt