By Dan Irvin

We saw something in the paper on Sunday about cremation being in vogue. It seems like if the trends continue that our kids or their kids will be about as familiar with funerals and cemeteries as they are hands on a clock.

Things change. We used to start the holiday shopping season the day after Thanksgiving. If you visit almost any local store you find that the festive season now begins the day after Halloween.

Do you think you’ll get any holiday letters this year? You know the ones where people tell you what’s happened in their families over the past twelve months. We tried to do it a couple of times but it was a lot of work to measure up. It occurs to me that those letters were kind of an analog form of Facebook. It’s hard to believe we’ll see them much longer.

Holy cow there’s a lot of football on TV now! Literally every major college game is televised on some channel. And this arrangement between the Missouri Valley Conference and ESPN is really great. It was not long ago that we could never see ISU football on TV. Then it was a real treat. Now: every game; amazing! As long as the team is good it shouldn’t damage live attendance. I worry about what will happen during a down year or two, though.

Is it my imagination or is it an unusual year for high school football with all of these teams still in the tournament at the quarter final stage. LeRoy, GCMS, Tri-Valley, and Central Catholic will all be at home on Saturday, and Normal Community on the road. When I was in high school they didn’t have any playoffs. The conference title was a much bigger deal I think.

And again Central and Normal girls will play in their respective volleyball Final Fours this weekend. Girls didn’t play sports when I was in high school. I know, right?

I was waiting to pick someone up at the YMCA one night last week and I could see the Jesus Saves sign beaming a couple of blocks away from the Home Sweet Home mission. I wish needing THAT would change.

Dan Irvin is Vice-President of the Bloomington Public Library Foundation Board, and a member of the Heartland Community College Foundation Board.

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