All he could see were his dreams
Going up in smoke
So much for ditching this town
And hangin out on the coast
Oh well
Those plans are long gone
There Goes My Life – Kenny Chesney
In October 2003, There Goes My Life was released to the listening public as the first single off Kenny Chesneys When the Sun Goes Down album. It had a slow climb up charts before the calendar neared the holidays, when the song jumped forward to No. 1 and remained there for seven weeks over the Christmas holiday and into early January 2004, buoyed by sentiment of children returning home from college, memories of sacrifice for family, and more feelings evoked from the song.
The video for the song discusses changes in life from the perspective of a young man who finds out his girlfriend is pregnant. The quoted verse within the video shows the young man sitting on the floor reflecting on what changes are coming with the baby as a tear trickles down his cheek.
The next verse discusses his love for his daughter and her carrying a teddy bear up the stairs to go to bed. The final stanza shows mom and dad hugging their daughter as she loads up the car for school and leaveswith a teddy bear in the back window. As she pulls away, the video focuses on the father, with a single tear falling down his cheek from the same eye as before.
Thursday, Huron had a chance to come together and celebrate a significant accomplishment in this community with the Dusting Off Dakota event.
Years of planning went into the work that has been done – and will be done – on Dakota. A heavy emphasis in the planning for the downtown area was to add a modern look while honoring, respecting, and even reiterating the history of downtown Huron. Buildings in downtown Huron are among the oldest original structures remaining in the town, so that call back was important.
Yet, if you look on social media at the comment sections of posts promoting the events (I know, never read the comments!), there are consistently naysayers complaining about various facets of the project. As someone who was at about 95% of the planning meetings for the downtown stretch over a five-year period, its always interesting to me that most of those making comments werent at a single meeting.
More than anything, the heavy feedback received at those meetings revolved mostly around struggles to see the vision and, frankly, a resistance to change. Now, Downtown Huron looks incredible already, with additional touches being added every day, it seems.
No one warned me that reaching middle age would mean that Id be listening to those older than me lamenting the lack of motivation and effort from youth, while those younger than me discuss feeling like their grandparents simply dont understand that technology has taken the place of many of the things theyre lamenting – for example, tablets hold books and games in the park with 10 friends now replaced by online gaming with dozens of fellow players.
The world around us is going to change. We dont always see the vision, and none of us can truly see the future. We all need to embrace the unknown and work to make the world that comes a better place for all, rather than fighting one another over the steps to get there.
A couple of years ago, my predecessor in the editor role, Curt Nettinga, spent time researching the history of the Huron Arena and wrote a tremendous piece outlining that history. Since he wrote that piece, Huron Arena has seen a major facelift, with new scoreboards along with video boards throughout the facility to bring a touch of modernity to one of the states most historic basketball venues.
As Curt did for that story, Im now asking for your stories. Memorial Ballpark in Huron opened in 1950, making this 75 years for the park.
Ive been doing research on the history of the park and received excellent assistance from a variety of sources so far, but what I would love to have is stories – stories of your time spent as a fan, as a player, as a coach. Did you watch a superstar player come through when Huron once had a minor league team in the late 1960s? Did you see a tremendous play or hit at a game? Or did you make a tremendous play or hit?
On top of that, Im looking to reproduce a photo from 1950 of the ballpark, but with the trees and park in place now, I would need a drone photographer to take the picture. If you have that ability, please reach out!
I would love to hear all of the stories in order to put things together for an article later this month. Feel free to submit stories to [email protected]. Thank you!
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