We first came to Russell County and joined The Times Journal staff in 1967.

Needless to say, a few things have changed since our first visit here and we consider ourselves so fortunate to have had the opportunity to be a part of this community.

What brings us back to this date is the obituary information this week of a dear friend and one of our very first advertising customers, Mary Colson.

Some of you will likely not recognize the name, but John and Mary Colson for so many years were names everyone in Russell County knew and respected.

They owned and operated Johnny’s Market for many years and not only served the community with a great grocery store, but were very strong community supporters.

John and Mary were always supportive, financially and physically of many, many efforts to bring improvements to the county. They were always supporters of our school system, school sports and so much more. The community could always count on them and their support.

As in most all communities, they were a part of the core of this community.

Our sympathy to the Colson family.

This also brings to mind what can we expect in the future when it comes to the future of small communities such as ours.

Will we be able to get our core group of supporters together to go to Frankfort or Washington and get what we want for our community or will we eventually be left with whatever big government wants us to have.

We can see these core groups of supporters and community developers slowly diminishing in every community.

It’s not that we have less people, it’s the fact we are going to have less and less of whom we have looked to for our leadership.

One of the biggest changes we can see is the internet and what it will mean in the future years.

Already we see so many making more and more of their purchases via the internet.Where will that leave smaller communities with their future core of business leaders and developers. What reduction of businesses can we expect in another ten  years  as the internet continues to develop.

We are sure that Whatever.com will never come to support our hospitals and schools where we have been so use, for so many years, to those like John and Mary.

We can expect big government to continue to expand and to more and more tell us what we may and may not have or even need.