The Similkameen News Leader
Editorial
March 10, 2009
YEP, THERE'S SOMETHING GOING ON
What makes you proud to say you're from Princeton?
I have a long list of things that make me proud to be a resident of the Similkameen Valley.
In no particular order: no stop lights in town, an incredibly hard working and dedicated pool of volunteers, low taxes and relatively low rents, an incredible amount of history to explore, nature out our back door, fishing lakes galore, clean air and clean water, we're far enough away from the lower mainland and Okanagan that it takes effort to go in either direction, there's a relatively well defined downtown core, lots of activities all year long, a solid population base with little fluctuation, a pretty good Junior B hockey team, plenty of youth activities to attract families and I could go on and on.
So when things around town sort of go haywire and all that seems to go to the regional and national media is the negative and bad things about our small town and the valley we call home I have to remind myself there's a lot of good things here we need to be thankful for.
And normally when I go over that list it makes me proud to be a resident of Princeton.
Where else does a half block walk to pick up the mail take you an hour because you keep bumping into people who want to visit?
Speaking of visiting, our office is located where we attract a lot of visitors. I like that.
Our town is far enough away from the next town that if you stop here, chances are you're going to stick around a while. I like that.
There's deer and marmots to either enjoy or complain about. I like that.
We have a lot of good things going for us in our community and I've barely scratched the surface. If you are new to this area, believe me, there's a lot of good stuff going on here. And maybe you'll feel some civic pride once you experience some of it.
Myself personally, I'm looking forward to rodeo season. I don't follow the sport in the way a fanatic would, but I know enough about it that I can explain it to someone who's never been to one before.
And what I like about rodeos is competitors are regular folks with regular jobs who travel from rodeo to rodeo like a big family and just do their best to beat the clock and move on to the next town.
They leave some money behind and come back every year. They appreciate the things our residents do to prepare the rodeo grounds, they appreciate the fact that the event gets promoted enough to attract fans and they appreciate the fans in the stands cheering them on.
And the cowboys don't care about what's going on in town other than rodeo. I like that.
And that's why I'm proud to say I'm from Princeton.
