Mid-1980s weren't good, we were told

We started out as community newspaper owners in 1984, in Yates Center, in our 20s (four decades ago - ugh) and if you’re old enough to remember the Kansas economy of the mid-1980s  then you remember the economy at that time was not very good.

In fact, it was bad. It was so bad that Yates Center lost its only bank. The bank failed because of oil and natural gas loans that went belly up in the bad economic times.

I remember editorializing that branch banking - a new banking concept that the Kansas Legislature had just approved, would allow another bank in the region to step in and immediately begin to start serving the Woodson County community where the YC bank had left off. 

And that’s exactly what happened in Yates Center as the Girard National Bank was allowed to step in rather quickly, purchase the good assets of the local bank, and set up a new branch bank - The Yates Center Branch Bank.

A bad economic time in the Yates Center community eventually turned around and the good times rolled again. 

We continued on with The Yates Center News until 1995 when we sold it and moved to Miami County to purchase The Osawatomie Graphic and The Louisburg Herald newspapers.

The same thing that happened in Yates Center back then with the economy will happen in the Holton and Jackson County community after this COVID-19 (coronavirus) health scare is over. The good times will roll again.

We just have to be patient and keep plugging along.

When we think back to those early years in Yates Center, we remember that we were working very long hours, sometimes all night on Tuesdays to get the local sports results in the newspaper on Wednesdays.

We were utilizing the double-entry book-keeping system and we were actually hand-writing customers’ statements each month. (This was before computer generated statements).

Years later, someone asked us what was it like to be owners of The YCN at that bad economic time. 

The truth is that we were so busy with our work, and we were so young, that we didn’t realize how bad the economy was!

We were so new at the business that we didn’t miss “the good old days’’ because we never experienced them!

When your back is against the wall, there’s no where to go but forward.