by Kevin Burton
Well I’ve never been to Heaven, but I’ve been to North Dakota. Well they tell me I was born there, but I really don’t remember.
That of course is borrowed from the Three Dog Night song “Never Been to Spain.” I put my own spin on it to give a shoutout to one of my favorite blogs.
On WordPress they have something called “reader” where you can put in key words and see posts on that subject from fellow bloggers.
I am certain that’s how I found the blog “North Dakota Nice” by Amanda Silverman Kosior, by putting my birth state, North Dakota, into the search engine.
The winning formula for North Dakota Nice is a story about one or more members of Amanda’s family, followed by some positive news from all around The Peace Garden State.
I highly recommend that you check out the blog. If you take my advice (as you should always do) and look up North Dakota Nice, you must first promise, promise, promise to keep reading Page 7.
If you’re looking through her archives check out some of my favorites, “The Lawn Ranger,” “A Girl an Engine Block Heater and the South Forks Plaza,” “Garage Sale” and “Country Quiet.”
“Good Ranch” is a great post that I shared with my wife because she too loves her ranch dressing.
“The Farmer Hello” is a post I enjoyed, but it made me a little sad too. It is about the practice of farmers and others waving to each other in greeting whether they know the other person or not.
Being partially-sighted I would never be able to see people waving and when I didn’t wave back, they would think I wasn’t North Dakota nice, that maybe I was citified, or worse.
There have been weeks when I didn’t get around to reading North Dakota Nice on Thursday when it comes out, read it later and it proved to be medicinal, just what I needed to interrupt a stream of stress.
It reminds me of Paul Harvey on the radio in the old days. It makes you think about people in a positive way and the writing is great. Her blog brings to mind the Anne Murray song “A Little Good News.”
If I can’t always afford to stay in that place, I am always glad to have been there.
Although not as consistently nice as North Dakota Nice, Page 7 definitely travels in the lighter lane. I’m not big on controversies because other people can do them better. I am usually trying to help people get their minds off the heavier problems.
I used to be a fulltime newspaper reporter, and fielded my share of the “why is the news always bad’ sort of questions.
To sensationalize was never my goal. I got no more or less pleasure out of writing about a controversial school board vote on sex education than I did writing about innovative reading programs. It was all “doing the news” as I call it.
A receptionist at one of the newspapers I worked for once asked me, “Are you scooping on that murder?” That made me cringe. While I would never ignore it, I don’t glory in the negative.
North Dakota Nice is an island of positivity in a sea of distress.
Now to stick to the North Dakota Nice formula, a little good news about Kansas and Kansans.
Read on:
A group of local children got free golf tips from two professionals who were competing at the Wichita Open, according to KSNW-TV.
The Community Foundation of Dickinson County received a $2.5 million gift from the estate of Tracy W. Gatch. It is the largest gift the foundation has ever received, according to the Salina Journal. The gift was set up as an unrestricted endowment and can be used to help with various projects.
Robert Havens and Mark Elder of Topeka recently received Citizen Heroism awards for saving a woman from a burning building, according to KSNT-TV.
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly was in Arkansas City June 10 to honor Creekstone Farms as the Kansas Exporter of the Year, according to the Cowley Courier Traveler.
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