Twenty years ago, if you wanted to let the community know about an upcoming event, you would make a flier to post around town, and — most importantly — you would be sure to drop one off at the local newspaper.

Some of those “fliers” came to us as hand-written missives, either delivered in person or sent to our fax machine.

That’s how we kept our readers informed, back when the Freestone County Times was established in 2002.

I recall spending hours on press day typing in each hand-delivered notice.

Eventually, our readers became technologically savvy, and began emailing these announcements.

Instead of typing, now we could download the information, or even “cut and paste” into our weekly paper.

These days, folks rely heavily on social media (mostly Facebook) to get the word around town about public events.

Most of the time, the local newspaper is not even contacted (let alone, tagged on an online post).

Instead, we often have to go in search of the information ourselves.

Every week, I check the official sources, including Facebook pages for:

–3 Cities,

–3 Police Departments & 1 County Sheriff’s office,

–2 Chambers of Commerce,

–2 EDC offices,

–2 Libraries, and

–4 Public Schools (2-4 campuses each).

At least once a month, I also check on our museums, community organizations, volunteer fire departments, and various local groups.

Of course, I also stumble upon some events that show up in my personal news feed.

Checking the site several times a day, I consider myself an active Facebook user.

Plus, I have just over 400 friends and about 100 followers (do I need more than that?).

Even so, there are local events that we totally miss.

Or, we may stumble upon them after the fact.

This is a source of frustration, as a person in the business of offering information to the public.

To those who have gone out of their way to contact their hometown newspaper and make sure we know what is going on in the community: Thank you!

To everyone else, please allow me to extend an invitation to reach out.

Here’s our contact info:

Phone: 903-389-NEWS (6397)

Email: news@freestonecountytimes.com

Facebook page: Freestone Co. Times

Website: www.FreestoneCountyTimes.com

Physical Address: 401 E. Commerce Street, Fairfield, Texas 75840