Headline news…in the 2010s

As the Drummer celebrates its 50th year of publication, the world has spun out of control

Healthy populations of every country in the world have fallen ill and over 400,000 have died from a unique coronavirus that swept out of China and spread exponentially within weeks. The world went into lockdown, hospitals were overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients. A booming world-wide economy collapsed.

As that crisis seemed to abate and allow some return of normalcy, the violent death of a black man at the hands of police officers drove thousands into the streets in protest. What started on a street corner in a mid-western U.S. city quickly spread worldwide and re-opened racial conversations that had lain dormant for too long.

Granby responded to the needs of townspeople affected by the pandemic and immediately began to address the racial inequalities within our town.

In 1970, Granby was focused on passing a referendum to fund long-needed additions and improvements to the high school. Advocates of the plan and its financing created the Drummer to provide a forum and source of information for future town issues.

However, the events unfolding in the rest of the country and the world couldn’t be ignored. The country was still mourning the Rev. Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy. Racial unrest still simmered but it was wartime and the country was consumed with the internally divisive Viet Nam war. In the 50 intervening years, much has changed but much has not. The 2010s will be remembered for historic events, the unprecedented rise of social media, political and cultural changes, COVID-19 and perhaps a long overdue racial reckoning.

The Drummer continued to publish Granby news through it all. Fireworks for the 225th Anniversary, a Halloween snowstorm that ground the region to a halt, a forgone-conclusion Selectmens’ race contested by petitioning candidates, and differing opinions on state road projects at Five Points and the center intersections.

To top it all off, this 50th year of publishing ends right back where it started—on the dining room tables of the volunteer editors and staff. Of course, it’s with computers not Selectric typewriters. The wonders of advanced internet connectivity have made the publication of the last three issues possible. We thank the all-volunteer staff and contributors, the community, advertisers, our printer and the USPS for their contributions to make it happen. We’ll be back in September. Have a summer filled with family fun and lots of fresh air.

…and the projects that will dominate our lives for the next several years