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| Kerri Thoreson |
Waltz's joy shared by hometown
Oh my gosh! I know there were others even more excited than I was when Ian Waltz qualified for the 2004 Summer Games on Sunday, but they weren't within earshot. After a burst of joy, I found myself getting choked up while staring at the television screen.
I cannot even imagine how his parents, Ron and Sue Waltz, or his siblings, Jessica and Micah, were reacting. I've known Ian since he was in junior high school, and he's always been a really decent young man. A stellar athlete in football and track/field in high school, he was unwilling to give up on his dream of Olympic gold, even after failing to qualify four years ago.
For most of us, the kind of single-minded determination it must take to work and focus for a decade or more is alien. And in a day when the term "role model" is tossed around loosely and often attached to undeserving celebrities, Ian Waltz is truly a role model for all ages.
If the chamber of commerce isn't already planning a billboard that reads, "Post Falls, Home of Olympian Ian Waltz," it should be. And if any of you would like to send congratulations and well wishes to Ian before he heads to Athens, drop them by or mail to the Post Falls Press at P.O. Box 39, Post Falls, ID 83877 and we'll get them to his family on your behalf.
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Love the sandwich board sign in front of a new Spokane Street business, Three Sisters Coffee House. We're Open and Hopin' ... an entrepreneur's prayer if there ever was one.
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Still batting a thousand in the "familiar faces on flights to Boise" sweepstakes, I had a chance to visit with Coeur d'Alene attorney Denny Davis and the Mrs. while waiting to board in Spokane last week. Kathy Canfield-Davis is former superintendent of the Post Falls School District, preceding Dr. Dick Harris who preceded Jerry Keane. Bonus points if you know the name of the only other woman to hold that post in the River City.
Give up? Anne Fox, back in the '80s.
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Only five months and a day or two until Christmas! That thought should make these hot, muggy days/nights more bearable.
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Old newspaper habits die hard ... while in Las Vegas over the weekend with the daughters and their friends, we were at the hotel pool when the lifeguards made an urgent announcement that the area was being evacuated due to a fast-moving lightning storm headed our way. I was literally the last one out of the pool, camera in hand and capturing a shot of the ominous black clouds.
Kerri Thoreson is a member of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and the former publisher of the Post Falls Tribune. "Main Street" appears in The Press every Wednesday. Kerri can be reached at rkthor@webtv.net.
