Since it opened as a 16-bed hospital in 1952, the health care facility known today as Freeman Regional Health Services (FRHS) has been serving the people of the Freeman community and surrounding area with services that have changed with the times. That included a 30-bed addition to the hospital in 1959, the addition of an extended care and rehabilitation center in 1971 and countless other improvements in the years and decades that followed — including what was known as “The Connection Project” that was completed in 1994 that set the local health care facility up a new era to come.

For many, the reality that summer is drawing to a close is an unsettling prospect. Fleeting are those long daylight hours, those backyard barbecues, the relaxation that comes with camping and boating and the childhood freedom that even adults can still feel. While I harbor some of those thoughts, I’m ready to say goodbye to the days of summer and welcome a new season. Fall is, after all, my favorite of all the months.

I first met Kahlen Salis in 2012 when I interviewed her and her family for a three-part series I was writing called “Life & Death.”

The juxtaposition between “The joy of being jolly” printed this week as a historical piece from 1902 and the two guest columns written by rural Freeman resident Ashley Holzwarth dealing with mental health struggles that appeared in the past two issues of The Courier couldn’t be more striking. The former from 120 years ago urges everybody to “smile on, smile ever,” to “quarantine your feelings,” and that “people with ‘bad spells on them’ and the ‘dismals’ will cheer up, be chirk and get well.’”

It’s a real duty, and the violation of it ought to subject anyone to fine and imprisonment. What right has anyone to go about the community lachrymose, woebegone, with “tears in ‘s eye, distraction in ‘s aspect!” What right has he to distribute the bacilli of depression, gloom, dumpishness, and general “forlornity?” A fellow may have corns and porous plasters, and boils and styes and spasms, and freckles and moles, and eardrums and quinine pills, and an utter absence of joy in the stomach regions, but he needn’t hire the town-crier to go about with a bell proclaiming it.

“If Freeman didn’t have a team, I’d be playing somewhere else. I can’t imagine a summer without baseball.” That’s what Jake Weier, player/manager with the Freeman Blacksox, told me when I visited with him about his team’s run through the District 6 Amateur Baseball Tournament and upcoming trip to Mitchell for the Class B state tournament. It’s also all you need to know about Jake’s love for — and commitment to — America’s Game.

Big-time congratulations are in order for the organizers of this year’s South Dakota Chislic Festival, the outstanding event that once again unfolded on the grounds of the Freeman Prairie Arboretum on Saturday. An ability to safely and comfortably handle that many people converging on one spot in that amount of time is no small feat, and the fact that they pulled it off speaks to the kind of people who are in leadership.

Local youth baseball and softball teams are once again on the heels of what was another successful spring and summer season, with strong finishes at both the league and state level highlighting the effort. That includes a state championship for both the 12U boys and 12U girls earned last weekend. Congratulations are in order for all the players and coaches.

I was distressed to learn that Gannett has decided to scuttle the traditional editorial page in its papers. Gannett, the largest newspaper company in the United States as measured by total daily circulation, has more than 250 daily and weekly newspapers in 46 states. That includes the Aberdeen American News, Sioux Falls Argus Leader and Watertown Public Opinion.   Last month Gannett told its publishers to cut back opinion pages to a few days a week and to refocus on community dialogue. Time will tell what that will look like, but it’s a trend that troubles me.

Once work is completed on the major construction projects around town, it’s going to look great — there’s no doubt about that. But what are Freeman residents doing on their own to make this community a good place to visit and live? Here’s a good reminder to be the community you want to see.