Page 4 — Thursday, March 21, 2024 — The Hastings Banner
Traditions are the memories
that shape our lives
This year marks 60 years since Tevye,
the Russian Jewish milkman, gave us that
wonderful song “Tradition” from the
Broadway musical “Fiddler on the Roof.”
This week, though, the song is playing in
my head like I heard it just yesterday.
“Tradition! Tradition!” proclaimed
Tevye in the big opening to the musical.
“We have traditions for everything. Tradi-
tion tells us what to do, where to go, how
to dress and it encourages us to follow it
even if we don’t know why.”
I’ve followed Tevye’s heart since I first
heard him. Traditions are a way to main-
tain a connection with the past and to
preserve a sense of cultural and historic
heritage despite external pressures and
changing times. Cherishing and preserv-
ing our traditions while balancing them
with new growth in an ever-changing
world is essential to our well-being and a
safe and happy future.
Traditions give us a sense of our roots
and provide us with structure and stability
in our lives. Valuing traditions is an
important part of developing a strong
sense of self and a better understanding of
the cultures that shape us.
That’s why it’s so difficult for me and
people like Tevye the milkman to see
traditions wobbling, withering and dying
in a modern society pushing for diversity,
equity and inclusion.
As an ardent believer in tradition and
as a member of the Hastings Rotary Club,
I’ve been struggling with the group’s
recent decision to expand our annual
Senior Boys Luncheon by inviting girls
and members of the Kiwanis Club to our
annual event. For 80 years, the Hastings
Women’s Club has hosted a Senior Girls
Tea so in 1991 Rotary started the tradition
to welcome the senior boys for a special
luncheon.
Sixty years later, I can still feel the
conflict that Tevye brought to us on stage,
but the wrestling with it is leading me to
discoveries and renewed hope.
For me, traditions are a way of life:
Opening a present on Christmas Eve,
wearing green and enjoying corned beef
and cabbage on St. Patrick’s Day. And
how about painting Easter eggs and
attending church with family on Easter?
Or carving pumpkins at Halloween? This
past Christmas morning, our family gath-
ered for breakfast and enjoyed a family
favorite ‘meat pie,’ a long-time tradition
that goes back generations in my wife’s
family.
Looking back like this might feel a bit
nostalgic, but traditions remind us of the
best times of our lives when family and
friends get together to celebrate. They
give us a feeling of comfort, pride and
acceptance.
For most Americans, traditions are a
part of what family is all about, like
attending the annual summer family pic-
nic – getting together with aunts and
uncles and all your cousins. These tradi-
tions strengthen family bonds as we inter-
act with family members passing on sto-
ries of the past that connect us with the
generations.
Whether traditions are based on reli-
gion, culture or just fun things, they’re
memories of growing up; they serve as
reminders of where our families came
from and the people and events that
shaped them.
On a wider basis, traditions are also
valued. According to a recent Pew Report,
81 percent of respondents say sharing
their country’s customs and traditions is
important for true belonging.
The Pew survey also concludes that
“Around seven in 10 or more consider
that participation in a country’s customs
and traditions are important for true
belonging, especially in the country of
your birthplace. By honoring our roots,
our history and our traditions and accept-ing change we can shape a brighter future
that accepts traditions, innovation and
acceptance of our individual differences.”
The word tradition comes from the
Latin word “tradiare,” which means “to
hand over, to transmit,” such as a practice
or ritual that is passed down from one
generation to the next.
In this fast-paced, ever-changing
world, traditions can give us a feeling of
consistency in our lives. Whether it’s a
family movie night, attending church on
Sunday, or reading a story to children
before bedtime, traditions form family
values and they make our lives more
enjoyable.
I don’t want to lose all that and, when
traditions change or go away, I’m an
uneasy soul. I mourn for the people and
the families who don’t have the kinds of
tradition on which my life rests.
Today, less than 60 percent of chil-
dren live with two married parents.
Approximately 15 percent are living
with parents in a remarriage and 7 per-
cent are living with parents who are
cohabiting. The number of children who
live with one parent stands at nearly 26
percent, up from 22 percent in 2000. I
believe that’s why Americans have
become more pessimistic about the
future of marriage and the family. Fami-
lies have been impacted as they give up
or accept the loss of traditions that con-
nect them with their roots.
According to psychologist Sara Duke,
“The children who know a lot about their
families tend to do better when they face
challenges. The more children know
about their family’s history, the stronger
their sense of control over their lives, the
higher their self-esteem, and the more
successfully they believed their families
functioned.” These children also proved
to be more resilient and moderated the
effects of stress better.
But this is a new world and, like Tevye
the milkman, I have to manage the dis-
ruption in my own life. Tevye fretted
over his daughter’s wish to marry the
man she chose, defying the tradition of
the father carefully selecting and arrang-
ing the marriage.
In the end, Tevye’s willingness to
adjust brought his daughter a husband she
loved and Tevye a son-in-law who became
part of all the family’s other traditions.
For me and the members of the Hast-
ings Rotary Club, it’s time to start a new
tradition and use the enthusiasm of peo-
ple like Tevye the milkman to energize all
of those traditions we still have.
Our luncheon with the Hastings High
School seniors and the Hastings Kiwanis
Club will become a new, proud tradition.
It will be a statement every year of the
pride, love and respect we have for all our
young people.
It will be – and always has been – a
loved tradition of sending off our best and
brightest with the assurance that we are
behind them, that we look forward to all
they’ll be accomplishing. That’s a tradi-
tion that I hope will never change and we
are all proud to be part of it.
Maybe it will even be a reminder of
how vital it is that we look for even more
new traditions in this changing world.The Hastings Banner
Devoted to the interests of Barry County since 1856
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1351 N. M-43 Highway • Phone: (269) 945-9554 • Fax: (269) 945-
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Subscription Rates: $78 per year in Barry County
$85 per year in adjoining counties
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at Hastings, MI 49058Have you met?
Do you remember?
Did you see?
Bingo!
The Barry County Commission
on Aging hit the road last week,
holding an event at Two or Three
Together in Nashville on March 13.
Dozens of local seniors attended,
partaking in bingo, lunch, live
music, blood pressure checks and
walked away with information on
the COA and its many services.
Organizers considered the event
a success and Commission on
Aging Executive Director Courtney
Ziny said the department would
look into holding similar events in
the future – both in Nashville and
other areas of the county.Building the Bliss
Banner ca. 1900These laborers pose in front of the current BCN Technical Services factory in Hastings while it was under construction. Then
known as E.W. Bliss, the factory was originally built to accommodate full walls of windows. The windows would allow natural
light to flood in, making it easier to work in the days before ample electricity and shop lighting. This photo is thought to have
been taken sometime in 1900.Duane Campbell feels lucky to be alive.
A Freeport High School graduate from
its last class in 1961, Campbell can distinct-
ly recall two times he had to make his peace
with an untimely demise.
Once, while serving in the Army after
graduating, he recalls when the air brakes
on a heavy truck he was operating on a
mountain road ran out of air. He was ready
to run the rig off the road to prevent injury
to anyone else when his brakes started
working again at the last minute.
Later, an accident involving his garden
tractor would leave him hospitalized with
doctors giving him a 50-50 chance at life.
“I should have died lots of times,” he
said. “I didn’t think I was going to make it.
I was prepared.”
After retiring more than 20 years ago,
Campbell said he knew exactly what he
wanted to do. Feeling blessed for the com-
munity support he received whenever he
had fallen on hard times, he wanted to give
back as much as he could. He’s been visit-
ing nursing homes throughout Barry Coun-
ty ever since.
There, he tells stories and provides enter-
tainment and companionship for residents.
He hopes to distract residents from their
worries, even if just for a moment.
Campbell admits he’s not easy to embar-
rass, and he’s got photos to prove it. It
seems he has a costume for every occasion
and a character or story to go along with it.
Even when he’s dressed as himself, he has
something to share with the residents. His
years of traveling the country, whether in a
big rig, on his motorcycle, or in a camper
with his wife Amy, provide plenty of mate-
rial to draw from.Even when sharing from his own life, he
can’t pass up the opportunity for a good
gag. Once, before leaving for a trip to Alas-
ka with Amy, he promised residents he’d
bring them back something. On his return,
he revealed he brought back a mountain
man – he had grown a big beard and was
sporting an outfit that looked like it
belonged to Davy Crockett.
Although he enjoys getting a good laugh
out of his antics, his goal is to help others in
any way he can. When he saw a community
of folks lacking companionship and human
interaction, he jumped in to do whatever he
could to help.
“I just have so many good memories of
so many good people,” he said. “I love
them dearly.”
Even after 20 years, he said he’s not
ready to quit yet.“I’m getting tired. But I’m not a quit-
ter,” he said. “I will not quit. God made me
that way.”
He still gets up at 4:30 a.m. every morn-
ing, he said. He takes care of his own work
early in the morning, before working to
help others the rest of the day.
“If I can help somebody, I will,” he said.
For half the year, that involves making
visits to four nursing homes around the
county on an alternating basis. He plans to
continue doing so for at least a few more
years, before dedicating more time to his
kids and grandkids.
Because of his firsthand experiences
with hardship, he knows how hard it can
be to get a good start in life. Campbell said
he goes out of his way to help his kids and
grandkids as much as he can. He has the
same hope for all of them that he does for
every person he helps: that they will be
inspired to help someone else, whenever
and however they can.
“What I hope for so much is that my
kids will go on to help other people,” he
said.
Sometimes, all it takes to help someone
is a costume and a story.
For his dedication to helping where he
can and refusing to quit doing it, Duane
Campbell is this week’s Bright Light.
Each week, the Banner profiles a person
who makes the community shine. Do you
know someone who should be featured
because of volunteer work, fun-loving per-
sonality, for the stories he or she has to
tell, or for any other reason? Send infor-
mation to Newsroom, Hastings Banner,
1351 N. M-43 Highway, Hastings, MI
49058; or email [email protected].Duane CampbellFred Jacobs, CEO,
J-Ad Graphics Inc.