Not so new newcomer

Coming to you cataloged and in black and white! Salutations, Harrison County. My name is Devon Williams, first generation Cynthianian. My family moved west from the coal-black hills of Appalachia to the Maiden City in 1998, narrowly missing the great flood of the year prior.

In my time since moving here, I’m proud to say that I’ve attended school at every level within our great borders. I cut my teeth literally and metaphorically here, learning to read and write — including the ancient art of cursive penmanship — at Northside Elementary.

I waded the waters of khaki pants and tucked polo shirts in my attendance of our middle school. I braved the parking lot of newly-licensed drivers as a student of our fair high school--go graduating class of 2014!

I finished my associate’s degree across the street at our amazing Licking Valley campus of the Maysville Community and Technical College.

After finishing my bachelor’s degree at Georgetown College, I worked five years in management with the Theatres of Georgetown. Not once in my eight years of schooling and working outside of Cynthiana did I ever truly leave it; it stayed with me in heart and spirit. Not to mention that I commuted to both college and work, so I guess I never really left at all. I suppose I’m a bit of a homebody.

With that I’m excited to tell you how happy I am to be back here working full time for this paper, wherein I will get to explore and chronicle all that makes this town Cyn-City. I consider that an honor and a privilege.

Like most people who have grown up here, I have plenty of yarn to spin that I could bore you with; plays in which I’ve acted on the well-trodden stage of The Rohs Opera House, close matches played on the tennis courts for Ron Markley’s tennis team, concerts performed at the Hilltop and abroad under the tutelage of the great Michelle Hassall, and I marched on the hot pavement in the shadow of the giant on the tower that was Bob Gregg.

I won’t kill any more trees with my reminiscing; just know that I’m not a stranger. Ask anyone I’ve met outside of this town and you’ll find that I’ve annoyed them greatly with my love for Cynthiana. With pride I sing her song and tell her stories to ears that haven’t heard them.

I hope that you take me in kindly here at this storied paper. I will tell with aplomb all there is to tell. Like Thornton Wilder, the great American playwright, I have a penchant for telling small town stories. I believe that they encapsulate the real, beating heart of America. They show us how we are and how we’ve always been; “in our growing up and in our marrying and in our living and in our dying,” (Thornton Wilder, “Our Town” 1938).