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$1.50 | TheEurekaCountyStar.com | Vol. 3 No. 17 | e Week of October 16, 2025
Shining a light on all of Eureka County. Our Mission: Inform, enlighten, educate and entertain—Enjoy the journey.
Is this you? Remember e Phone Book? By Trina Machacek Recently there was a chance that a couple would be coming to my home for dinner. With them they were going to bring their two littles. One just at two-yearsold and would need his own seat and the other still fed while perched on momma’s hip. Delightful. I am not set up for little people in my home. Oh, I have no problem with little ones. Actually I rather enjoy seeing them go from one table top to under a cabinet and seeing all the things that I have on display. I am far past worrying about things getting picked up and dropped. I have vivid memories of being the little one and going to visit an aunt or other homes where “children are to be seen and not heard.” Along with the glare and stare that said, “DO NOT TOUCH!” My home is very touchable. If I still had a piano, I would encourage banging away with abandon. Oh how I remember seeing a piano and wanting to just feel, hear and bang on it when visiting the old lady down the street that had chintz curtains and we had to take our shoes off way out at the curb. I vowed my home would always be open to littles. I take a bit of happiness in not being that house. It might be different if I had Ming Dynasty stuff. But. Yes, a well-worn and comfortable “but.” My stuff is to be enjoyed and if it goes into the great beyond by slippery hands, so be it. It is so freeing to finally be able to realize that “stuff is just stuff.” Move on Machacek. at dinner did not happen for reasons that are not important. e thing that did happen was a few memories surfaced and I chuckle at them now. e digital age reared its head in a very unique way. inking of having this little family for a meal sets into motion not only what to cook, but also, without having the aid of a high chair, how to feed the food to little people who don’t fit into seats for grown-ups. Ah! e phone book! at home grown bumper seat. at extra five to six inches of height set on a chair to raise one’s whole self-up to table top to gobble and laugh and spit and enjoy being part of the celebration of a meal with friends and family. Do you see the problem yet? When was the last time you held a full sized, white pages with yellow pages and maybe center green pages phone book? How old were you when you last went out on your front porch and saw–THE NEW PHONE BOOK IS HERE! e magic of a phone book, a full set of Funk & Wagnall or Britannica encyclopedias, one of those five-inchthick dictionaries to grab and use as a seat is gone. Is there an alternative? What would it be? e hunt begins. First you would think of maybe a handful of magazines or catalogs. Oh, that digital age has crept in and save many, many trees for sure. However, to get a two-yearold up to the table to be part of a meal is not easy when all you have to set them on is a plastic, flat, lap top. Books! Yes, a few books. Well enter the electronic books or even audio books. Oops. Hard to balance a kid on a couple of ear buds to eat mac-n-cheese. Now there’s a visual for you. Summers were when the new phone books were delivered. By hand, by people going up and down the streets placing books on porches and stoops. You usually got one book per phone per home. e absolute wonderment of looking up your family name in that huge, heavy book. Sitting in the sunshine on the cool cement of the porch. Looking alphabetically until you get to the R’s or M’s or whatever your last name started with. Closer and closer until there it was. Your family. Your name and phone number. Intricate simplicity of days gone by. In the end they did not come to dinner. We did have some fun outside this summer in the grass where we were actually all on the same playing field. e littles just a bit closer to the action of stink bugs crawling across blades of grass as I watched from a standing position. I know there are alternatives to what was. I know change is inevitable. If it comes up again, I have a plan. A turned upside-down pot on a chair will work. Tie the little to the slick seat and watch the show. Trina lives in Diamond Valley, north of Eureka, Nevada. She loves to hear from readers. Email her at itybytrina@yahoo.com Really!
National Newspaper Week Why?
By Trina Machacek
To keep things spicy there is a National Pickle Day. Celebrating the tart, sweet brine dipped cucumber. Is that important? To a cucumber farmer it certainly is. Just as important to each and every person on the planet, news and the celebration of it is important. In 2025 National Newspaper Week celebrates 85 years of developing an informational highway that is fraught and amicable with smooth new pavement, pot holes the size of semi trucks, yes, even lanes that will strum you a tune of America e Beautiful as you drive your white walls along road edges in New Mexico along Route 66. All that together was, is, and will always be news. In 1940 the development of a National Newspaper Week came in time to cover World War II. e first few years of National Newspaper Week occurred during World War II, emphasizing the importance of a free press in the face of restrictions and challenges in other parts of the world. Now? What is the importance of a local, state, or larger newspaper? e Eureka County Star has taken a huge responsibility to become a central part of the news cycle in central Nevada. Not just specifically Eureka County, but as far as we can reach. Can we bring you Associated Press Stories? Yes! Can we bring you what’s hot in the Paris fashion circuit? YES! Oh, can we bring you numbers, statistics, war, hollow Hollywood weddings, politics, how far will your retirement money go? YES! YES, we of course can. If that is all that was covered, who would cover your local ins and outs? Local, intimate, homegrown and needed journalism needs to be preserved, communicated and reported. Why local journalism matters • informed citizens: Local reporting empowers people with the information they need to make decisions in their everyday lives—from voting to attending town hall meetings. • accountability: Local journalists oen serve as watchdogs, uncovering corruption or negligence that directly impacts their communities. • community connection: Local news fosters a sense of belonging by highlighting stories that resonate on a personal level. • economic Development: riving local media can support small businesses through advertising and partnerships, strengthening the local economy. Over the course of Eureka’s history there have been
several newspapers come and go. e Eureka Daily Leader, Eureka Daily Republican, Evening Leader, Miner, e Eureka Sentinel, Silver Plume, Tri-Weekly Standard, High School Enterprise, Ruby Hill Mining, Republican Press and now, THE EUREKA COUNTY STAR is the paper of record for Eureka County. We take that responsibility to heart from page one to the last day of the community calendar on our back page. Each and every week the desire to bring life to the page is an exciting and invigorating nearly unexplainable feeling of pride and huge fear. Fear of getting it right, spot on, all sides of a story. Aer all, the words that find their way into and printed on a newspaper are stored for the history of a community, a county a country and beyond. Make no mistake we are not any part of the monthly return of e Sentinel, owned, created and operated someplace else. We are here, in Eureka County. How else can you be sure to get the finest local news you crave. We are delighted to live, work and love Eureka County. In the past generation, newspapers have tried to buck the instant news with online, social media, 24/7/365 broadcast news. It has become so dog-eatdog as to who can put the most shock and awe into the faces of the public that the local news becomes just a nit of nothing. at is not the way the newspapers were meant to be. Newspapers covering local is the best of the best of the news. Babies born. Obituaries with heartfelt stories of the residents that created our everything. We, the communities across our great country, create, write and then read of our past, we plan our futures, we discuss the present. Local journalism is the marshmallow that keeps our smores, more. making it local Readers care most about what affects them directly. An opportunity to editorialize about the unique relevance of a local newspaper cannot be missed. e Eureka County Star and so many small local papers not only desire but strive to keep local news in the line of sight of the residents that will read that news in each and every edition that is produced. WE: • Play a role as a government watchdog, • Spread coverage of local events, issues, and people, • Are dedicated to publishing timely public notices, • Grab at other ways your paper contributes meaningfully to civic life. Funny thing is this: Over the years it can be seen in every aspect of the chasing of the American dream. It seems people get rich and want to be richer. en the money isn’t enough so power becomes the next mountain to climb. en more power and more money. It builds until something topples. at is what has happened to [ Newspaper Week continued on page 2 ]
TIDDLES-N-BITTLES Congratulation Raymond Hodson! With 17 full years of road work for Eureka County under his belt, Raymond Hodson is pulling the plug and retiring. Rest assured he is going to be around with his other half Mary Jane as they travel the life they have worked for. Camping, kids, kicking it and if MJ has anything to say—Christmas all year long! (Only 10 weeks to go MJ!) anks Ray, for your service to Eureka County. Enjoy your new journey.
Lions Club Pumpkin Patch Grab your littles and bring a wagon to the pumpkin patch on October 25, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. to choose the best pumpkin to carve for the annual carved pumpkin contest. Just $.40/lb.! Sponsors: Eureka Lions Club, Raines Market, Eureka 4-H. Photos by Fabrizio, fun, food and face painting!
Halloween Ball Costume Party! Only two weeks le to gather a costume and plan to attend the annual Halloween Ball. A Hobo? A Blues Brother? An upstairs maid? e butler did it? Be anyone you can imagine. October 25, Opera House! Boooo!
Please send in your news from around town to: trina@theeurekacountystar.com