Whether we are part of the 100 new families that moved into Victoria last year or one of the old families that descended from early Victoria pioneers or someone who falls in between, a review of the Year 2003 can tie much of it together for us.
Was 2003 a good year for you?  It was a good year for Victoria, the Pearl of Carver County, the Peach in the Apple Orchard, the Pickle in the Pumpkin Patch.  Victoria has never been an ordinary place, and it's getting less ordinary as the years go by.
If Victoria is today a city of approxi-mately 1,500 families, it is probably safe to estimate that 90% of us are neither related to the original pioneers nor are we one of those who moved in last year.  Most of us are the large middle.
We Victoria people have, for the most part, been uprooted from other places and transplanted here in Victoria.  We have many interests outside of our Victoria neighborhoods and churches. 
We Victoria people can, for the most part, navigate just fine knowing that others are taking care of our little city matters.  We love our Cub and our County Markets and our Byerlys and Targets that are located in every short direction from us.
Indeed, Victoria has come to thrive without its very own grocery store.  We've come to appreciate our peaceful streets and neighborhoods which continue to grow up in pastures and cornfields around our lakes and parks.
Victoria has now grown beyond the intimate time when residents knew all the town folk by name as well as by face.  Now we don't know the names of people in our many filling-up neighborhoods or in the church pews or at the Victoria Post Office buying stamps.
We no longer see our neighbor's bed sheets blowing in the wind nor frozen on the line.  Instead we see automatic lawn sprinklers and fancy snowblowers.  We no longer see our neighbors bent over in vegetable gardens or picking raspberries in their backyards.  Instead we see them walking and hiking on our trails, oftentimes pushing a baby stroller at the same time.
But intimacy of name and face isn't everything.  We are doing just fine, thank you, because Victoria continues to have ties that bind.  A composite summary of the year to which we have just said farewell attests to those ties. 
You are all invited to have fun here, in this New Year's edition of the Victoria Gazette, as we recall the year 2003 and tie it all together.  If you notice something that this editor may have missed in a big way, please let me know and I'll be happy to pass on your thoughts for the sake of those who are related to years gone by and those who are related only to today.
I condensed 2003 into five large categories.  See if you agree.  Notice the key word common to each category, "continuation."