I generally place a rerun in this space on an annual basis but thought I'd change course this year. Stop that pearl clutching please. You may have caught wind of something totally thrilling that is unfolding in the pages of this award-winning issue. If you have not figured it out, I shall tell you now. The Community News is celebrating 32 years of coming at you wildly and weekly. (Mind you, I called in a team of experts to aid me with figuring out how many years from February of 1987 to now. Hey, you know math is my WORST subject, don't you?)
Moving along, I thought I might talk about some of the highlights of working at the paper. I climbed aboard around mid August of 2006. In fact, I had been at the paper a week, give or take, when that Steve Irwin “The Croc Man” was killed by the stingray. You can go look it up if you'd like but it will give you an idea of my tenure here.
I remember getting all gussied up for my interview with the chief and how my friend Mick called me Ms Perkins due to the outfit. I am not sure how the Ms Perkins jazz ties in with my being dressed up but that's OK. The nickname has stayed with me through the years. The boss still refers to me as such but has shortened it to “Perky” for the most part.
As many of you realize, I'm the ad person first and foremost. I do cover a few meetings but not as many as I once did. Selling the ads is the most important aspect of my job—actually the advertisers keep us in business, PERIOD.
The very first person who said yes to an advertisement was Walter Howick when I made my a call for the fall sports paper. He gets special treatment to this day because of that. My goodness, please remove your minds from the gutter; this is a family paper.
I only carried out my job duties from the actual newsroom for maybe the first few days. After that, Chief cut me loose and said I could work from home. I'm certain he breathed a huge sigh of relief fairly quickly as I couldn't help but note a strong wind that carried me eastward.
Back in those days we had not gone digital yet so I would have these “YUGE” sheets of paper that had some kind of grid-like “deal” on them that served as a guideline for the old-fashioned paste up method. I would unload a bunch of those from the car as this was way before Edna (the van) entered my life. Actually a black van was the original hippy van and yes, I'm digressing.
Perpetual (fiance of a thousand years) set up his wallpaper table for me to utilize during those days of wrestling with the large papers as there really wasn't much room on any other level surface for spreading out the papers.
Fairly soon thereafter we did go digital because we were needed to do so. We weren’t going to do the paste up stuff any longer. This sent the chief into somewhat of a panic as he had done the other technique for almost 20 years at that point.
After a period of time with Mick (Boyle) helping, David (Chief) became a pro at doing this digital stuff. I would have no idea how to put the paper together at all and am glad that it is not a part of my official duties.
I design a lot of the advertising, which was kind of fun to learn. We were still carrying out the original method of putting the paper together when I learned how to put an ad together. When we flipped to the modern way, Mick and Tom (Deighton) were both my teachers. Believe me when I say that they had their hands full in terms of walking me through the particular program. Both were very kind and gentle with me though—for the most part.
OK, moving along, in my first several years I did several human interest stories. That is when I discovered that there are super interesting people right in our own reading area. In fact, I think that there is someone with an intriguing story probably right in your own neighborhood and am sticking to that story.
Mother is my next door neighbor if that tells you anything. A person who has made it beyond 80 is generally filled with info—if they can remember it, of course. Mother passed that milestone YEARS ago, by the by. (I mean she passed the 80 mark, not that she cannot remember stuff. She's pretty good in that department, considering.)
One of my biggies was when I interviewed a fellow named Mr. Kazebee who was aboard the Nautilus when it crossed over (or under since it's a submarine) the North Pole. That was a tremendous interview. I'm not saying that my story was the greatest thing since sliced bread but I mean he was a really fun guy with a terrific memory and a sparkling clean home to boot. (I hope I got the name spelled correctly. I looked online and in the phone book to be sure. My original piece is not located on this computer so I can't double check. Forgive me if this is not spelled right.)
Mr. K. (safer this way) was not the only person with a wonderful story to tell either but I'm just using him as my example here. STOP getting upset with me. I can't possibly relive every moment that I've spent at the paper now, can I? I remember that being a two-part story and I really wanted to have “side bars.” I was hooked on the idea of “side bars” but alas the boss did not go that route! (Chief, if you are reading this and I know you are, I've been crushed since then that the side bars didn't make it in the final version. Wait—now that I ponder, I think they may have gone into the final. Hmm, well I take that all back. I do think we had additional info but maybe not in the “side bar” layout. You are forgiven.)
Speaking of advertisers and yes, I realize I was not; one that comes to mind is Master Feed and Grain which closed a few months back. That was in business for a very long time and was a family operation to boot. Dorothy would run a lot of ads to support this or that local event or milestone. This was super because MF&G was really strictly wholesale so she didn't necessarily bring in business via the ads. I remember doing a column about that very thing. She simply did so to support the area in general like for the sports issues and holidays, etc. There weren't many times when Master Feed and Grain said no to an ad and I will always remember that. OH! OH! I'm now recalling more fun times so hold on.
Whenever I went into the hospital to detox off of pain killers, Mother and Aunt Liz sold the ads for me so I would still get a pay check. I had everything very organized prior to my exit and they were set up for success.
I was out of the facility at this point and was recovering in the other end of the house as Mother and Aunt Liz made calls. Suddenly, I heard a roar of laughter to the point of, well, something loud. I crept out of bed and made my way to the other end of the house to find them in stitches.
When they gathered their composure, they told me what had happened to cause such a raucous roar to fill the home. Mother made a call and was using an alphabetical list of advertisers in the process. She got a person on the phone and was asking him if he'd like to run an ad for National Restaurant Month. She plowed on by saying that she simply loved his bathroom at the restaurant that he owned. “They are so clean and wonderful—I've told EVERYONE about those bathrooms,” said she.
A long uncomfortable pause ensued and she finally heard the voice at the other end ask, “I think you have the wrong person, who were you calling?” This is when Mother discovered that she had NOT dialed Walt at Walt's but was speaking with Wally Hyde of Wallace Hyde Jr. Wally has a business that specializes in lime spreading and gravel plus some school bus services as well. Here, Mother was going on and on thinking he was Walt! The greatest part of this saga is that Wally bought the ad for National Restaurant Month, for crying in a bucket.
He has been under the weather lately and I do hope he's on the road to recovery. I did a human interest story on him as well now that I ponder. We whizzed about on his golf cart to take in the scenery as he expounded on this or that aspect of his business. I love Wally Hyde and I'm just going to say it here. Well, looks like I just DID say it.
Wow, I'm really prattling on incessantly now but I must try to bring this to an end. I've really typed more than usual for this space; I hope you have enjoyed at least part of it.
I guess the bottom line is that in the newspaper business in this day and age, it's either “sink or swim,” as the boss oft' tells me when I'm depressed over sales. We appreciate that YOU have kept us going for 32 years at this point. There are so many deeply interesting people in this reading area. I would love to write about all of you but clearly, that is not possible. (I can't think of another word for “interesting” so I've just been using that word a lot.)
Many people don't realize how lucky the area is to have this weekly “diary” of local happenings. I hope some will think about this for a bit. We are not owned by some nameless and faceless corporate entity which means we can report the actual happenings of the region without the threat of backing being pulled from us.
We all get upset with our bosses from time to time but that's OK as it's a part of the “biz.” However, I am going to commend my boss, David, right now for keeping this paper going for this long and for putting up with my shenanigans too. I know sometimes you want to scream and perhaps you do scream but all in all, I, for one, am thankful for the Community News and hope we have another 32 years. (Of course someone else would probably have to learn how to put the paper together but you know what I mean, I'm sure!)
That is about all I can muster for the week. Wait! I have an idea for our 35th year. We have time to plan this. How about we put little segments from papers over the years in that particular issue? If we do, we could utilize SIDE BARS—Thanks Chief.
The End (Interstate Crosscheck, “War is a Racket,” by General Smedley Butler, AIPAC lobby)