Some assignments were more interesting than others

As a longtime writer, I am often asked if I ever find it tiresome, what with years of clacking the keys to produce various articles, not to mention nouns and adjectives.

Actually, more often than not I’ve been told that my writing itself is tiresome, but such comments are taken with a grain of salt. And sometimes a glass of wine (without salt).
Working for newspapers and being sent on assignments made it easy to find topics. At daily publications, reporters could be sent to structure or wildland fires, major traffic accidents, spelling bees, science fairs, county fairs or other areas sometimes unfair.

Some assignments were less than truly interesting. These included city council meetings, county commissioner gatherings or sewer board sessions. The latter occasionally resulted in a big stink, so that made them engrossing.

One meeting I attended was in a remote community where the town council chairman was from Scotland. Or at least, his breath had a particular aroma. He led the meeting as a tyrant, even stating vehemently and odiferously that the county supervisors had no way to control his decisions. After my story ran, the chairman found his decisions comment to be incorrect, as his service was terminated (decisively).

Covering public meetings could be fun, especially when board members, and sometimes members of the audience, would advise a reporter (usually me) to not report what they said. Ehhhhhh! Never happened because of open meeting rules. Quite often a reporter (me) was threatened that a speaker “would have my job” if I wrote what was stated. I often waited after my article was published to see if said speaker would replace me, but that never happened.

Through the years of covering so many meetings and happenings I sometimes feel that I should have been paid by the word. That never happened, either. However, my weekly salary was sufficient, especially when a shift ran into overtime pay. On the nightside shift (2 to 10:30 p.m.) overtime situations were fairly common. And those made for uncommon paychecks, even with deductions.

Continually using the alphabet in my work for more than 60 years, more or less, I am grateful for the power of the press, when used fairly. And I once saw a nutty executive stand too close to a running press when his tie got tangled in a roller. He survived but never forgot the power of the press.

Exit, stage right ...