It’s been a good week. I’ve been meaning to get a column in the paper these past couple weeks but there hasn’t been any room. And to be honest, I really wasn’t sure what to say.
Dad wrote a good first column when he bought the paper in 2005. LaVonne Meyer wrote an excellent piece detailing the sale of the Star at the time. Melanie wrote a great story about my dad last week and I think I did a good job on the sale story.
It was weird to write a story and quote myself. I’d like to not make a habit of it. Dad always said, and so do I, if you have something to say in a story to just write it. It’s hard to do that when the story quite literally involves yourself. I wasn’t going to ask anyone else to write that piece, I felt it was my news story to report.
How do I feel? I’ve been asked that question, I don’t know how many times, in the past several weeks. Good. That’s what I told my neighbor on Sunday. I was stopped several times that day while walking to the office. It felt good. It reminded me why living in a small town is special.
LaVonne stopped in the office this week. Her kind words bring a smile to my face as I sit here thinking back to it. I told her she was just the gal I was looking for. We’ve been talking about writing a story about her time with the paper. It is long overdue. I can’t imagine the number of stories she has from her time with the paper. The amount of information one learns and accumulates while at the paper is immeasurable. LaVonne was with the paper for 40 years.
She doesn’t know what she will have to talk about. I told her I’ll ask questions and she’ll tell stories. I originally intended to have Melanie write the story about LaVonne but after seeing her again, I really want to. Maybe we could both interview her. Interviewing someone is like having a front row seat to performance. I imagine interviewing LaVonne as watching something great on broadway. Maybe that’s not a good analogy. I’m simply trying to say that interviewing someone is an intimate, exciting, thing. There’s nothing quite like getting to hear a person’s story front and center.
Reed told me something last week, the same thing he told me three years ago. “The Editor is God at the newspaper. Whatever he says goes.” I think it was his way of congratulating me.
I received a lot of heartfelt messages these past couple weeks. So did Dad. Everybody always asks how he is doing. He’s doing well. I tell people that Dad is a lot more relaxed now and I hope it stays that way.
Thank you Bob for your nice words at the end of your column, as well as Mike for his shoutout in the Janesville paper, and everyone else who sent messages in. I’m hoping to run the messages in the paper as letters to the editor. Because that’s what they are. A couple years back a reader sent a nice letter in. Dad put it on the page to run in the paper. I told him no, that was intended for me to read, not the entire world. Dad told me no, a letter to you is a letter to the editor and we run those in the paper.
I asked the reader if they wanted it to run in the paper. I was politely told no, that the pat on the back was just for me and not for everyone else. Ever since then I kind of felt the same way. But then I got to thinking. If I enjoy reading those nice words, maybe others do too. Then, just a couple months ago the same thing happened. Someone sent a nice letter in and dad told me to run it. So I did.