Journalism
class was the only thing I excelled at in high school, but I was steered away
from that field by a lousy high school “counselor” (big emphasis on the quotation
marks). All seniors had to make an appointment to see a counselor for directive
on going to college and this guy looked at my grades, asked me what I would
like to major in and said (I am not making this up) “You’re not smart enough
for journalism. You better try of something easier, like P.E.”
After
stints at three colleges, retail stores, construction and my own tractor business, I kind of wandered into a newspaper career with childlike enthusiasm and the
help of key people who coached and influenced me.
The end.
See
you next week.
Here is the
longer version:
Millie
Thompson, long-time journalism teacher at Arlington Heights High School, Fort
Worth, ran journalism class and our bi-weekly school newspaper like a business.
I graduated in the mid 70s and by the time I got into a newspaper career she
had passed away before I could find her and tell her that I, one of her troublesome
students, became an award winning newspaper journalist and photographer.
In her
class, editors were responsible for reporters and all were responsible for
themselves. Corny stories were not allowed and we did important reporting on students,
community, sports and the school district. It would horrify most college and
high school journalism instructors, but Miss T did not read much of our work until
after it was printed. After papers were distributed
she read the paper silently in front of class from cover to cover, occasionally
making a note with a large red marker and shaming anyone who made a slight mistake.
“Explain to me, Mr. Amos, why you did not attribute that information…. I am
waiting for your answer.”
She was not mean, but she was serious about good journalism. If you made a bad
error, she pointed right at you with that red marker and chewed your ass out sternly
in front of your peers and then turned and chewed the ass of the department editor
and the chief editor, who would both chew your ass out again in the hall after
class. Needless to say, we put out an extraordinary high school paper. Thank
you, Miss T for planting in me a love for media and journalism.
Years later as
president of my community library I began contributing library news to the
local paper. I struck up a friendship with the owner and publisher, Randy Keck,
and occasionally contributed other news and photos I came across.
Randy Keck
is the longtime owner and publisher of The Community News in Parker County who saw my
enthusiasm and hired me part time as a reporter. As the paper
grew he hired me full time and it was with his coaching and encouragement that I won my first Texas Press and North and East Texas Press
Association awards.
After a year
at a daily paper I really cranked up my talents and moved into Ninja gear when
I went to a community newspaper group in another county. I embedded myself
into the community and dug not only covering news, but finding news. I
was first hired there as a photographer and
was writing features three months later. I soon became business page editor and
then main reporter. After two years I
became editor of one of the company's papers and I put a lot of effort into having a
rocking front page and relevant content. My goal each issue was to have the absolute
best newspaper of all six of our publications, and I racked up more Texas Press and North
and East Texas Press Association awards, which in turn sparked me to work even
harder.
I met a lot of wonderful people with amazing
stories. Thanks, Miss T, Randy and all the co-workers who put up with me
over the years.
No comments:
Post a Comment