Reflecting on A Decade at The Record

Ten years ago Thursday, Texas Independence Day, I answered an ad in the Fayette County Record for a “writer.”

The Friday before that I had retired as collections manager at the University of Texas Winedale  property after five years caretaking Miss Ima Hogg’s historic houses, furniture and decorative objects.

Getting paid for a decade  making sentences has made me retrospectively grateful to my high school English teacher. I’ve forgotten her name, but she was an old-school stickler. Being married to a real copy editor hasn’t hurt either, except for minor wounds to my ego.

Ten years at one gig is quite a milestone for me, I’m something of an easily-bored, restless spirit. My co-workers have often commented on the variety of brief careers I have had: college lecturer, grant writer/administrator, community developer (as a Peace Corps volunteer), Bible salesman (this gets a lot of laughs), mine electrician, ceramic tile mason, psychotherapist, kayak manufacturer, cross-country ski dealer and a few others.

Veteran newsman Larry Jackson was the editor at FCR who hired me after looking at some of my writing and I’ll always be grateful to him. I recall telling him at the time, “I can probably give you about five years.” 

Sometimes Jackson thought my copy got a little too cute. He walked out of the newsroom one day, saying over his shoulder, “Just write it straight.” 

Now he’s retired and ten years later, I’m still here just trying to write it straight.