Faith
Into the basement I would go with a pen and a piece of paper.
Sunday afternoons were blissful when composing my weekly stories for the county newspaper with a circulation in the tens of thousands. It was the only newspaper in the county for a very long time and pretty much still is.
The family sat upstairs and shouted over Steelers games. I watched those games in agony for years. Fortunately, my school teacher elected me as a reporter from our school and the writing assignments gave me something to do. My writing was horrible, but Mrs. Hicks could twist the words around and compose some very interesting stories from within the walls of Northern Bedford High School.
I once wrote a story about the things one can find in or on a school teacher’s desk. I wrote about Mr. Straightoff and the coffee cup on his desk which was filled with a home grown version of penicillin. Readers digested on the cigars found inside Mrs. Robinson’s desk drawer and copies of the Holy Bible on Mr. Anderson’s desktop.
The school news page photographer, Richard, was my best friend. He snapped black and white photos of everything I wrote about. We were a dynamic duo back in the early Eighties and despite the scandalous reporting, we both managed to land in the top ten of our class.
The story about desktop clutter made me famous among readers of what was sometimes jokingly called “The Daily Liar” by county Republicans. They turned to my stories before reading what was on the front page. Eventually, I told Richard to spend more time with the other reporters because I didn’t need his negatives to write what I saw.
Richard was like Andrew Ridgley trying to release an album on the heels of ‘Faith’ while snapping shots for the other reporters on the team.
I wonder what it was about writing those stories down in the basement that scared me away from this craft for so long.
I actually watched the Steelers win the silver cup this year and wrote during those expensive commercials.
I leaned against my exposed brick walls with pen in hand and it felt like being home.
Sunday afternoons were blissful when composing my weekly stories for the county newspaper with a circulation in the tens of thousands. It was the only newspaper in the county for a very long time and pretty much still is.
The family sat upstairs and shouted over Steelers games. I watched those games in agony for years. Fortunately, my school teacher elected me as a reporter from our school and the writing assignments gave me something to do. My writing was horrible, but Mrs. Hicks could twist the words around and compose some very interesting stories from within the walls of Northern Bedford High School.
I once wrote a story about the things one can find in or on a school teacher’s desk. I wrote about Mr. Straightoff and the coffee cup on his desk which was filled with a home grown version of penicillin. Readers digested on the cigars found inside Mrs. Robinson’s desk drawer and copies of the Holy Bible on Mr. Anderson’s desktop.
The school news page photographer, Richard, was my best friend. He snapped black and white photos of everything I wrote about. We were a dynamic duo back in the early Eighties and despite the scandalous reporting, we both managed to land in the top ten of our class.
The story about desktop clutter made me famous among readers of what was sometimes jokingly called “The Daily Liar” by county Republicans. They turned to my stories before reading what was on the front page. Eventually, I told Richard to spend more time with the other reporters because I didn’t need his negatives to write what I saw.
Richard was like Andrew Ridgley trying to release an album on the heels of ‘Faith’ while snapping shots for the other reporters on the team.
I wonder what it was about writing those stories down in the basement that scared me away from this craft for so long.
I actually watched the Steelers win the silver cup this year and wrote during those expensive commercials.
I leaned against my exposed brick walls with pen in hand and it felt like being home.
posted by Charles George Taylor at
10:18 AM
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