FOR THE JOY OF SRITING AND READING

I fell in love with a newspaper many years ago.

Bringing in "the paper" for our family was a treasured task in the 1930's. I always wondered just what was so special about this rolled up paper that adults spent hours reading. At first, I was interested in the "paper dolls" and "the funnies," as we called the comic strips.

After learning to read in first grade, I came to fully understand the importance of a daily paper. I would sit in our front porch swing in the early evening, getting "first dibs" until someone pestered me into giving up MY paper.

I recall The Missourian's sudden shrinking in size and switch in color (a mustard yellow tabloid) sometime in the early 40's. This temporary change may have been during the paper shortage of World War II.

My next encounter with a newspaper came in 1945. I was fifteen and a proud member of The Tiger cub staff at Central High.

My teacher, Mary Z. Reed, asked cub staffers, "Who would like to cover the Cape Community Concert performances at Academic Hall?" My hand flew up. No one else showed interest in the music beat or just wasn't as gullible.

One of the concerts that season brought the Von Trapp Family Singers, later to become world famous through their life story in the movie, "The Sound of Music."

That backstage interview with the children and their mother, Maria, continues to be one of my fondest memories. My by-lined article in The Tiger was an incentive to keep on reporting.

The writing bug had bitten -- hard! In the spring of my seventeenth year with graduation in sight, I wanted to spend the summer in a newspaper office learning the ropes of reporting. With all the confidence I could gather, and a fast-beating heart, I ventured to The Missourian office of Juel Mosley, managing editor, explaining my desire to work. I left with the reply that he would consider my interest and might be calling me.

The next two weeks were especially long ones. Then, his call came for a follow-up visit. How elated I was to get hired for the summer -- a teen job that turned into sixteen years with my hometown paper.

That first summer was truly a learn-by-doing experience. Each week a different staff member went on vacation. I would work with the person the week before to learn the duties; then, I would occupy that desk. From 8 until 4, I answered the phones, took notes of social events, wrote obituaries, typed locals and personals, handled whatever came my way.

Several weeks I did proofreading, challenging my English skills and convincing me that the dictionary is the writer's best friend.

My years in the news room were educational and enjoyable. The saying, " ... the perfect job is finding something you love doing and getting paid for it" fit my situation.

This practical, on-the-job training improved my interviewing and writing skills, perhaps more than the college courses that followed.

In May, 1950, I took a break from college and the news room to get married. That summer I enrolled in journalism school at the University of Missouri, taking several courses while my husband, Howard, began his course work for a Master's degree in secondary education.

By the fall of the next year we were back in Cape and I was back at The Missourian. Then, the news room was on the second floor, windows overlooking Broadway. The linotype machines and composing room were just steps away on the same floor. Teletype machines were being introduced and these operators shared a room with the proofreaders.

I can recall dozens of friends who turned out page after page of news and ad copy. Many have departed this life: Juel Mosley, Aven Kinder, Emmett Kelly, Garland Fronabarger, Gladys Lesem, Cecelia Sonderman, Richard Renfrow, Elsie Moore, Grace Wedekind, Henry Hohler, Jean Girard, Flora Denecke, Rueben Schade, Alvin Macke, Silas Neal, and, of course, the owners and publishers, Fred and George Naeter and nephew, Harry Naeter.

Other Missourian employees from yester-year, who continue to call Cape home, include John and Mary Blue, Judith Crow, John Mehrle, Melva Rose Schrader Lewis, Kitty Burton Jolls, Terry Long, Joe Blackwell; and some I have lost track of, Bami Rollins, Denny Davis, don Gordon, Warren Whitworth, and Jo Helen Lerret.

With the changes in this computer age I would find it a real challenge to re-enter the news media work force. However, gathering news by phone or plain old "shoe leather" still has merit, just as my electric Smith-Corona typewriter serves me well at times like this.

Back in the 50's and 60's I worked with a manual typewriter preparing the locals and personal column published daily on page 2.

As the name implies, personal news about the comings and goings of local residents was considered (by some) newsworthy. Reporters were expected to turn in five or six of these each day.

Some news bits were phoned in by subscribers, but most were produced by tedious effort of staff members. Methods of scrounging out locals included calling numbers at random from the phone directory, visiting stores along Broadway, Main and Good Hope, checking bus and train depots, stopping by city offices at the courthouse.

Then, it was common to publish "news" of vacationing families -- where they went, landmarks they visited -- and reports on who was visiting the Cape area. Today, residents would not appreciate publishing information that their homes would be vacant. It seemed not to matter then.

Another custom that would be unacceptable today is publishing admissions and dismissals of hospital patients. The item would indicate whether the person was in for medical treatment or surgery.

Reminiscing about those early news room days, I recall some of my ongoing tasks. One was editing and typing country correspondents news columns (from Old Appleton, Bloomfield, Commerce, Bell City, Illmo). Handwritten, the accounts were long, at times difficult to decipher, demanding good eyes and a sharpened blue pencil.

Monthly, I would measure the columns, recording each correspondent's tally of published column inches. Their monetary reward was ten cents an inch.

Another assignment was to go through each paper, listing articles by locale or topic in handwritten files for future reference. These were used by reporters to check facts and figures about weather, river stages, elections, deaths, births, accidents, city events, etcetera. Today an updated file is ably managed by Sharon K. Sanders.

My main writing interest finally centered on features about people. These by-lined interviews were special to me. I remember many hours spent visiting and talking with children who had contracted polio and were patients at St. Francis polio ward.

Numerous articles followed the May 21, 1949, tornado, requiring interviews with dozens of families in the badly damaged Red Star and Marble City Heights area.

In the 60's I enjoyed doing the "Accent on Youth" page (a Saturday feature), also "Teens on the Job" photo captions, and a human interest column about children, "Aunt Jody Says."

As a traveling correspondent, I covered the Cape Choraliers chartered plane trip to the Seattle World's Fair in June, 1962.

The Cape group of 48 singers (I sang alto) represented our state on Missouri Day, billed as Missouri's Singing Ambassadors. Raising the $13,000 needed to finance the five-day trip entailed months of dedicated work by the group, supported by businesses and a city-wide one day bread sale.

A few high points in my reporting career include meeting and interviewing Mary Jane Truman, President Truman's sister who attended a convention in Cape; a brief meeting with Pat Nixon who accompanied her husband on his vice-presidential campaign; and an early morning talk at the Cape airport with actor Broderick Crawford. My star-struck sister, Kitty, got his autograph that day.

On a more local level, I was privileged to interview Jean Bell Mosley, freelance writer, on the release of her second book "Wide Meadows" in spring, 1960. A visit with the late Dr. H.O. Grauel, one of my favorite college professors, sparked a feature about his 500 plus collection of first edition publications. Vol. I, No. I of Life Magazine, Sports Illustrated, and Time were among these.

With present day multiple birth publicity, mere triplets would create limited interest. But in 1951, triplets meant big news for Southeast Missouri Hospital and the little town of Scopus. The next year I attended the first birthday party of Walter Beard triplets: Gladys Fay, Gloria May, and Gilbert Ray.

As others have done, I entered a second career in 1964, teaching English and journalism at Central High. Actually, I never really left writing; rather, I encouraged others to develop writing skills that would serve them well in any field they might choose. And many of these students did enter media choices of radio broadcasting, television, advertising, sportswriting, reporting, editing, magazine and book publishing, photography, and public relations.

Reviewing past class rosters, the names of McKee, Grebing, Blackwell, Limbaugh, McNeely, Vogel, Cushman, and Ludwig come to mind as media successes.

My love for writing led me to be adviser to The Girardot (1966) and The Tiger (1965-1973), followed by sponsor of The Central Light, anthology of creative writing (1980-1990). I treasure the hours spent with these high school youth and the writing projects we achieved.

Serving on the Southeast Missouri Council on the Arts writing commission brought more pleasant writing experiences with young people, as well as with senior citizens. Co-ordinating writings into Cape Girardeau's Bicentennial Book, "America and the Arts" (1976) offered the community a fifty-page historical account of life in the early-days of Cape County.

My years with the Cape Girardeau Writer's Guild brought more opportunities to expand writing experiences to southeast area residents. The first volume of Writer's Showcase (spring 1982) was a joint effort with Constance Harris and other Guild Members.

Friends still ask, "Why did you leave the newspaper field for teaching? You seem to love writing so much." As I said before, I never left at all. My first romance with a newspaper blossomed into an enjoyable continuing courtship of writing. This joy of writing and reading inspires me each morning when I pick up the latest edition of The Southeast Missourian in my driveway.