June 11, 2008

A special anniversary moment

On this exact date last year (it was actually a Monday then) I began working at the News-Banner!

Yep, I’ve survived a whole year in Bluffton, or perhaps I should say, Bluffton has survived a full year of me! And it’s now been well over four years since I arrived in the United States.

That particular anniversary happened back in April. (Citizenship next year, hopefully!)

It’s been a while now since I tried to get into my van on the passenger’s side (the steering wheel is on the opposite side in New Zealand), and even longer since I forgot which side of the road I was supposed to be driving on, so I think I’ve managed the adjustment, sort of.

While I was on our recent fishing excursion to Lake Erie over Memorial Weekend I was asked what was my main memory of the past year in Bluffton. Unfortunately the question was asked early on Saturday morning (not quite the 5:30 a.m., “physical” wake-up hour, but still well before my brain had started to function) and all I could really think of at the time was the memory of the boxer shorts full of something that even the flies didn’t want anything to do with by the second day that was left by the carnies on the footpath outside News-Banner during street fair.

Not exactly the impression I would want to choose from my first year, and I promptly made a resolution to come up with something a bit better for the next person who asks.

In fact, there were a number of highlights, and I was seriously thinking about doing a special “awards” ceremony, but that would have required another two-part serial, and a couple of the members in my Friday-lunch-at-Pizza-Hut group complain that its too mentally taxing for them to remember a story from one week to the next.

So I’ll just keep it simple, especially for them.

The “most fun” assignment actually turned into a two part piece. I was especially interested in the opportunity to cover the annual collectors‘ show hosted by the Wells County Historical Society in August, as I had hopes (and will in fact be doing it this year) of showing off some of the 9,000+ toy soldiers I have painted up myself.

Last year was the perfect opportunity to see what other local collectors did, and to “scout out” the event.

While there I “discovered” Ed Crismore’s trains, and when Ed and his wife Avon allowed me to visit Uniondale to see Ed’s full collection, it was like “a kid visiting a candy store”.

When I was younger I had a train set of my own, and used to dream of having a separate room dedicated to the purpose. But Ed has actually achieved that dream.

The Police Department’s “Kid’s Boot Camp” and the National Guard’s “Pool Party” also stand out as memorable “work and have fun at the same time” assignments. I usually enjoy high school sports events too, although I’ve only had a few of those to cover.

Of course, there have also been lots of “more business-related” assignments that have been memorable.

Top candidate for any “It helps to be clueless” award has to be the assignment I was given to cover the ground breaking for Novae Corporation’s new building out in Markle last September.

I had been to Markle a couple of times already so I knew how to get that far, but I had only the vaguest notion of where the Novae building was, and was busily congratulating myself on actually finding the place when I realized that a whole bunch of media people, including several television stations, were also there.

“Doh, what are they doing here?”

I soon learned that all the interest was due to the fact that the governor of the state was going to be here.

“You’ll be able to interview him”, someone proudly informed me.

“Great! My first question will be ‘What is your name?’ and my second one will probably be ‘How do you spell that?’ Now what else can I think of that will really (not) impress him?”.

Fortunately Mike Row let me in on the secret that Governor Daniels likes riding a motorcycle to some of these things, so while all the other journalists flocked around to ask the governor all sorts of (I’m sure) intelligent questions, about various issues of undoubted vital importance to Hoosiers, I staked out a spot by the side of the road and got a great picture of the governor riding past, waving to me as he went.

A picture paints a thousand words, and we definitely had the “coolest” shot of the day on our front page.

If you can’t join ‘em, beat ‘em! Or something like that.

It’s amazing the obstacles that can be overcome with a bit of teamwork!

This is a great job to have if you like to learn new things. If I know nothing about the subject when I start, but will be writing a front page story about it for tomorrow’s paper, I have to learn something!

And as a “general news” reporter, I seldom get an assignment on a subject I know a lot about.

So many times I arrive at an assignment with little (if any) idea of what the subject involves. And I don’t always get the time to prepare some questions in advance.

News is only “news” while it’s “new”, so in this job, it’s often a case of “something’s happening, find out what when you get there.” And not everything that comes up at a public meeting was listed on the original agenda.

There’s no time to get “briefed” before departure.

I have to hope that either I can think up some semi-intelligent questions when I get on the spot, or (the real “pot of gold”) I’m going to be lucky enough to interview someone who likes to talk, and is good at explaining his/her subject.

My very first job out of school was as a clerk for New Zealand’s equivalent of the Social Security Department and a large part of the job was interviewing people applying for benefits. I remember one of my bosses telling me that the best interview is the one where the interviewer keeps his/her mouth shut and his/her ears and eyes open.

Back then I didn’t have a clue what he meant, and figured he’d been out drinking an early lunch.

But on reflection, he definitely did have a point. And a very good one at that!

frank@news-banner.com

Email Frank Shanly

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