25 years ago today

I went 11 at my first stop, 18 at the second and then back the original place for the past 9 .. so that's 20 at one paper and 18 at another.

 

Five at my place. No way in hell I get to 25.

 

18 months at this place and no way I will reach 25. Hell, I'm hoping it will only be about 2 1/2 years.

 

23 years ago this AM, I hopped into my fully-loaded car at 7:30 a.m. to start the long drive to my new job, which is also my current job, which I started two days later after about covering about 1600 miles of Interstate and four or five mountain passes.

Lord help me, I'll probably make it to 25.

 

For the record, I was still a teenager (barely) when I hired in. I celebrated by taking my 81-year-old mother to lunch at Red Lobster. Can I party or what?

 

sorry, couldn't resist ...

Wow, 25 years. I've been in the biz for 17 and I've never been anywhere longer than the five I've been at my current gig. Before that, it was 18 months. Staying in one place that long, no matter what your field, is certainly worthy of a toast with the libation of your choices.

 

In August of 2009 it will be 25 years there for me. There are only two things I can think of that would stop me from still being there: The paper folding before then (doubt that) or me winning the lottery (doubt that even more).

 

25 years ago: in the sixth grade, getting into trouble for openly admitting i wasn't sure about god (catholic school). 25 years exactly -- this week. i've been at my shop for 12 years, with no shot at 25. no shot at 13. we're going under on dec. 31.

 

When I was hired, I answered prep calls on Friday nights. Took the info and handed it off to be written by somebody else. (God, I wish we had that luxury these days.) I was making minimum wage, worked two hours a week and got paid for four hours. Took home about $11 a week. And loved it. God hired to write parttime about 10 weeks later.

 

That sucks. Do you have anything lined up for the future?

 

I've been practicing the phrases "Would you like fries with that?" and "Welcome to Walmart!"

 

25 years ago I was at my third newspaper.