|
|
|
It’s obvious how much has changed since I first came on board at the Leesville Daily Leader in March 2008.
It took a few months before I found my true home in the office – right outside the publisher's (then Brian Trahan) office. That move made for much better communication (all I had to do was give my rolling chair a shove backward to make eye contact, share a joke or discuss whatever story was brewing). In the end, it solidified our friendship; we both look back fondly to those days.
Change is nothing new for the parish or for the Leader. In fact, it’s my guess that the Leader was birthed from the death of the parish’s two former newspapers. When each editor and a publisher is mortally wounded in a gunfight, it's not a big leap.
Erbon Wise, former owner of the Leader, citing the Alexandria paper in his book, Tall Pines II, reports that Luke McAlpin, editor of The People's Friend, opened fire on Poole, editor of The Vernon News, shooting him in the side, on Sept. 27, 1889.
Poole, whose first name is not given in the report, "shot McAlpin four or five times [as he crawled all the way across the street toward McAlpin] in the head and face killing him instantly. Poole lived nine hours," according to the report.
About a month later another fatal shooting was reported: "Reese W. Smart shot and mortally wounded John T. Windham, publisher of The Vernon News …The two had exchanged words as they emerged from church services.”
Change, and other stuff, happens, I’ve learned, especially over the last year. Wise’s story, however, certainly gives us some perspective for 2011.
While no one here at the Leader has died or been the cause of a violent death (thank the Lord above and still praying) during 2011 or even my tenure as the news editor, we've certainly seen the end of some things.
Publishing five days a week and having the luxury of a full-time sports editor are just a couple things that have fallen by the wayside this year of tough economic times.
Since I’ve been here, we’ve gone through three reporters and are working on our fourth. In fact, the entire staff, now half its size from what it was even in the summer, has turned over. Except for me.
Until now. Dec. 23, 2011 will mark my last day as news editor of the Leesville Daily Leader.
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry over that last bit. I could cry because I’ve truly poured myself into this paper, trying to make it better than how I found it. I’m also going to miss the people I’ve come to care for at the paper: no more chatting with Brian over Messenger; no more planning news coverage with Alix (a trooper of a reporter from whom I expect big things); no more joking and laughing with Traci and Jamie; and I was just getting to know Gary’s sly humor. Though the staff has dwindled in the last year, we’ve gotten much closer to one another, with plenty of good times and fond memories to look back on. I’m definitely going to miss that.
Then there’s the community. On the one hand, who wants to walk away from covering a community that can pull together the biggest and best Christmas parade ever: one that honored thousands of Fort Polk soldiers recently home from war? On the other hand, I can’t think of a better time to leave than on the heels of such an event. What a memory!
All in all, though, this is going to be a positive change for my family and me, since I’ll be able to spend a lot more time with them.
In my new role as a contract writer for the Vernon Parish Tourism Commission, I’ll also be afforded a lot of time to really explore a side of the parish I could rarely fit into my schedule before. Now, I’ll have opportunity to travel the parish and really dig into its assets, like the lakes, the Wildlife Management Areas and the vast opportunity for recreation.
So, it’s not really a goodbye. Just another change coming down the pike. Though I won’t be in my little cubicle at the Leader working up stories anymore, nor haunting the sidelines at parish events, I’ll be seeing you around. You can count on that.
It’s obvious how much has changed since I first came on board at the Leesville Daily Leader in March 2008.
It took a few months before I found my true home in the office – right outside the publisher's (then Brian Trahan) office. That move made for much better communication (all I had to do was give my rolling chair a shove backward to make eye contact, share a joke or discuss whatever story was brewing). In the end, it solidified our friendship; we both look back fondly to those days.
Change is nothing new for the parish or for the Leader. In fact, it’s my guess that the Leader was birthed from the death of the parish’s two former newspapers. When each editor and a publisher is mortally wounded in a gunfight, it's not a big leap.
Erbon Wise, former owner of the Leader, citing the Alexandria paper in his book, Tall Pines II, reports that Luke McAlpin, editor of The People's Friend, opened fire on Poole, editor of The Vernon News, shooting him in the side, on Sept. 27, 1889.
Poole, whose first name is not given in the report, "shot McAlpin four or five times [as he crawled all the way across the street toward McAlpin] in the head and face killing him instantly. Poole lived nine hours," according to the report.
About a month later another fatal shooting was reported: "Reese W. Smart shot and mortally wounded John T. Windham, publisher of The Vernon News …The two had exchanged words as they emerged from church services.”
Change, and other stuff, happens, I’ve learned, especially over the last year. Wise’s story, however, certainly gives us some perspective for 2011.
While no one here at the Leader has died or been the cause of a violent death (thank the Lord above and still praying) during 2011 or even my tenure as the news editor, we've certainly seen the end of some things.
Publishing five days a week and having the luxury of a full-time sports editor are just a couple things that have fallen by the wayside this year of tough economic times.
Since I’ve been here, we’ve gone through three reporters and are working on our fourth. In fact, the entire staff, now half its size from what it was even in the summer, has turned over. Except for me.
Until now. Dec. 23, 2011 will mark my last day as news editor of the Leesville Daily Leader.
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry over that last bit. I could cry because I’ve truly poured myself into this paper, trying to make it better than how I found it. I’m also going to miss the people I’ve come to care for at the paper: no more chatting with Brian over Messenger; no more planning news coverage with Alix (a trooper of a reporter from whom I expect big things); no more joking and laughing with Traci and Jamie; and I was just getting to know Gary’s sly humor. Though the staff has dwindled in the last year, we’ve gotten much closer to one another, with plenty of good times and fond memories to look back on. I’m definitely going to miss that.
Then there’s the community. On the one hand, who wants to walk away from covering a community that can pull together the biggest and best Christmas parade ever: one that honored thousands of Fort Polk soldiers recently home from war? On the other hand, I can’t think of a better time to leave than on the heels of such an event. What a memory!
All in all, though, this is going to be a positive change for my family and me, since I’ll be able to spend a lot more time with them.
In my new role as a contract writer for the Vernon Parish Tourism Commission, I’ll also be afforded a lot of time to really explore a side of the parish I could rarely fit into my schedule before. Now, I’ll have opportunity to travel the parish and really dig into its assets, like the lakes, the Wildlife Management Areas and the vast opportunity for recreation.
So, it’s not really a goodbye. Just another change coming down the pike. Though I won’t be in my little cubicle at the Leader working up stories anymore, nor haunting the sidelines at parish events, I’ll be seeing you around. You can count on that.
