The joy of Saturdays

I won't say I love working on Saturdays but it certainly has proven to be a rewarding experience over the years.

When I started in radio in 1994 I was a one-man news staff. My boss (with whom I later became great friends) somberly told me, "If I read it in the Journal Review, I want to hear it on our station first."

Later I went to work for the Journal Review but I learned a lot about being productive and squeezing every second I could during those years in radio news.

One day the boss suggested a news story for the Monday broadcasts.

"I understand Monday is the hardest because we don't do stories over the weekend," he said.

Wrong.

I quickly learned to avoid anxiety on Monday morning by having at least two stories ready to go before I left the office on Saturday noon.

Later, when I came to work for The Brazil Times, I kept that lesson in mind.

When I came to work in Brazil, my day started between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. We had a 10:30 a.m. deadline and at first it took me six hours or so to finish writing and editing stories and create the news pages.

I came to enjoy the Saturday beat because during many months of the year there were all sorts of "feel good" stories to do on Saturdays.

I remember the day Ruthann Jeffries introduced me to L. T. Clark at the annual fishing derby at Craig Park.

Not long ago, I covered a pack of Cub Scouts that was cleaning up a piece of land for a new park next to the Historical Society museum in the historic post office building.

Talk about stirring up memories of old movies! It doesn't get more American than that!

Today I spent part of the day volunteering with other Rotary Club members, putting on a pancake breakfast to benefit the American Softball Kids. I took a photo for the Monday paper and then it was on to the Delta Theta Tau luncheon.

Not only did I get a story and a photo but those ladies loaded me down with samples of all the wonderful food they had prepared.

I just shook my head. "Wonderful people, wonderful people."

Yes, during the week there is too often murder, mayhem and mischief to cover. But on Saturday, good people work hard to benefit others. That's the kind of stories I like to write!