Three former Reflector-Chronicle staff members, well, one returnee, had lunch the other day at Amanda’s, across the street from the RC office.
Cecilia (Kasl) Harris, Mary Beth Hahn and I spent over two hours discussing the good old days. (I was off the clock, just FYI.)
Henry Jameson was only the second editor and publisher ever of the Reflector- Chronicle. Vivien Sadowksi was the business manager. Bob Patterson was the managing editor. I was the sports editor; Cecilia was what we called the society editor and Mary Beth did news.
The three of us worked together at the RC in the early 1980s and ironically, all three of us left about the same time.
I went to work for the National Greyhound Association, but you all know that.
Cecilia went to work for the Salina Journal. Mary Beth went back to college.
My, have times changed!
Friday nights were always exciting at the RC.
That was sports night. The sports editor covered football or basketball events while the rest of the staff handled phone calls from area coaches. Now Cecilia, after raising three boys, knows more about sports today, but back then . . .not so much. She recalled being more of a counselor to one coach whose team had a difficult time getting in the win column.
“We lost again,” he would say.
“I bet the boys played hard,” she would console.
Of course, the phone booth at Marysville was brought up. Prior to anything technical, the sports writers called in stories using pay phones.
At that time the entire town, famous for its black squirrels, had only one pay phone: outside with no light. Try writing a story and calling it in when the temp is below zero with no light.
Rick Dean, writer for the Topeka Capital-Journal at that time, and I have had a couple conversations about that phone booth in Marysville.
Some days those Friday night work nights lasted well past 1 a.m. as we had a newspaper to get out and printed for a Saturday morning delivery. Sometimes the presses would be running at 2 a.m.
Mary Beth was the beat reporter. She had a daily route: sheriff's office, county court, police department, city court. Whatever happened the day before was reported in the next day’s newspaper. Our deadline was well after noon most days.
My have times changed in the newspaper business! But change is inevitable.
