Bringing the News - A Dream Job

 From 1984-1989, I worked a dream job. True, Iʼve had many dreams and Iʼve pursued most of them. For instance, singing on a cruise ship was a dream job and I did that. A goal was a national tour and Iʼve had seven. However, the job to which Iʼm referring in this blog was my years spent as a writer for a weekly newspaper in Sealy, Texas.
 

The Sealy News was over 100 years old at the time. I had come to visit my folks who had recently moved to Sealy, Texas. I was living in New York City at the time, making my way as a singer/actor; but, had hit a lull. I was approaching 30 years old. As a character actor, in many of my auditions, I was being told I would be perfect for certain roles in ten years. I kept thinking. What do I do for those 10 years? I also remember thinking ... If I stay in New York City, I will be dead within five years. The AIDS epidemic was rearing its ugly head and I was losing friends. 

So, when my folks offered to fly me home for my birthday in 1984, I was thrilled to get away. Mom casually mentioned that the editor of the local paper wanted an interview. I welcomed the interview as an opportunity to discover how I could enter the newspaper industry. (I started out as a journalism major in college.) The interview went extremely well and I parlayed it into a job on the spot. I literally walked out of the interview with a job offer. I didnʼt return to New York City for several months, having been hired as a reporter for the newspaper. My final audition in the City in 1984 resulted in Summer Stock on Cape Cod (another story). 

I didnʼt start out writing feature stories or columns right away. Nope! The newspaperʼs editor of fifty years, Wilma Petrusek, put me to work first writing obituaries, taking classified ads over the phone and selling office supplies. Gradually, she gave me wings. I showed an affinity for covering local politics, writing feature stories and designing advertising. 

In hindsight, my years with the paper were the paperʼs heyday. The newspaper then was often two full sections about 38 pages, a lot for a town of 5000 people. Technology hadnʼt taken over. Advertising was strong. Wal-Mart hadnʼt yet destroyed the mom and pop stores. 

With a local paper, subscribers hold on to the paper for the entire week. Everyone I worked with at The Sealy News had been at the paper for 20 years or more. It was wonderful to work in an environment where everyone knew their place, felt valued and was good at their job. 

I learned so much about ethics at the paper. I learned how all politics is local. I cared passionately about getting the facts correct, still do. I came to appreciate the rhythms, the rules, the routine of living and working in small town America. I wrote persuasively, elegantly and received a lot of positive feedback for my writing. During this time, I interviewed Governor Ann Richards, playwright Edward Albee and the head of the Texas Klu Klux Klan. Heady times. 

Eventually, because pay was so low, I started to branch out and perform again. For awhile, I did both. I wrote and I sang. Despite working 18-hour days, seven days a week, between the two careers. I never felt more alive and creative. 

Wilma was extremely flexible with me. She never denied any opportunity to pursue theatre; she covered my job when I was in Norway for six weeks as a member of a Rotary International Group Study Exchange team. When I was hired for a production of “Showboat” for Houston Grand Opera that went to Cairo, Egypt, she turned it into an assignment. I worked a lot for Theatre Under the Stars in Houston then, usually three or four shows a year. She was an extraordinary mentor. Many of my best articles were an outgrowth of these opportunities. The entire town was proud of me. 

I eventually left The Sealy News when Wilma got ill and the publisher declined to get her more help. I was acting as editor during that time period. To its detriment, the newspaper was put up for sale. I made an offer to purchase the paper; but, the offer wasnʼt taken as seriously as it should have been. 1989 was a turning point in my life. 

I was offered quite a bit of theater work and never looked back. Between 1989 and 2006, my life was theater. In 2003, I began an online journal. Blogging is my writing outlet to this day. 

Iʼm over two decades past that 40-year old character actor, though my 40ʼs were my most productive decade in the theatre. I was quite active onstage through my 50th birthday. I went through several health crises in 2011 and 2012 and ceased to actively pursue theater work; to this day, I’ve been searching for a job that makes me as happy as being a newspaper writer made me. The newspaper industry as it was in the 1980’s no longer exists. Is another dream job in the cards?