On Second Thought

My heart hurts, but it is a bright sadness.

If you’ve gotten past the front page of today’s Iowa Park Leader, you know we are closing our newspaper after almost 53 years in business. And it hasn’t just been a business, it’s been a family. We are a family-run business, but it has felt like our community as well as the Texas-wide newspaper community is part of our extended family.

As you read, it wasn’t an easy decision and one we didn’t take lightly. It remains my hope that some energetic younger people will pick up the torch with the same passion for truth and community that we’ve had and continue this very important work.

This newspaper hasn’t just been my job for the last 38 years, it’s been a large part of my life since my family started it when I was four years old in 1969.

When I think about the memories I have involving the newspaper over the years, they are vast and have made my life so much richer.

I’ve tried to think of one memory that would encapsulate what this time has meant to me, but there are far too many. I went from slave labor at the age of four helping insert grocery ads into our paper on Wednesday nights, to getting paid for what I do starting about 38 years ago. The in between of that is what is signified in the poem, “The Dash”. The Dash is where the memories happen and I can’t sum it up with just one story.

But I can with two words – Thank you.

Since I was hired, I have written obituaries, features, hard news stories and columns. I’ve been photographer – even at football games before Kevin returned and I have the jacked up neck to prove it. I have also sold and built the advertising for several years. And this community has embraced me in every capacity, and gave me memories so good they make me cry.

So, thank you. I’ve had the time of my life.