OK, that's fine with me

Making the move from the Kilgore News-Herald to the Longview News-Journal was a real no-brainer to me. I mentioned at the end of my last blog I had an idea for another blog. Kilgore was only 12 miles from Longview and the Longview paper covered Kilgore extensively, so I was still able to live in Kilgore for a while, and I had developed a good deal of “sources” in my short time at the newspaper in Kilgore. So, I figured it would be a good move in my career to make the switch, although I had only been there for a few months. The circulation was much larger in Longview and I would be able to get away from the general manger I didn’t really care for, Mr. Jones. I had already gotten an interview in Longview and had been offered the job. I had covered a basketball game on Tuesday night and, because I liked to write my stories as quickly after the games were over -- mainly so I wouldn’t forget a key play or something that had happened – I was in the Kilgore office afterwards, even though the paper wouldn’t be published until the next afternoon.

Well, the telephone rang and, naturally, I answered. Nobody else was around and the lady on the other end had called to complain about a news story, I believe. She wasn’t about to listen to my explanation, either. She was extremely upset and wanted something done immediately, if not sooner, she said. I tried to explain I was in that night just to work on a story of a sporting event I had covered, but that wasn’t what she wanted to hear. Apparently she just wanted to complain to someone and didn’t really care that I wasn’t interested. After several minutes of explaining myself, she huffed and said, “I’m guess I’m going to have to start taking the Longview paper …”, like she expected her remark to shake me up.” I calmly said, “Okay, that’s fine with me, I’ll be working at that paper beginning next week.” She had nothing else to say and quickly hung up.