April 21 will be an anniversary of sorts.
On that day 25 years ago, I began what would become a long-term relationship with the Star Herald.
When Roger Tollefson offered me the job, I was already in a relationship with the Worthington Daily Globe.
Breaking up is hard to do.
But I did, sensing a daytime relationship would be healthier than my nighttime copy editing at the Globe.
And, of course, it didn’t hurt that Luverne was closer to my parents in Kenneth.
And so began the new relationship.
Other than a front-page story announcing a new editor, it started out as most relationships do, casually.
After all, I was young. Things could change. Life could change. And my journalism degree had groomed me for daily newspapers, after all.
I might be too good for a small weekly.
The feelings were apparently mutual.
On her first day, the newbie was trusted with stories about a Rotary Club speaker and a new surgeon coming to town.
Not exactly memorable assignments, but fair, given the circumstances.
A week later we were still together — the paper didn’t fire me and I didn’t quit.
And so the relationship blossomed.
Soon I was writing columns and attending County Board meetings.
The first meeting generated stories about the auditor treasurer positions combining, solutions for an aging jail building and about local childhood immunizations falling behind.
Meaty stuff.
The stuff you’d find in a daily newspaper.
But my college friends who were married to daily newspapers questioned my judgment.
“Aren’t you bored?” asked one who covered cops and courts in St. Paul.
“Does anything even happen in those sleepy little towns?”
Actually, I told them, my new relationship was quite satisfying. What I was doing here mattered. And my readers offered feedback.
Sometimes immediate.
Sometimes in the grocery store or at church.
Sometimes it wasn’t pleasant (if a name was misspelled or if someone’s child was in the court news), but often it was positive, especially with happy feature stories.
It all added up to healthy communication.
Which leads to a healthy relationship. Which has a way of leading to a long-term, committed relationship.
We stayed together, the newspaper and I, for better or worse, in sickness and health.
A 100-year flood ravaged Rock County only a month into my new job.
And there were many, many “for worse” stories — a drowning, a public suicide, felony drug sales and other tragedies — in that first year.
These were trying times (not unlike those found in a daily newspaper).
But there were many more “for better” stories — endearing stories about cancer survival and personal achievements and business successes and community growth.
Week after week, through joys and sorrows, I grew ever more fond of my Star Herald and its readers and their communities.
For 25 years.
Half a lifetime. Mine, at least. I’ll be 50 this year.
Happy anniversary, dear readers.
I wish us many more.