Newspaper man

My father was a newspaper man. He wrote for various papers all over California, ending up in Santa Barbara County writing a chess column for the Lompoc Press. In between these jobs he worked on the Great American Novel.

I wanted to be just like him so when I started college I majored in journalism. It turns out though I was allergic to news print and besides that, when I found out we, as young journalists had to focus on the what, why, when and where I believed in my young hippie mind, that these rules cramped my style.

So instead of writing for a newspaper I went to work for one county and another, "saving" my creativity for the Great American Novel.

Hmm, I think my father should have given me a stern talking to.