Fielder’s Choice
Last week was one of those weeks that made me once again realize the importance of community newspapers.
That’s as I enter my 38th year in the business.
We had a call from someone asking us to look back for an article from 1960.
That’s getting about as close as possible — from many, many years gone by — to what we have available to look through here at the newspaper office as far as bound copies. The pages from books older than the 1960s are crumbling.
We looked and looked and unfortunately couldn’t find what she had requested.
Ironically, we received another call that afternoon from someone else wanting a copy of a different article from 1960.
We dug out the book again, which we put back on the bottom of the big pile, and turned right to that particular article and photo on the front page.
I snapped a photo of the article and even delivered it just across the downtown square.
Those calls come often. And it certainly makes us much happier when we hit the jackpot, as far as finding what the caller requests.
Just an FYI — it’s much easier for us if you can get as close to the actual date as possible, rather than just the year.
For instance, someone might call and say, “I believe it was 1974.” And as it turns out, it was 1978.
Also last week, a lady came into the office who had placed a classified advertisement for land she had for sale. She said she had gotten lots and lots of calls. She had not sold it yet, but she was certainly happy with the ad.
Jokingly, I said, “If you’ve gotten that good of response, we should have charged you double.” “Probably so,” she replied with a laugh.
We also got a couple of telephone calls last week from people living out of town who wanted copies of obituaries that had been printed recently in The South Reporter.
We have the E-edition of the newspaper online. They could have accessed the obituary from their cell phone or computer, but they didn’t want the digital copy, they wanted the print edition.
I also received “thank yous” from a very special family concerning several articles in a recent edition of The South Reporter. Those kind comments certainly made my heart happy.
I delivered newspapers to one of our county schools, through the Newspaper In Education program funded by Rockwool, and I could hear voices in the background — “save me one; save me one.”
We encourage the teachers to share them with the students and use them as teaching tools — particularly when it comes to current events at the local level.
I went to take a photo at a school of a student receiving an award. It made his day and made me smile, too.
Another FYI — old bound copies of The South Reporter are also available at the chancery clerk’s office in the courthouse. Plus, you can visit the Marshall County Library for assistance or even check with the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.
The community newspaper is certainly the community history book The South Reporter, since 1865.