Fair – #freewrite 45, Day 1221

Once upon a time, back in the first years of the Obama administration, I worked as a proofreader for a small-town newspaper.

County fair week was hell week. The eight- to 10-page paper expanded to a 14- to 18-page behemoth.

Most of those extra pages were filled with photos, which you'd think would be a relief for a proofreader. But you have to consider that every one of those photos came with a caption filled with names.

And you'd better make sure Timmy's name was spelled right in his award presentation photo. It might be the only time his parents read the paper that year, and we didn't want to give ourselves a bad name.

It was a nightmare and at the same time I loved it. I mean, it was my job to catch the slipups. If we called the kid Timmy on Page 10, when he got the blue ribbon for best goat (or whatever that award is), we'd better not call him Tim on Page 14 when he was runner-up in the pie-eating contest.

I always felt pretty smart when I made catches like that and corrected them.

I worked for that paper as a proofreader for two years, then got fed up with it and resigned … so that I could deliver that same paper as a paperboy for the next two years!

I preferred delivery. I still got to read the paper every morning before the route, and then I could just laugh about all the misspellings.

This mock-up of a newspaper's front page was created in Canva Pro, using their stock images.

---

I couldn't figure out how to link my recent posts in the image, though Canva promises that capability, so I'll include them here.

Rambling around the Grays Harbor Public Viewpoint Tower – A 16-pic photowalk

Rays of Sun – A 5-minute freewrite poem

---

One of the views available at the Grays Harbor Public Viewpoint Tower in Hoquiam, Wash. This is taken from the dock of the boat launch there. Check out my 16-pic photowalk, link above, for more.