Getting acquainted
Getting acquainted with a new community is always something of a challenge. For a reporter that means getting to know the name of the individuals who hold all the titles — sheriff, commissioner, judge, librarian, chamber director, county clerk, etc
So, that's what I've been doing during my past two plus weeks in Marion, courtesy of Matt Newhouse. He's been introducing me to many of you, taking me to meetings and showing me where things are. It's something he didn't have to do, but he has and I really appreciate it.
It just goes to show what a really neat guy he is and I can understand why everyone is sorry to see him go. Heck, I just met him and I wish he weren't leaving. We both have a similar warped sense-of-humor, so I think we would have had fun working together.
On the other hand, though, if he weren't leaving, I wouldn't be here. And, actually, I'm pretty happy to be in Marion County.
I've worked in both large and small newspapers, dailies and weeklies, ones where I'd been pretty much by myself and others where I've been with a pool of other reporters. So, I've experienced a little bit of every scenario in the newspaper business. But recently, I came to the conclusion that I truly desired to return to a weekly community newspaper.
And when I discovered that Bill Meyer had an opening at the Marion County Record — well, that's a place I wanted to be. Luckily for me, it turned out the powers that be here wanted me too.
So, here I am.
I realize I have big shoes to fill when it comes to taking over the job Matt has done so well over the past 15 years. But I'm up to the challenge.
Now, just so everyone knows, things might not be done exactly the same way they were done before, but since I'm a different individual I couldn't do things the same even if I wanted to
One of the things I plan for this column is to comment on people, places and things I've observed in the area. And one thing that impressed me this past week was the exemplary behavior of the Marion High School government students when First District Congressman Moran came to visit Oct. 22. They were respectful, listened, asked good questions, and were a great audience. Moran himself commented afterward on their great attitudes and said he's visited some schools where the kids couldn't care less — and they made it obvious.
For my own part, I found Moran's comments interesting and different because it was much more personal. For the most part, Moran's visits around the Big First usually only involve talk about current legislative issues — not that those topics aren't interesting, it's just that sometimes they're rather dry. This visit with the students was more of a heart-to-heart talk about life in Washington.
— KATHY HAGEMAN
