Four decades of southwest Iowa memories

With so many of my friends in radio and newspaper work being laid off or the victims of downsizing in recent months, I feel extremely fortunate that as of next week I will be starting my 41st year of daily newspaper work in Iowa.

It doesn’t seem possible that many years have passed since I got hired to help editor Phil Chinitz at the Atlantic News Telegraph in January 1980. My first assignment was covering the Corning wrestling tournament in the old armory, later to become named after good friend John J Harris, the great Red Raider coach in Corning for so many years.

I was hired a few weeks after mid-year graduation at the University of Iowa. I planned on staying a year or two, and then leaving southwest Iowa, which I knew nothing about before landing in Atlantic. I just knew Ed Podolak played there. While there, I covered a game in the old Creston High School “Panther Pit.” Little did I know that I’d meet the Creston editor (Pat Watkins) in 1984 and he’d persuade me to come and work in Creston.

I had a brief hiatus in Mason City, before moving back 30 years ago in the summer of 1990. We liked the work schedule here better at a five-day newspaper instead of a seven-day product, as we were raising a young family.

Actually, the 40-year run was preceded by part-time work for other newspapers as a student — the Fort Dodge Messenger and Waterloo Courier. The late Bob Brown and his son Rick Brown were the biggest influences I had in choosing this career. Bob was the sports editor of my youth in Fort Dodge, and my Little League baseball coach. Rick was my idol, preceding me in University of Iowa journalism work before a distinguished Des Moines Register career.

Despite having her own important job in this community, Deb carried the parenting load a lot as I worked at all of those out of town events, and on many Saturdays. No different than my local radio colleague, Gary Bucklin, and his wonderful wife, Joanne. Bucky and I wore out a lot of tires traversing through fog and ice and dodging the deer in southwest Iowa.

It’s been quite a ride. I’m still working part-time, but the young guys are doing the nightly grind now. I hope Tyler Hetu and Brennen Normand are as satisfied 40 years from now as I feel about my experience in this business. I never dreaded going to work. I admit, the games were more fun than the board meetings, but I tried my best at all of it.

I don’t know if I can credit everyone I worked with, but the sports partners I worked alongside every night were tremendous co-workers to share this journey with — (If I miss anyone after 35 years here I’m sorry!) — the retired Max Sandeman and part-timers Doug Hartman and Kent Adamson as part-timers in the early years when CNA sports was a one-man crew for full-time duty, Joe Loudon, Derek Davenport, Lance Bergeson, Chris Short, Matt Coss, Terry Phelps, Adam Wilson, Ben Frotscher, Scott Levine, Mike Falco, Kyle Wilson, Jacob Waddingham, Matt Pfiffner, Scott Vicker, Ryan Kronberg, Kaleb Carter, Carter Eckl, Tyler Hetu and Brennen Normand.

The editors were Pat Watkins, Steve Exley, Jeff Young, John Van Nostrand, Lowell Vickers, Stephani Finley, Kyle Wilson, Scott Vicker and Sarah Scull.

I’ve only worked for three CNA publishers in 35 years — Lores “Stew” Stewart, Arvid Huisman and Rich Paulsen. Rich reached 40 years of service just a few months ahead of me. Stew sold us the house we still live in.

Ad directors Roger Lanning and Craig Mittag have been terrific collaborators in producing our special sports sections. Of course, Dorine Peterson saved my butt many times when things went awry in our network or with my computer. All hours of the day and night. She’s retiring this month and that creates a huge void in our operation.

Also, to the MANY others, including Rita Miller, part of our all-star news team in the 1990s that included Jeff, Stephani and Matt Coss, and the news clerks beginning with the steady and dependable Mary Brunner, who worked in those early days with Sandy Webb, thanks for all of your help. A bright young reporter, Alan Pierce, was in that first CNA newsroom along with wonderful columnist Lynn Schlaht and sports editor Ross Fuglslang.

Back when we actually had to paste up the pages, Ellen Lang saved me many mornings, making slight adjustments in layout to make it work as deadline approached. (Sometimes in those early 1980s years I was still in the darkroom making prints from the film I developed, if I didn’t ruin the film washing in the solution!) Later, we were fortunate to have Jeff Young and full-time photographers handling most of those duties.

It was just about going out and doing the work, every day. You leave no stone unturned in chasing a story. Don’t leave anything to chance. Just like I tell my basketball players, if you’ve given it your all, then you can feel good about the effort. You never forget the mistakes that gnaw at you, but they make you better down the road.

Before Phil Chinitz passed away, I drove to Atlantic and told him he was a tough, relentless stickler for AP style and grammar, but it was a tremendous boot camp training period for a young journalist. Later, I soaked in as much as I could from three-decade sports editor Max Sandeman here in Creston, as he helped me during his semi-retirement. When we lost him to brain cancer, I felt I was suddenly without my rock and fountain of knowledge of Creston sports history.

I can only hope readers have enjoyed these 40 years half as as much as I have. I don’t know if I’ll make it to 50, but I’ll give it a go for a little while yet!

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Contact the writer:

Twitter: @larrypeterson

Email: lpeterson@crestonnews.com