'Are you nuts?': Departing reporter says good-bye and thank-you to Crawford County

When the Mansfield News Journal hired me as a copy editor in February 2000, many newsroom staffers didn't consider me a coworker.

In their minds, I was "one of the Bucyrus people."

After all these years, it's going to be difficult to give that up.

Although I technically was a News Journal employee back in 2000, I had been hired to edit stories and design front pages exclusively for its sister paper, the Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum. The T-F page designers had their own little island of desks in a dark corner of the News Journal newsroom, where we sat largely ignored by the rest of the news staff.

In many ways, it was a good gig. Almost all of the other copy editors — including my husband — worked an evening shift, because the News Journal was a morning paper. But the Telegraph-Forum went to press at 10 a.m., so I started work around 6 in the morning. I'd put out that day's paper, work on lifestyles and opinion pages for the next day and be done around 2.

It wasn't ideal, though. My husband's work day started at 4 p.m., so I had to hurry home to Jeromesville if I wanted to see him before he headed over to Mansfield. Many times, we waved to each other as our cars passed on U.S. 30.

It was strange, though: I lived in eastern Ashland County, worked in Richland County and followed the news in Crawford County. I had no idea what was happening in the news in Ashland or Mansfield, but I could tell you all about what was going on at Bucyrus City Hall. I knew who the elected officials were, what new businesses had opened and which kids were on the honor roll.

I never spoke to the people sitting two desks away from me in the News Journal newsroom, but I was constantly on the phone with the T-F staffers. Even though I rarely saw them in person, the Bucyrus folks were my work family. Longtime news clerk Linda Miller and I had been great friends for several years, but when I finally saw her in person, she had no idea who I was. She called me Eunice. The Bucyrus editor, Holly Fackler, talked me into writing a weekly humor column, "Drat It," that became a popular feature in both papers for several years.

Eventually, the T-F became a morning paper and Ray Dyson took over its front page design. I stayed on day shift and started designing lifestyles pages for the News Journal, too. Eventually, that became my focus. Then there was a period of several years where I had a whole bunch of different job titles and duties that somehow ended up with me being the editor of both the News Journal and the Telegraph-Forum. (And, for a while, the Marion Star.)

I hated that job — absolutely hated every single minute of it. I hadn't asked for it, didn't want it and would have walked out if I hadn't needed the life insurance. Then, I saw a beacon of hope: The Telegraph-Forum needed a reporter. I was supposed to hire someone for that job. Instead, I ended up applying for it.

Someone handed me a camera I didn't know how to use and I became the T-F's news staff, assigned to cover all of Crawford County. (Zack Holden handles sports.)

On Feb. 1, 2019, I wandered into the Crawford Success Center to cover the United Way's "Community Discussion: Food Access in Crawford County." In retrospect, covering that session was a pretty big challenge for someone who hadn't covered a single public meeting since the late '80s. A whole lot of different people spoke, and I didn't know anyone's name or title. I learned the true meaning of "fake it till you make it."

I might have given up entirely were it not for the people. I am not kidding you: I like every single person I have gotten to know in Crawford County. A few have been a bit more challenging to get to know than others; one or two have made my life more difficult than I might have wished. But they've all treated me very well, and I have appreciated that more than they will ever know.

Elected officials actually return my phone calls and answer my questions. Even when I reported stories that probably made their lives difficult, they didn't blame the messenger. Strangers smile at me when we pass on the street. People all across the county use crazy words like "Can I help you?" and "Thank you" when they speak to me. Not all reporters hear those kinds of words.

Even in the midst of the whole Bratwurst Festival queen debacle last summer, no one gave me grief for reporting what was happening. People all across the state, nation and even the world were following that story, and so help me I hated every single minute of it. I thought Bucyrus as a whole would never forgive me.

Nah. People on both sides thanked me for trying to be fair. Holy cow! (I have since spoken to people who visited Bucyrus for the first time just because of those stories, which I guess proves the whole "no such thing as bad publicity" thing.)

I am now and shall ever be a huge fan of all things Crawford County. My freezer is stuffed with Carle's bratwurst. Copper has become my home décor metal of choice. I take along Cooper's Mill products as gifts when we visit out-of-town friends. Despite Mary Lee Minor's repeated suggestions that I should just move there, I'm staying in Ashland County because I love the convenience of being so close to Interstate 71. Plus, we have hills here. And if Ashland was good enough for my great-great-grandparents, it's good enough for me.

But my days as the Telegraph-Forum's news reporter are coming to an end. I've accepted a behind-the-scenes job with the T-F's parent company, Gannett Corp., that will have me focusing on newspapers in eastern Ohio.

Why am I leaving? Life. The new job will give me a more regular schedule, which will make keeping up with family responsibilities a whole lot easier. Also, I won't be driving from Ashland to Bucyrus four or five times a week. (The two vehicles I drive the most have a combined 310,000 miles on their odometers.)

I have tried to put my heart into covering Crawford County; that's the only way I know how to do this job. But that's not where my heart wants to be right now. After a lifetime of saying I wanted to be a writer someday, I wrote a 130,000-word novel this winter. It only took me about two months. Now I'm working on another. Someday soon, I need to look for a literary agent and try to get my work published. That takes time and commitment — so it's time for a change.

A recent assignment had me hiking down to the headwaters of the Sandusky River, then wading in water above my knees to try to get photos of participants in a Crawford Park District creek program. It was absolutely glorious, aside from the fact that the footing was extremely treacherous and I was carrying a camera and two cell phones. Oof.

"You're going to give this up to spend eight hours a day chained to a laptop?" I asked myself as a crawdad flashed past my feet. "Are you nuts?"

Well, yes. Yes, I am. I spent years looking for the work that would satisfy my soul and finally found it in the thing I wanted to do in the first place. Go figure.

My husband, Steve Goble, writes novels. His seventh mystery, "Go Find Daddy," will be released Tuesday. That's an impressive accomplishment, but he's definitely keeping the day job. For the vast majority of novelists, writing is a minor side-gig, not a career. That's OK with me: I just want to write, even if it means I won't be rambling around Crawford County anymore.

But I have a hunch that deep down, I will always be "one of the Bucyrus people."

Thanks for everything, Crawford County. Love you forever.

ggoble@gannett.com

419-559-7263

This article originally appeared on Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum: After more than four years as T-F reporter, Gere Goble says good-bye