Without or with offense, I sketched our world as it goes

Greetings from somewhere near Denver.

It's the second day of the rest of my life.

After 47 years in journalism, starting one night in June 1976 at Bill Hart's desk on the second floor of the Abilene Reporter-News and ending four blocks north on Cypress Street, I've folded my reporter's pad closed, clicked my pen and holstered the very necessary cellphone.

I have retired from your local newspaper.

Having seen other journalists fade away as their careers closed, I long ago vowed to leave as valued.

I believe I accomplished at least that.

It began where it ends

I think Mrs. Hall would be proud. She named me as editor of the pullet-ser prize-winning Bulldog Yelp in 1974, the first junior to lead the school newspaper. Wylie had just started a journalism class.

Weeks after graduating, I got a part-time job as a sports clerk at the ARN. The computer age was upon us and we traded typewriters for keyboards.

I guess I showed a bit of skill taking phone calls and such because I soon was given coverage assignments. I was sent to Little League all-star games and met kids named Michael T. Royals and Robert Wagstaff. They are my friends today.

But my first feature story was about girls softball. A national tournament was being played at Nelson Park, and fans from Indiana taught me how to correctly pronounce Terre Haute.

Highlights included writing Art Lawler's sports column once when he was on vacation, and watching Ove Johansson kick his record 69-yard field goal. I returned to the office from Shotwell Stadium and helped field calls from across the country. The first was from the Boston Globe.

Photos for some of my stories were taken by David Leeson, the late Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer.

I met David Kent, a photographer and rock music fan. We still are close.

After I graduated from Hardin-Simmons - I was going to Angelo State but switched to HSU when offered a four —year job at the ARN — I went on to Stamford, Big Spring and San Angelo.

The West Texas trek

As editor of the weekly in Stamford, this city boy learned about rural American values, friendliness and cotton. I was mentored by our photographer/ad man John Wendeborn, who became a sort of big brother to this only child. He let me operate his combine and tried to fix me up with a Stamford girl. That had worked for him.

I heard lots of crazy Texas phrases in my life, but none close to Bulldogs radioman Bob Pritchard's description of a great game as a "double ring-tailed tooter."

We had a talented, young crew in Big Spring, where we won awards and had fun doing it. Staffers Richard Horn and Mike Downey became lifelong friends.

In Big Spring, I ran my first half-marathons, saw Spud Webb dunk and covered a Little League city championship game sitting next to Billy Sol Estes. He was serving time there at what was called Club Fed.

I also had an hourlong interview with Roger Staubach while flying in Grady Cunningham's Lear jet.

In San Angelo, I met Jimmie Keeling. After he had an issue with a sports writer on our staff, I was moved to the San Angelo Central beat. Coach Keeling began to trust me and, I remember, gave me a pocket knife at the end of the season in appreciation for restoring his faith in us.

Through the years, Coach Keeling has been one of my biggest supporters and I was one of his biggest fans.

A highlight there was getting to know Tranel Hawkins, a gifted Angelo State hurdler. We watched in the newsroom one night in 1984 when he ran in the Olympic finals in Los Angeles. How cool was that? I later interviewed Rose Magers, who played on the bronze medal volleyball team that year. She was from Big Spring.

She let my put her medal around my neck.

But asked for it back.

San Angelo is where I met Mike Lee, as solid a journalist and guy as there is.

Doing my job the cowboy way

I returned to Abilene in 1986 and stayed for 12 years in various roles, though I entered more into the public eye as an entertainment writer.

I loved covering the talented local musicians as well as the big-time starts, mostly in country music. It's when I became personally acquainted with a singer named Michael Murphey. I was a fan since "Wildfire," and I identified with him as his life's journey took a different direction, as did mine. I grew up loving the beach life, having lived in Hawaii and California, but Murphey, Riders in the Sky and others roped me into the cowboy way.

I have a signed photograph of Murph that I took in 1980 in Abilene: "To Greg: Here's to music, Texas and the cowboy life." Amen, brother.

Who knew I'd eventually see him many times in Anson, including his wedding a few years ago.

Speaking of weddings, I proposed to The Blonde in the newspaper in 1992. I read my request to her atop Sandia Peak, overlooking Albuquerque. She saved me from embarrassment by saying yes, but only if I got tickets that July to see Garth Brooks in Abilene. I did, and we'll hit 30 years this October.

She has been my encourager and allowed me the hours to do my job. She is the best proof reader I've ever had.

Our kids cringed even thinking their name would be in the newspaper, but they sort of liked other kids saying their old man with the weird beard was kind of cool.

Two years away, and then back to Texas

In early 1999, we moved to the Pacific Northwest. Honestly, I didn't want to stay forever at the ARN and become part of the furniture. Back then, with a large staff, you could do that.

I was there for a few years, enjoying the outdoor life and making a name for myself where no one knew me. But our aging parents brought us, now with our young son, back to Texas. I worked in Kerrville, Canyon and Amarillo before returning in 2009 to Abilene and, for the third time, to the Reporter-News.

I enjoyed my time in the Panhandle. Those folks and West Texans are pretty much the same — good, giving, hardy people. I met Joe Lombard, the legendary Canyon girls basketball coach. I covered his 1,000th career win, which was played for the state championship. I told him beforehand that if he lost and got stuck at 999, we wouldn't cover him going for his 1,000th in a non-district game next season in Claude. No way.

Joe was as good a man as I've come across, cut from same cloth as my hero, Stanley Whisenhunt.

It's a noble profession, Donald

I leave as the last link to the days before 2000. When a newsroom smelled like ink, cigarette smoke and what was on farm writer J.T. Smith's boots, all in one breath.

I cannot believe I have been back in the Big A for 14 years, the past six years and two months as editor of my hometown newspaper. In looking at the names of those who came before me, such as Frank Grimes, I cannot put myself in their category. Still, our challenges and triumphs have been different. We've all done the best we could in the time in which we were placed.

I have seen some of the best of life, and the worst. Covering a Klan rally in the 1990s with other ARN staffers had a forever impact on me: I would do what I could to promote the value of and respect for all lives. Not to be PC, but from the soul.

The business sure changed over my 47 years. The printed newspaper is not nearly as wide and thick. We can get the news out quickly because of the internet.

But it's still all about people. If I could pick an all-star team, it'd be Richard, David Kent, Mike Lee, Gene Bering, Kathleen Whitmire and Larry Zelisko. Roy Helen, too.

Talent is talent, and we've had some great ones pass through here. Jess Cagle, for one. David Ramsey. Anthony Wilson, according to Anthony Wilson. Leeson for sure.

But the best journalists are able to embrace their communities while still standing apart so as to call the game of life fairly, as would an umpire. Being community-minded was a great takeaway from working for Glenn Dromgoole.

When I have lectured to journalism students, I've always emphasized a four-letter word: Fair.

Rotarians ask: Is it fair to all concerned?

If you are fair, the other elements come together. Fairness leads to being accurate, considerate and willing to hear both sides.

Journalists are not the enemy of the people, as 45 stated. Sadly, that national vibe has filtered to the local level.

We remain, instead, advocates for the people. We have a role in keeping things right and righteous. We are story tellers, documenting life. "Without or with offense to friends or foes, we sketch your world exactly as it goes." Byron's words printed for decades in the Reporter-News remain true.

Just a bald guy with a beard who loved to write

Still, there's a time to make a change. I've been doing this a while, but I think there's still tread on the tires. Journalism is about serving the community, and I hope to still do that.

Maybe I'm a dinosaur in a profession that has not stopped changing since I typed in my first words as a paid writer. Funny, I remember inputting local church league softball scores as a teen scribe and, the next day, seeing I had typed "First Assembly of Golf." I was horrified, then laughed. Those are the guys on the course early Sunday mornings, praising the Lord for not slicing the ball and asking for forgiveness for what was said after a missed putt.

There have been many laughs, and Bruce Springsteen would cringe knowing how many times we old guys talk about the glory days. What The Boss may not know is how hard it is sometimes to keep your professional composure while writing about or seeing something that breaks your heart. Humor, sometimes a bit wicked, takes off the edge.

I poked fun at myself in print, and believed others needed to not take themselves so seriously, too. Even our city. Frontieering! What was that? A three-hour happy hour at Sonic, when it's two hours everywhere else? A Singing Ringing Tree that does neither? An invisible dome that protects us from rain?

I have been challenged to write a book while I still can remember the details. Wasn't that a local band in the '90s?

Maybe I will. Be warned, your name may come up.

You know I enjoy music, in all its forms. I think of one of my favorite rock bands, Pink Floyd, as I reach the end of my career.

"When the band you're in starts playing different tunes, I'll see you on the dark side of the moon."

But if you want to email me instead, try gregjaklewicz85@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Without or with offense, I sketched our world as it goes