Reflections on 17 years
By Allan Olson
For the last 17 years I can honestly say that I have lived my dream job. Was it perfect and glamorous? No, but it was my dream job. I remember as a young kid back home, how I admired the editor of the local newspaper. His job was super cool… he was everywhere with his camera, covering what seemed like virtually every single event that happened in town, including little league games. One day I told him I wanted to do what he did. His response was, “Why? It doesn’t pay very well.” He was right about that, yet he continued to do it, well past my youth. As a kid I was always taking photos. My goal was to someday work at a small town newspaper as a photographer. I didn’t think I would write because frankly, my grammar, etc., wasn’t high scoring, and I just liked taking photos. I ended up as “editor” at the college newspaper in Thief River because I kept showing up and doing the work. Fast forward a few years… with a college degree under my belt, I found myself at Bemidji State University. A few years later, I was fresh out of college, married, already with one kid and two more on the way in just a few months. I started working at the Cass Lake Times one week before my twins arrived on the scene.
Since then I have covered about everything a small town reporter could think of on a news beat, including standard crime stories, community events, meetings, historic events (i.e., the cutting of the nation’s Christmas Tree), and covering multiple state tournaments (reporters in many small towns never get this opportunity).
In addition, I got to experience a lot of things that I never would have imagined. After moving to our current home, my wife and I decided to enroll our kids in the Cass Lake Bena school district, which ultimately led to additional perks. I was able to attend many school events with/for the kids and so was able to share those experiences in my coverage. Examples include two different third grade field trips to the Cities, two different trips to the Character Challenge Course, and many, many elementary and high school programs. So really when I say I covered everything a small town reporter could cover, it’s true… and likely many more that others don’t cover.
Some of my favorite stories were those about travelers on the Mississippi River, about people passing through the area on other treks, about local residents sharing their adventures, and of course the state basketball tournaments! Over a span of 17 years I can’t possibly remember all the many fun (and some not so wonderful) community occasions, but I did my best to cover them all, and for over 11 of the last 17 years, I was doing it all solo.
In hindsight, would I have bailed and moved somewhere else or chosen a different career path? No. Now my job is ending, but guess what? I have over 17 years of memories in this community, and more importantly, 17 years of friendships. I have made so many friends in this community… some have moved on and some have moved away, but many remain, and I call them all my friend today. In 17 years of covering community events, I can honestly say I have been blessed to have been able to do this job for this long, for the friendships and the memories I’ve made.
I am sad for the loss of the document of record for the community, and the fact that two communities will lose coverage of future events, because the local paper's coverage is certainly not the same as a regional paper that will send someone to cover an occasional highlight and then be gone until the next time a “newsworthy” event occurs in town.
While this might be a farewell column of sorts, it is certainly not my farewell to the community. From the bottom of my heart, thank you to all of our readers for allowing me into your home each and every week through the pages of this newspaper, thank you to our advertisers that supported us as long as you did, and most importantly, thank you to everyone for 17 years of friendship.
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