My daily life is pretty much all electronically and has been that way for more than a decade. Yet, there were a few things that lingered. Those things that did were pretty much because I was a bit ahead of those in services that I used, and they did not, and had not, updated to the electronic age.
At 14, I had my first checking account. It was because I had a rather large paper route that covered a full city of 1500. My thinking was that if you were going to get a part-time job, you might as well go for the one that paid the most money. Never thinking that it would follow me into adulthood and into the age of "golden years" as some would still think of "old" people not being active. It came to mind this week as I watched the funeral coach carrying the remains to the late Congressman, John Lewis travel through the streets of Washington from the Joint Base Andrews. I watched the tour make several key stops, like the Supreme Court, Martin Luther King's monument, The Black Lives Matter memorial and finally to the East side of the U.S. Capital.
Watching the photographers running to get that perfect shot; stand on a ladder leaning against a building so wires did not get into the shot. And also give a better angle for the image. It's only been two years since I stopped doing Live News Feeds. Doing those feeds had nothing to do with my health, rather they just became something that took up more time out of the day. Editor's photo calls had you basically stop doing what you were doing and go get that shot at the House of Blues Bartender's Competition or such things. In short, my first awareness of AP or UPI news hounds first hand, came my freshman year in college when the oldest university west of the Appalachian Mountains was the party school that made all the Look Magazines, and others of the time, cover pages regularly. My one room mate's father was the publisher of a towns newspaper.There was a sit-in at the town's square at college and all those M2 flashbulbs going off shook my roommate to the core. He just knew that when those photos hit the wire, his father would see him in the middle of the sit-in. He was right. His father was rather angry with him.
Years later, I sat in his father's office as I passed through the town and talked to his dad for a while. I ask him if he remembered that picture and his quick answer was," you bet I do." Later, I meet several other AP reporters and photographers that remained dear to me until they passed. The other ones, which taught me so much, was one of the several writers of the Nancy Drew Mysteries. Milly and I talked almost daily for a number of years. She was the city desk editor of a major newspaper in the Great Lakes area. There were a lot of staff reporters and those with specialty columns as their by-lines. They have all since retired and I only see one in the headlines from time- to- time. The point is, I do miss the Live News Feeds that were shot over the years, but I don't miss that deadline stuff.
Today I ended writing checks. The first time in 60 years. Each month writing one check and then paying all my other bills electronically, did kind of irk me. But, it did bring a part of my old normal into play and how it had been over those years. It made me think of 'ole Dodrill, the AP reporter and photographer friend. Not, having to re-order checks again is an old normal routine that is gone. Even my prescriptions come by DHL now, rather than me going over to Walgreen's to pick them up. My groceries now come to my door. The old normal is still a part of my new normal, just in a different way. Now, when I think of, or see photographers chasing political, Hollywood, sports figures, I will think, "I did that once."
Even this shot is a thing of the past. It was traveling to Houston where the hashtag has
a place on a downtown building on the Gulf. It was pure luck to have been at the same place the driver stopped to eat lunch. That's why I wanted the Maggie 1 in the shot. That's proof it was in Dallas.
I've always embraced change, never being afraid of it. Change makes progress overall and that's my way of thinking on being progressive. I'd rather be here than to fear change.
Change does seem to come more frequently today. It also seems that there isn't the attention paid to detail today than in the old normal. Which, in this case, beings itself into my new normal. Tell me it isn't so!
