Jane Canady Edgington interview about journalism career, Windsor Heights, Iowa, May 15, 1999

Section 1: Q: Jane, can you give me your name, address, the dates, your position with the Register when you retired and... A: The whole long name? Q: Yes. We will set it off like that. A: My full name is Jane Margaret Truesdale Palmer Canady Edgington, which sounds terribly long. I have always gone by Jane Palmer. Then I married Mr. Earl Canady and I became Jane Canady. Then Mr. Canady died and I married Mr. Edgington. Then I became Jane Canady Edgington. Q: The date today is Saturday, May 15, 1999. Your address? A: I live at 6916 Sunset Terrace. Q: That is where we are talking to you. A: That is in Windsor Heights, a suburb of Des Moines, Iowa. Q: This may sound like an odd question for you, but I would like you to elaborate, from the time that we started back in 1958 at the Register, give us a feel for what that newsroom looked like. Describe it, beginning where you worked and where things were. Linotype machines were still there. That type of thing. Q: They were downstairs. The newsroom was on the fourth floor. I suppose it still is. Has always been. I knew a few people there. I knew John Zug and I had talked to him. He told me to come down. He was sure there was an opening in the women's department. Q: The women's department in the newsroom? A: Yes. The newsroom was all open. The [barriers] didn't come up very high - the barriers that kept the different departments apart. I think mostly those were just drawers [metal filing cabinets]. I think that is what the divisions were for the most part. In the center, there was a place where the Tribune boys sat. Because it has been so long since I was there, I have forgotten what you call that where the main editors sat. Q: Was it the rim? A: I suppose it was the rim. They sat around the rim. The Tribune was on one side. The Register seemed to be on the other. You sent your stories down [to the composing room] in a pneumatic tube. Q: Who did you send it to? A: Down to the linotype to be set into galley sheets, which were then sent back up to us by the pneumatic tube. Interestingly enough, my great-great grandfather invented the pneumatic tube. But he found out that somebody else had invented the pneumatic tube. That is just an aside. I went up there to see Russ Schoch, the head of the women's department. They told me to talk to Russ and he would probably hire me. Well, he said, "When can you start?" He seemed to be sort of busy. I had my car parked. I ended up by getting a ticket for overparking because it took me so long. But it was worth it. I guess I paid a dollar fine or something. And I did get the job. He asked me when I could start and I said that I could start on Monday, I guessed. This was Friday, I think. He put me to work. The newsroom was very interesting because people were very friendly. You really got acquainted with a lot of people that way. People were busy. They did what they had to do. Our department was right next to the sports department and the sports department people were very busy. The Tribune people were there in the morning and then they left. About the time we were going home, the Register people came in because they were going to put out the morning paper. We had a nice crew working. Q: Did you socialize outside with some of those people? A: After a while. After I got to know them. They were always very nice people. Jean Tallman was the [Tribune] food editor. She had a party and invited my husband and me toward the first part of my working down there. I realized that you had to be accurate. The first time I had a mistake that really shattered me was when I went in one Monday morning and I was writing weddings. I discovered that there was a call and that somehow I had married the bride to her father-in-law instead of to her husband. I don't know what I did. But I did it that way. I said at one time, I told Russ I was a very responsible person and he could depend on me, and I found out that that's right. After about a week or two, any mistakes that were made, I was responsible for them. That helped me get to the point where I was so accurate, I really became, Mrs. Accuracy because people came to me all the time to have me read their galley sheets and see how things were going. I didn't let a name, if the name were Brown, I would look it up and see if it had an "e" on the end. Even Smith, I would look up the spelling of Smith. I see in the paper these days there are lots of corrections on [the spelling of] names and I think that is because people don't look them up. Q: Different standards, I guess. A: I think so. If someone says, "My name is Carl," you write down "Carl," and don't ask him, you could find out the next day that it is supposed to be a "k" or something of the kind. Q: You didn't make any assumptions? A: I got so I didn't. I did at first. I think the one that almost finished me off, as far as I was concerned, although it didn't reverberate too much, was when I had the Cowles' wedding. It was the John Cowles' wedding. He was part of the Cowles family and lived in the Minneapolis area. The wedding had something to do with Hopkins but they also had some Florida in there. At that point, I didn't know there was a Hopkins, Minnesota. So, I called it Hopkins, Florida. And I heard about that the next day. But the Cowles were very nice and let me go by. -- <br><br> Section 2: Q: Let me pursue another subject here. In 1958, it was before the women's movement. What was it like for a woman working at the Register in 1958 and through the 60s? Did you feel you were treated fairly? Pay? Assignments you got? Did you think there was a glass ceiling? A: I think we were underpaid and I think I ended up... I am sure I didn't get the pay that... I started at $60 a week. Mr. [Frank] Eyerly, who had hired me, said that if I worked there about three months, they would see how they liked me and how I liked them. Then there would be a lot more. I worked there for about six months or more and I didn't see any signs of anything getting going. Nobody said anything to me. Maybe I should have mentioned it myself, but I didn't. Finally, I just went out to Drake University to see if they had a job out there. I was hired. If I wanted the job, I could put out the alumni paper. They were anxious to have somebody for that. I told them I would let them know. I went back and told my boss, Russ Schoch, that I was going to take this job with Drake because nobody had said anything to me about a raise. He said, "No. don't do that. Let me talk to Mr. Eyerly." He called me in and said, "Yes. We want you to stay." And they gave me a $10 a week raise. Q: Who called you in? A: Mr. Schoch had me go in and see Mr. Eyerly. And he said they wanted me to stay. And there would be a $10 raise. I thought that sounded pretty good. Maybe every six months. And I don't believe that is the way it was. Anyhow, I had the children's education in mind. I had five of them that were going to go to college. I wanted to help even though my husband didn't want me to go to work. I had studied journalism and I wanted to go to work and help. I really enjoyed my 22 years at the Register and Tribune. Q: Was there always that concern from your husband that he didn't want you to work, even after a while? A: I think he got all right with it. I handled the family in a way that I think he thought it was fine. I made lists and my kids happened to be the kind of children who did their chores. There were older ones who looked after the two younger children. [My daughter Betty Ann was] in high school [and she looked after the two younger ones]. Then Terry [and Mike were] in high school and they looked after them [the two younger ones, Mary and Bob]. I would come home and we would all have dinner together. I would get dinner and everything would go along just fine. I think he got so that he was happy I was working because it did help him. -- <br><br> Section 3: Q: Anything else about working at the Register? Were they fair when they made assignments to you? A: Yes. I enjoyed the assignments. I can't remember all of them. I worked there about four years writing weddings. I had lived in Des Moines most of my life, and I had known who the people were in the part of society that you would write about in those days. I knew who they were, so it was possible for me to get in touch with these people and write about their parties or write about them. And they would come to me, of course, with their weddings and their engagements and so forth. I would have to decide...this was, of course, after about four years I became ... Suzette Abbot Foster was the society editor. After I had been there about four years, she retired. I can't remember. '62 or '64. I was the one [new society editor] that had to decide what size picture of the bride or the engaged girl would get. We did that on the basis of her education. I don't know why that was set as it, but I guess that is what they thought it had to be. If she had gone to college, finished college, or was of some particular part of the make-up of society, and we thought she should have a one-column picture, she would get it. If she didn't, then she would get a seven-and-a-half em picture, which was the smaller one. Q: How long did that go on? A: That went on as long as I was there. I retired in 1980 and I am sure that was still going on. Of course, by that time, we had gone from the old typewriter to the computer then. Everybody was worrying about the computer. I thought the computer was kind of fun. Those typewriters were fast. You had your little, you call them a mouse now, but they were something else, that you could use to correct things. That was wonderful. Q: You knew a lot of the people that you were reporting on. Did you feel that you were a part of that society that you were writing about? A: I had been. I had grown up, when I was a little girl, in that part of society because my stepfather was a part of that society. He was a pioneer businessman in Des Moines and he seemed to be a part of... all those people were his friends. So, I knew them. When my mother died, then I went away to school. When I came back and went to Roosevelt High School, I decided I wanted to be with a different group of people. Q: Why? A: I think I had gone to an Episcopal school for girls and I wasn't fast enough, as they used to say. "She is pretty fast." "She is sort of fast." Q: Meaning what? A: Meaning she was racing around with the boys a little too much. That was the... you know, we were in the Roaring 20s then. I started high school about 1925. I went into ninth grade. Some of the things that were going on, I hadn't been privy to some of this excitement. It was a little more than I could ... I was sort of shy and I didn't enjoy what was going on. I probably would have enjoyed it if my father would have let me go, but he was very strict with me. So, I had sort of had a different group of friends. I got very much interested in singing and art and things of that kind. That is the reason. But I did know a lot of these families. Q: Were you ever concerned that there might have been a conflict of interest or your objectivity might have been compromised because you were reporting on people that you knew and their families? A: No. I discovered while I was working there that was exactly what they wanted me to do. They wanted me to know. I don't know who said this, or how it was put in my mind, but they were glad that I knew who was who. Q: You had contacts and sources. A: Yes. I had contacts and sources. And I did have some contacts. Because we lived next door to the Grover Hubbells when I was a little girl. When my mother died, Mrs. Hubbell kind of took us under her wing for a little while and then we went off to St. Katherines [School in Davenport]. Because of that, I had this feeling ... I wasn't in awe of these people. They were just friends. But I think it was a good thing that I knew who they were because they would call me and tell me what was going on. And then I could pass this on. Either I could do the story or ask about it or somebody could do a story about it. Q: You went to some of the functions, too? The parties and get-togethers. Were you there socializing with the guests and having drinks? A: I did not do that. When I was working for the paper and I would go to the Junior League ball or I would go to the Jewish community, who always had nice parties and things of that kind. When they wanted me to cover, it, I would ask if they wanted it covered or they would say to go, I would take a photographer and we would go. The photographer would take pictures that I wanted or groups that I wanted. The people that I knew that maybe it would be well to get these pictures. They [the photographers] would get those pictures or get them on their own. Then I would write the story. The thing that I was always thinking about, I didn't think about it at the time, but I never got any overtime. I wonder if people do now. I don't suppose they do. If they are a reporter, they are on at a certain time. But I worked from 8 in the morning till 5 at night. If I covered a party, I had to get dressed up, get myself there. The photographer and I would meet. And I would have to get myself home. And spend the evening. I never did get any overtime. I just thought that was the way it was done. Q: You would stay the entire time? A: Yes. I would stay as long as necessary, depending on when they wanted to get it. If we had to get it back. We usually didn't have to have it for the next day because what we covered was probably a layout for the Sunday paper. It would be coming later. Not always, but as a rule. Or it might be the Tribune back page or something. -- <br><br> Section 4: Q: You told a story in your letter that I thought was kind of funny about reporting on society people's trips out of town before they left and then later on, you decided you would report after they returned. A: Apparently what they had been doing for years was, if Mrs. Glutz was going someplace, they would have it in the paper that she and her husband and family were going to Europe on a three-week trip. All the trips. They would come home and find out their house had been broken into. It became evident that the people who were reading the society page were the burglars. They were having a wonderful time breaking into all these houses. It was decided that we would have to have it when they came home. Well, it got so there was a time when nobody wanted anybody to know that they were going anyplace. If they were employers of people, they didn't necessarily, considering I suppose what wages they were getting, maybe they didn't want their employees to know how big a deal that they were going on a big trip. So, they wouldn't want it in the paper. But we did have a way of finding out. I would get the "starts" and "stops" for the papers. I would look through the "starts," you want your paper started again because you are going to be back home on such a day. I would get the "starts" and I would look through and find the people that I should call, that would be of interest supposedly. Then I began to think, these people maybe aren't the top cream of the crop, but they are pretty average middle-of-the-road people. Maybe we should put a few things about them in. I would call them, too. I began to try to get not just the socialites, but some of the people who were doing other things. Other business people or people who have had ordinary businesses. Things of that kind. Q: Why was it important that you get the other folks? A: It was my idea. I thought it would be rather nice to let Mr. and Mrs. Jones ... there are probably some well-to-do and high society Jones, but there might be a few Jones in the middle society that should [be called], if you get what I mean. Q: This is kind of a sensitive question. As a society editor covering party and club news, some might suggest that the stories in the women's department and in the home and family sections were a kind of a fluff story. Even describing them in a derogatory way. Not measuring up to the hard news. How would you respond to that? A: At that time, I think people did want to. I don't know how they feel about it now. But I do feel that at that time, a lot of people were very interested in putting in things about their PTA meetings. We didn't print all of the PTA meetings, but we did have some that were in. If they elected officers and they got it to us, we tried to print it. People had music clubs and antique societies and they were rather happy to have those. I don't know whether they think that that is unkind to put those in because somebody else doesn't belong to that. I guess that is up to the individual. I couldn't see that there was anything wrong with that. And I still don't think there is anything wrong with putting those things in. Q: Another part of the paper? A: Yes. It was in that part. Now there really isn't a women's department as such. Today, I don't think a lot of women want to be separated. They don't want that pointed out that it is just women. But in those days, it was something that they wanted and they were unhappy if their story didn't get in. They would come rushing in at the last minute just before the deadline to get those stories in. We would try to oblige them. Q: Do you think we are missing something by not having a women's department today? A: I have had people say to me that the New York papers even have society pages in them. What is wrong with that? I think, I guess maybe they do have. I don't take the New York papers. But I understand they have had things of that kind. But they are the very, very well-to-do people whose stories are in. Now the wedding [pictures are of ] the men and the women. We didn't have any men in the pictures. I think that is sort of nice when the man gets in. The engagements. Shows the fella as well as the bride. But we would have been horrified if anybody wanted a man's picture in back in those days. Why, I wonder? I wonder why now? At that time, it was just a matter of... I guess it is just the times. -- <br><br> Section 5: Q: You have a background in journalism. Did you ever write or report on hard or serious news? A: I can't say that I actually did hard news as such. I did interviews, for instance, with Arlene Dahl, the actress. I was sent over to interview her. She was staying at the Fort Des Moines Hotel. I don't know what she was here for. She was very gracious. I came to her suite. She was charming and gave me all the information that I asked her and a beautiful picture. I wish I could have dug out some of the stories that I did because they were interesting. There was one story I did about a dollhouse. Would you like to hear about that? Q: I would. A: Dr. [Robert] Updegraff's wife [Virginia] and daughter [Margaret]. Mrs. Updegraff was very crafty and did lots of crafts and things. She made this beautiful dollhouse [for Margaret]. It was probably five feet tall and wide. Each room was decorated beautifully. She made all these little things. A chandelier was made out of a very fancy dangling earring. All kinds of things. After she did this, I heard about it through a friend of mine. I called her and asked if I could get pictures and do a story. And I did. They ran a large page, I think it was probably the Tribune; they used to do pages with a lot of pictures and the story. Several years later, some woman wrote that because of this story, she wrote a wonderful book on dollhouses. [Coleen Moore] was a famous actress in the silent movie years. She had taken her dollhouse all over the country. She had that in there. And then she had Virginia's dollhouse in there. And she sent me a copy of her book because I had inspired her to write this book. I was very pleased with that. I tried to find the book to show to you, but I couldn't find it. Q: A reader who ran with your story. A: Yes. -- <br><br> Section 6: Q: You did a story about losing your husband when he died in 1974. Could we talk a little bit about that? Was it the editor who came to you and asked you to do the story or did you suggest it? A: I don't exactly remember. I had gotten a call about my husband's death while I was at the office. It was about three o'clock in the afternoon. My son called me and was crying on the phone to tell me that his dad, you see. They could tell all round me that something had happened. So, I was taken... I wanted to drive myself, of course. You lose your mind. They wouldn't let me do that. They drove me to the hospital. He died within 12 hours of this stroke. Of course, I wasn't able to work for a couple of weeks. I had to pull myself together. They let me have a couple of weeks off. I think what happened, that was in '74, and the story was in '76. I think by that time, I had healed sort of. But I evidently was talking to the woman who had something to do with pictures and stories in our department. I think she thought it would make a good story. She asked me to write it. I think that is how that started. Q: Did you have reservations about writing it? A: You know, I didn't. I remember it was difficult to write. But I remember writing it. They have told me that it was sold out. That people bought other copies and that the "YW" used it for a sort of a textbook for widows and people who lost spouses. To have them read it. It helped them. My picture appeared at the top part. And then in the lower part of the picture, there was a picture of a Mrs. Goldberg. I talked about her. And I had a friend call me and say, "I certainly enjoyed your story, but I did think that your story was better than Mrs. Goldberg's." I didn't tell her, but I had written both of them. She must have preferred what she had read at the top more than the lower part of the story. I have read it several times and I cannot figure out what was different about it. Q: What was the message of the story? A: It takes a while. You have to grieve for a while. But that you do have to get back. If you have a good job, you have to get back to it and work. Working along is the important thing. Also, that somehow, don't feel surprised, at least I didn't, I wanted that message to be that don't be surprised - there is something about at first... for instance, I directed a choir. At first, every hymn must have been written for me. It was so sad that I couldn't sing. All of these things, everything was so sad. Then, after a while, that seems to go away. You get to the place where you can [cope]. [comments on a bug in the room] [recorder off briefly] Q: We were talking about how you did get over it. This was the message in your article. A: I was happy that I had waited long enough to write this story because I did discover that, even thought I could burst into tears right now if I didn't have control of myself, by working and going on with life, I could keep focused on what is going on in life, rather than worrying about losing somebody. You still love them and all that, but you have to go on with life. From that, I was able to help other people, I think, who read the story because I did get lots of mail about that. I believe that did help some people. Q: Talk about some of the people you worked with at the Register. Did you have mentors or close friends who were professional and personal friends? A: Yes. Jean Talmann was a very close friend of mine. There was a Mrs. Cooney, Pat Cooney, who was a writer. We lost her. She died. It was very sad. She was a dear friend. Charlie Nettles is still a longtime friend of mine. He was my last boss when I was going to marry my second husband. He let me have a couple of weeks [off]. I asked if I could have a couple of weeks off at a time that I wouldn't have ordinarily. I wanted to elope because I didn't want everybody knowing I was getting married. We went to Colorado and got married. He kept the secret. Then when I got back, he introduced as Mrs. Edgington. He and his wife and I are good friends. Q: Was everybody surprised? A: Everybody was surprised. Q: The secret hadn't leaked out. A: No, I don't believe it did. They knew I was going with him because I was wearing a ring. But nobody knew I was going to be married. The same thing happened with Dorothy Miller and Harold Yeglin. He worked in the sports department and they eloped. When she died of breast cancer, I gave the eulogy. I think that was the hardest thing I ever did. Giving the eulogy for Dorothy. She was wonderful. I don't remember when that was. It was before I retired. -- <br><br> Section 7: Q: You were at work in the Register building in 1963 when it came over the wires that John F. Kennedy had been shot. Describe the scene in the newsroom. What you remember about that. A: Jean Tallman and a couple of others and I went up to the eighth floor where they had a place where we could eat lunch. We went up there and had lunch. We were standing in the hallway waiting for the elevator to come and take us back down. We were laughing about something. Some joke. I have no idea what it was. We were laughing and laughing. And the doors opened and there was Maxine Perry, the managing editors' secretary. She looked at us and said, "Well, you obviously haven't heard the news. President Kennedy has been shot." We were just horrified. We went down to the newsroom. It was a deathwatch. People were doing nothing but waiting to see what was happening. To hear whether he died or not. Q: Radio or television? A: They had a television. But Ken MacDonald must have had some special way of finding out, because pretty soon, he walked out [of his office] - they were holding the presses to get the Tribune out; it was just about one and that was late for the Tribune - and I heard him say, "I think we will go with it." And then everything started moving. Everybody moved. I thought, "It didn't say so on the television. What was he doing? Wouldn't it be awful to say he was dead when he wasn't?" I just had this feeling of, "Oh, how awful." Well, it turned out that he was right. Of course, he knew. Q: There was a question of whether he had died? A: There really was. Apparently he was dead when he got to the hospital, when they took him on that ride. The back of his head was shot off. There was no doubt about it that he was dead when he got there. But they were trying to get everything together before they... I think they were trying to get somebody there to put [Vice President Lyndon Baines] Johnson in right away. Q: How was the Register getting their news? A: I wonder if he [Ken MacDonald] didn't have some direct line that he was talking to. Parkland Hospital in Dallas. I don't know how that works. I am not privy to that. But he seemed to know that Kennedy was dead. That was a terrible day. Q: What was your role? Did you have to do anything? A: No. There was never anything that I did. That I know of in our department. It was like when we heard that Franklin Roosevelt was dead. You know where you were. It is horrifying. Q: What do you remember about the [Nikita] Khruschev visit? That was shortly after you started. A: He just was sort of a [short man]. There was that farm family. [Mr. Garst] took him around. He later on had to have his esophagus removed. He used to come in. He was a big farmer with some grain company. He brought him through [the newsroom]. Tape One, Side Two A: Khruschev went through the newsroom, shaking everybody's hand. I shook his hand. I just happened to be where he was coming by and I thought I might as well shake his hand. He was an interesting man, but I wasn't sure what he was all about because I wasn't that interested, basically. I didn't know I was supposed to be as interested as I should have been. Q: What do you remember about him? A: He was just a funny little man with a pug nose and big ears and just was very jolly, clapping people on the back. -- <br><br> Section 8: Q: I want to go back to your work as society editor. Tell me about what your work was like and how you decided on stories. How the stories came up or how you decided which story was worth covering. A: Lots of times, that was up to the editor. I had one case where somebody called me. Scott Smith called me. He was a pianist in Des Moines. He said there was a wonderful new singer by the name of Ann-Margret and he was going to be playing for her. Maybe a drummer, too. They were going to be appearing. She had a hit record, "I Ain't Got Nobody." She really did have a body. That she would be coming to Des Moines. He sent me this picture of the three of them and said I ought to get in on this. "She is really going to be something." I showed it to my boss and he said, "Just do a story. Scott is the one we know. Do a story about him." So, I just wrote a little story and it didn't amount to anything in particular, although he was appreciative. And I mentioned the name. Of course, it wasn't very long after that that Ann-Margret became so popular. I think we made a big mistake by not doing that. It is just one of those things. It is like the story about Terrace Hill and Mrs. Hubbell. Mrs. Hubbell's home, Terrace Hill, was going to be open. They had closed it and her daughters were going to open it for her 80th birthday. A friend of mine called me and said it was going to be a big deal. "Everybody in town is going to be there." I said I would talk to the boss. I told my boss about it and he said he would send somebody out to get a spot picture. I told him it was really a big deal. Well, he didn't think so. So, I told Mary Bryson and she got his ear and told him this ought to be done. She was the home furnishings editor of the paper. She had been there a long time. Her husband, Bill Bryson [Sr.] was a sports writer. She told him and he said, "Well, maybe we should do something." So, he sent George Mills, the well-known writer who has written all about the Hubbells, and a photographer out. They got all these pictures. He was rushing to get a big layout made. And Ken MacDonald, the editor, came by. He looked at it and said it was going to be a great layout. A good story. Then Russ, my boss, said, "Yes, I am so glad I thought of it." I thought, "I am, too." It was so funny. I told Mary Bryson about it. She said, "That is what happens." Q: How did you feel about that? A: I was glad that George Mills did the story because he really knows the Hubbells. Way back, he wrote the story [book] about old F.M. Hubbell and the whole family. But it would have been fun for me to do it from my point of view. It wouldn't have been George's story. It would have been my story. I think it would have been all right. I am sure he did a better story than I could have done. -- <br><br> Section 9: Q: You were at the Register in the days of the linotype machines and the typewriters. The old uprights. And then computers. A transitional time for the business of journalism. Could you talk about how you and others adjusted to those changes? A: Yes. I personally enjoy something new. There were some girls up there who didn't like that new [computer] typewriter. I think it was faster. They were just a little afraid of it or something. I felt it was a good way to go and I enjoyed it very much. Then, of course, you had the printer that printed everything off for you which was nice. You didn't have to wait to send it [by the tube] and your corrections were easy to make with that little cursor that you could send across. I think they call it a mouse now. It had the cursor but not the mouse, then. With the cursor, you could move letters and put things in. I enjoyed that. I think that basically I was tickled to death when we got them. I think it was put out by Texas Instrument. We had a paper that came out everyday. It was called the TI. Dick Kline put it out. He was the one who really got the computer business going in the newsroom. Q: What was his position? A: He was in the newsroom. He was the fella that actually ran the computer program for us. Anything you didn't understand, you would go to Dick. Dick was great. He ran the whole thing. He put out TI. You read all kinds of interesting things in it. As a matter of fact, that was the only announcement of my wedding that I had. Was in the TI. Something about my being married. All kinds of chit chat about the newsroom. Q: An internal publication? A: Yes, that is what it was. Q: What are your impressions of the paper now? Do you still get the paper? A: I get it. Q: What do you think? A: I hate to say too much because I do get the daily paper and the Sunday paper at a big discount. I couldn't get along without the paper because I am used to it. But I do think, it is my understanding, that a lot of people have left. They are unhappy for some reason. I am horrified at the grammatical errors. I am horrified at the lack of editing that appears. I don't know who does the editing. It doesn't look to me as if they have read proof. Their editor is probably a very nice person. I am not saying anything against them individually. One of the things I read, first thing, is the corrections. Almost every day, there is a little place for corrections. More times than not, I look to see because if it is a meeting that I might have to go to; I want to be sure that it is something that I am interested in. I want to be sure that I did get the right time and the right date and so forth. And the spellings and things, everyday there is something. Q: You can expect that putting out such a large paper that you would have those kinds of corrections. A: I don't think we had them that way. There was a time when you had proofreading. That is what people were hired for. They did proofreading. And then you did your own proofreading, too, of your own galley sheets. And people came to me and asked me to read them for them. I did save them a lot of troubles because we did get things. I think this business of saying, accuracy, accuracy, accuracy, is true. You should be accurate. It looks as if they are going [downhill]. Q: Who is accountable? The editor, obviously. What are the reasons we are seeing more of that than what you saw? A: If you tie it all together, the way people dress, the way their kids dress, the way ... language they speak [referring to grammar]. You listen to them in school. Instead of saying, "He said this," they say, "She goes, I don't know, and she goes..." They use the word "go" instead of "say." Their clothes are sloppy. They are not allowed to be much disciplined in the schools. I sound like I have a soapbox or something, but I really think that it all ties in that people don't care anymore as much. I don't think they care. There must be some reason at the basis of the whole thing to just expound what they want to say and let it go at that. Q: With regard to the paper, you would think the company would want to sell as many papers as they can and so they would want to have a finished product out there. A: Have you ever looked at how many ads they have? Don't you think that is bringing in their money, maybe? Q: Of course, that is the way it was before, too. A: Possibly. Possibly. It seems to me as if there are more ads, and there are more ads for these dating services and things. Pages of those. Think of how much money that brings in. But then, I don't know... who am I to say? I worked for the company when it was taken over by the company that runs it now. There was a different publisher at the top. She went back east. There was a lot of to-do down there then. I don't know Mrs. Henry or Miss Henry or whatever her name is. She is probably doing the best she can, but I don't know that it is... it isn't a newspaper with something. You hear of something happening, you look for it the next day in the paper and you don't find it. I don't know why. I am not one that knows exactly, but it isn't like the old paper.