You Cant Go Home Again plus ca change, plus cest la meme change.
That well-worn French proverb and the title of the noted American novel by Thomas Wolfe popped into my head Monday afternoon during my first day on the job for the under-new-ownership of The Brookings Register. I wont go into any details as to how we have arrived at where we now are.
As I cobble together another Corner at the computer on my now desert-bare desk, I am being watched by a 3-inch-high Aflac rubber duck sitting atop a large brick on which are attached and displayed the months of April and May 2019 on a Rons Auto Repair calendar. Attached to the front of my computer, in military fashion, are three 2025 Rons calendars displaying three months past (July), present (August) and future (September).
My fellow staffers at the Reg will attest to the fact that in pack-rat fashion I had kept a lot of stuff, mostly in a variety of papers of all sorts, in my desk, on my desk and in several file cabinets. A veritable rats nest compared to the working space of most Register staffers only one had a work space as messy as mine and it too is barren following the recent unplanned demise of the old Reg.
Just before I abandoned ship on Aug. 7, I got rid of most of my voluminous files after filling a couple cardboard boxes of what I deemed must-keep. I didnt give a lot of thought to if or when I might come back. Now Im back and have some regrets about my clean-sweep departure. Too much? But then
Sitting at my computer on its cleanly swept desk, I glanced to the left and noticed a battleship grey two-drawer filing cabinet I had somehow overlooked. Opening them I quickly realized I had hit the motherlode: More than enough materials to reconstruct my nearly three-decades, full time and part time, of days at the Reg. I suspect St. Jude Thaddeus, for Roman Catholics the patron saint of hopeless causes and desparate situations, preemptively stepped in, knowing I would find value and sometime nostalgia in and use for much of what I had inadvertently but fortunately left behind.
Two publications I had kept for purely personal and nostalgic reasons: one was the official results of Marine Corps Marathon XIII, run in Washington, D.C., on Nov 6, 1988. I finished in 3,034th place, with a time of 3:43.14.
The second was the Feb. 7, 1969, issue of Life magazine. Heralded on the cover was: Bucher of the Pueblo: The Cruel Dilemmas of Duty.
In several lengthy stories was told the events before, during and after the seizure of the USS Pueblo (AGER-2), an intelligence gathering ship, in January 1968 by North Korean Navy craft and the return of the Pueblos crew to the United States in December 68.
The first stop for the 80-man crew was Naval Hospital, San Diego, on Dec. 28, where they were berthed in the Pink Palace, a former nurses quarters, where they underwent debriefing and a battery of physical and psychological testing.
As a freshly-minted butter-bar ensign I happened to be the duty officer that evening. Not surprisingly, a senior commander came in as a backup. My small brush with history?
I doubt that many younger Americans know the history of the Pueblo. In the end, no crew member received any military punishment. The entire episode was diplomatically put aside by then-Secretary of the Navy John Chafee in one sentence: They have suffered enough.
I apologize for digressing: in addition to those two documents, I found a treasure trove of paper evidencing past Register awarding-winning publications. We won more than our share of awards in the annual SDNA Better Newspapers Contest.
The walls of the Reg are covered with multiple first-place, wooden, South Dakota-shaped plaques: general excellence dailies under 12,000 best use of color all dailies and multiple first-place individual awards to Register writers.
In the brief time that I have been away I have been personally contacted by subscribers who let me know how much they like and appreciate the Register. And now that were back Ive had grateful expressions that we are. Thanks to all of you who contacted me.
Obviously, Im biased but I believe the Register has been, is and will continue to be one helluva good local newspaper. Quo vadimus? I see us with a continuing mission of providing our Brookings-area readership with the best possible local news coverage of the three legs of the stool that makes up our extended our community: town, gown and prairie. Its great to be back.
Have a nice day.
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