Photo of the Day: Holding Down the Fort in Vinton

This is the staff of the Vinton Messenger in about 1982 or '83 (best guess). That's ad rep Sara Wooldridge on the left and Nita Echols, the office manager, on the right. Santa was a grumpy old local man whose name I don't recall. I do remember that he didn't have the disposition to be Santa, though he had the look. The beard was his.

Sara does artwork in San Fran these days and Nita is still anchoring Vinton--from Dick Cranwell's office. We had a grand time over there. Sara and Nini (which is what I called Nita) were two of the best people I ever worked with, even though the gig wasn't exactly at the top of the journalism ladder.