Throwback Thursday on Sunday: New Editor, 1981

This is the dashing--and probably hungover--new editor of The Vinton Messenger in 1981. I had been fired by the local daily (deservedly so) and spent months wandering the country and into Mexico before Don Smith found me (through former teammate at the local daily Jim Echols) and offered me the job sight-unseen. I was 35.

His editor had been busted for being drunk in public (while getting the police report, at the police station) and my guess is he thought I'd be at least a smidge smarter than that.

Don't know if I proved him right, but I needed a dose of humility at the time and this tiny hometown paper gave it to me. It also taught me how to photograph, for which I am eternally grateful. It was my first gig as a real editor.