I heard the news about the Argus closing from a friend when I went for coffee on Monday morning July 14. My friend is not prone to gossip, nor is he someone who repeats rumors unless he is sure the information is accurate. Looking back, I am glad I heard it from him instead of in the email from Jana. I went through various stages of grief and likened it to when my mother died. The lost was not as deep, but the feelings were similar. My mom was always there and then one day she wasn’t. It felt like someone pulled the sidewalk out from underneath me. The Argus had been in my life and part of my life since we moved here in 1978. Now, after this edition it will be gone. I remember the first time I heard about the Argus-Champion, it was at McKenna’s Restaurant in New London. My husband and I were looking for a local paper to find jobs and an apartment in the area, a customer in McKenna’s recommended the Argus. We found employment and a place to live. We have been fans of the Argus since then. As much as I loved reading the Argus, my secret desire was to write the Croydon News. Marilyn Thurston was the correspondent, but I never lost the desire to write the Croydon News. One day in 1989 an ad appeared in the Argus, looking for a correspondent for Croydon. |
I was nervous as I dialed the number. I spoke with Tom Beranger, the editor at the time and told him, “I’ve wanted this job for years.” He gave a slight giggle and said “For years?” I’m sure he thought I was a dork, for my one ambition in life was writing the Croydon News. So that is how I became a correspondent, the first time in 1989. At that time, the pay rate was the enormous sum of 50 cents an inch. If there was ever an incentive to write a lot of news about Croydon that was it. During my first stint at the Argus, I wrote about the hard work of the Croydon Volunteer Fire Department. Meme and Harry Newcomb always had something, an event or new tidbit. Annual Mother’s Day Dinner and every mother received a rose, Bingo Every Thursday Night, Annual Firemen’s Auction, and their participation in the Firemen’s Parade in Claremont. I also wrote a piece on the schoolhouse owned by the Mac Williams family, moving to its new home at Musterfield Farm in Sutton. I also discovered that the building that houses the Croydon Volunteer Fire Department (that used to be Vaine’s garage) originally a carriage garage that was moved to Croydon from Sutton. I wrote the news for Croydon until 1991.
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Contact: ken.s+sunacom.com (replace "+" with "@") |
