January 14, 1987
Being an editor’s daughter has its advantages and its disadvantages. When I was in high school, my mother took over the job of editor of our family paper. I didn’t worry, what could happen? All I though was required of me was a little more help with the housework. Boy, was I fooled!
It began with having to check the mailbox for articles that were needed for the paper every afternoon when I came home from school. Then I became the one who was selected to shuttle the copy, hard copy, finished pages and event printed copies of the school paper back and forth. Add to that the job of scheduling pictures for some of the teachers, notifying my parents of events so that they could take pictures, and picking up pictures and articles at the school office for our newspaper. Most kids are in trouble when they are called to the principal’s office – not me, I was always called down to relay messages or various bits of information to my mother.
When I graduated and went to college in West Virginia, I through I had finally escaped the problems of being an editor’s daughter. After all, how much information could my small, Baptist-affiliated school want to relay to my mother, who I only saw on breaks? Well, my mother and my aunt came up with a new way to torture their children: this column. Image my surprise to open up the paper one day at school and see one of the stupid things I did as a kid written out for everyone in my hometown to read!
In the past year and a half, my mother and aunt have entertained this area of the many tales of our growing up. With an age range of 8 to 20, they have quite a selection of stories to choose from. I have opened the paper at school to see stories of my coming home, capping, and to be informed that my brother has taken over my room. Everyone in the area now knows my age (20), where I’ve traveled (India), my major (nursing) and the fact that I go to school in West Virginia.
But the clincher came a few weeks ago when I brought my boyfriend home for the weekend. Being well informed he figured on being in the the next week’s column and was quite disappointed when he wasn’t. When I questioned my mother upon returning home for the holidays, she told me he wasn’t worthy of the attention. Ok Jim, here is your mention in “the column”!
CEB(C)