I am at a business meeting being held at Myrtle Beach, tough assignment.
As usual, after a couple of early morning visits to the bathroom, and naps in between, I began to focus on Thoughts While Shaving, prior to an early breakfast and opening session of the conference.
Not sure why, but begin to think back to late 2007, and the early days of BladenOnline.com. My partner-to-be, and long time friend Mike Simmons suffered a heart attack and died, you no doubt remember that situation, my plans were shelved and then I began to re-think what our goal was, to begin an online newspaper that concentrated on Bladen County and local residents. We would concentrate on issues our readers thought important, covering County Commissioner meetings, Board of Ed, Hospital Board, town council meetings, local sports news, Obits and items of interest from various groups working to make Bladen better. Hospital board was quickly eliminated, when the medical center was merged with larger institution, good move.
With Mike no longer in the picture, I realized it was just me, with technical assistance from Ken Pervine, who I barely knew at the time. BladenOnline became a work in progress.
Sold an old auto with nearly 200,000 miles for a few hundred bucks, and opened a bank account. Purchased 40 small signs and placed them throughout the county and kept checking on them, moving them, etc. Local DOT workers gathered those in places they were not allowed and I made several trips to their home base to recover and place them at better sites, The locations where I had placed them in February of 2008 were much different later in the spring when vegetation and snakes had replaced dead limbs and leaves.
I recall discovering one of my signs repainted and lettered “fire wood for sale.” I left it, guess someone had a better idea.
I was editor, never had written anything much but a Thank You note, I was salesperson (more of an order taker), attended time consuming meetings gathering news, slept little and never wrote myself a check.
It took time, lots of time, but worth the effort. The folks now in control are doing a great job, subscription rate remains the same, but the circulation has greatly increased and, The Best Is Yet To Come.
Sorry, if I could have slept longer/better, maybe I would have had a different (better) thought.
All miscues are mine, writing in the dark, while bride snoozes.
Thanks for explaining the word “many” to me, it means a lot.
A conclusion is the part where you get tired of thinking.
eBay is so useless. I tried to look up lighters and all they had was 13,749 matches.
robert g hester
rgh4612@gmail.com
910-876-2322
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