I am going to move back to the United States where I hailed from some 45 years ago. I spent 40 of those years here in the Boundary. Now family stuff calls me back; my mother and my sister need me down in Oregon.
But I think I have stayed long enough in the Boundary to be a local. In fact it was a local family up Sidley way with the same last name as mine who helped land me a job with Pope & Talbot back in the ’70s. The foreman doing the hiring knew what hard workers the Kellys were—so he picked me. I told him, not right away though. Not until I was able to prove that I could be a good worker too.
I spent somewhere around 30 years working at the Midway sawmill. It was a tough job, and it took a long time but I was finally successful at driving that company out of business.
A year later, just about the same time that my unemployment enjoyment ran out, it was a fortunate thing that a part-time reporter job came open at the Boundary Creek Times.
Even more fortunate was the fact that the morning the boss had scheduled an interview with me, the full-time reporter quit and left town. Needless to say the owners and now good friends, Chuck and Karen Bennett, found themselves desperate enough that they gave me the job. Full-time! Special K was pleased.
Seven years later it is time to move on. It was a really good job to have. I got to go to everybody’s party; even better, I usually didn’t have to help decorate the hall or stay to clean up. Also—often food was involved.
Let me tell you, this is a dream job.
Better than all of that seven years of partying and such, were the great friendships I have made. And all I had to do was show up and be both nosey and friendly at the same time.
Once I got into covering the hopes, happenings and happenstance of the Boundary I came to appreciate what a tremendous blessing a sense of community can be.
I would hope that sense of community could be nurtured across the entire Boundary (both East and West) in the years ahead.
There are some amazing people here—please continue to network, leverage and find ways to help each other discover their own amazing.
The paper has hired a replacement for me, a fellow named Andrew Tripp whose home is near Bridesville. I’ll let him fill you in on all that in the coming weeks. I’ve every confidence he is going to do a fantastic job for the paper and the Boundary.
One thing about doing seven years as a reporter for a community newspaper is that everybody has a good chance to get to know who you are. You could say that Mike Duffy and I have some similarities: we’re both media guys, both well-known, good-looking and such and, since I am about to pull stakes and head south, there seems to be some question in both our cases about residency. Let’s hope the similarity end there.
Happy trails to all. Thanks for letting me help share your stories with each other.
