Editor's Notebook

Early in career as editor of The Superior Express, I was in a state of panic over what we were going to fill the paper with. It was Monday and I hadn't taken any pictures for that week's issue. According to the production schedule then being followed, all pictures for the week's edition were to be taken by Monday. Film was to be developed after supper on Monday night and hung to dry. The needed prints were to be made early Tuesday morning and ready to be sized and made into halftones by 8 a.m.

I asked my predecessor, Howard Crilly, how he handled such weeks. He said not to panic, something always happened before deadline.

And in those days the something that happened was likely to be a motor vehicle accident. The sharp, 20 mile per hour curve on Highway 14 near the southeast corner of Lincoln Park was good for at least one accident story a month. And the two narrow Republican River bridges frequently provided accident copy.

Motor vehicle accidents were a newspaper staple. If they didn't happen in Superior, they happened someplace else in our coverage area. For example, in a June, 1984, issue, we reported on four accidents. The story with the biggest headline was the one about a driver from Republic County who fell asleep in Mankato and lost control of a 1981 Chevrolet automobile. At 2:10 on a Sunday morning, the west bound auto crossed the center line of Highway 36 and crashed into a tree near the Lutheran church. It has not been uncommon for drivers to fall asleep in the country but seldom have we reported a story in which the driver fell asleep while in a town we covered.

Motor vehicle accidents still happen but they are no longer the staple they once were. Roads and vehicles have improved and law enforcement no longer needs the services of the newspaper photographer to document what happened.

As this column is written on Monday, the National Weather Service is warning of the potential for heavy rain and possible flash flooding on Tuesday. There was a time when such a forecast offered hope for a front page picture. I knew of places in Superior where the water piled up and frequently I was able to photograph young folks playing in the flood waters. Over the years, storm sewers have been improved and many of the locations no longer offer the same picture possibilities.

Once I took a picture of two girls swinging in the North Ward School playground. Decades of swingers had worn a pit beneath the swing. That day the pit was filled with water the girls were enjoying dragging their feet through the water and seeing the splashes. To day the old school is a retirement home and the playground is a parking lot.

I've taken so many pictures of people in the rain, a co-worker once asked me how many cameras had I destroyed with rain water. The answer was none. The old mechanical cameras I used handled rain better than today's electronic marvels. I had one film camera specifically made for wet weather.

While we can no longer rely on our old standby subjects, we still need to keep alert to possible stories.

This week, while a co-worker was on her Monday morning walk, she spotted what looked to be signs of an accident. One of the protection guard posts at Casey's appeared to have been knocked over.

Hoping to find out what had happened, the co-worker used her cell phone to snap a picture and went into the store and asked the manager for the story. The manager didn't know what had happened. Do you suppose Superior had a weekend hit and run?

If so, it was not serious enough to involve the store manager but whatever happened, I'm glad it did. When I went to work Monday morning, I had no idea how I would fill this space but after hearing about the Casey's bump, I have two pictures and a few words for this space.

And last week's front page story about a bridge replaced in June of 1984, has added the following:

Harlow Vader said, "My dad (Jake Vader) lived in Superior in the 1960s and 1970s.  He had a 12-foot self-propelled swather, he built a trailer to haul it with which he pulled behind his pickup. Some of his jobs south of Superior required him to use the steel span bridge on the Webber road. I was riding with him when he crossed the bridge, he just centered his pickup and drove across without looking back!  He had crossed so many times he knew where to drive without hitting either side.

"Another time Dad saw a flash of red in Sonny Pettit's pasture and stopped on a bridge on the road about 3/4 mile south of where we lived in Northern Jewell County. Another car was going the same direction and did not realize dad had stopped. The driver was able to squeeze by without hitting the bannister or our car.  Dad was driving a 1929 Dodge so it was not a wide vehicle and the other car was also an older and narrow vehicle.

About the Webber bridge Alice Kinsey recalled. "As a child, I was scared when we crossed the bridge. I would cover my eyes."

Stephanie Ehlers Pickering said, "Crossed it all the time. A few times we met someone head on when their brakes went out."

David Reiman commented, "Of all the old bridges along the Republican River. My favorite was the one at Bostwick. We lived next to it and fished off it. Only know of two still standing, the Red Cloud bridge and Riverton bridge. The Riverton bridge is no longer used. I liked the sound created when crossing them.

Cindy Thornton said, "I remember riding my horse, Champ, across the Webber bridge for fun. He would begin to trot, which would make the bridge bounce and creak. The more noise it made, the faster he trotted."

Jeff Christiancy said, "Remember my grandpa building the current bridge. My parents took us out there a lot while it was being built to visit my grandpa and his crew. Was a very cool experience being there when he took the old one down."

I now have this space filled and it is on to see what I can do to fill the rest of the paper.