the recorder

jamelah e.

When I was a senior in high school, my mom's friend's daughter, who, at the time was the managing editor of the local paper, called me and asked if I wanted a job. "Sure," I said, and a week or so later, I started working here, at The Albion Recorder. I worked as a typesetter, meaning that I spent hours typing things. The job itself was not that exciting, because how can spending hours typing things be exciting? But in between the typing, I spent a lot of time joking around with the reporters and the guy who sold advertising. Sometimes we'd go to the movies on Friday nights. When the advertising guy finished his musical, we all went to see the production. Sometimes we'd just sit around and talk and occasionally shoot rubber bands at each other. It was the first really fun workplace I was ever a part of, and it was responsible for forming my belief that often, the job itself matters less than the people you do it with. Everybody's scattered now and we've lost touch. And a different company owns the paper and has moved the office, but the building still stands. Empty. When I walk by, as I occasionally do, I look in the window and smile.

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