Gary reasoned, unlike the spoken word, the written word is indelible, for an articulate to obtain an analogous caliber, a person of some intellect must be the directive. Expressive journalism only requires the transformation of thoughts to paper, no personality involvement and Mr. Christensen’s publication’s class opened varied paths of opportunity. Gary was subservient as an assistant sports editor, but in name only, the editor, upperclassmen Gordon Reitman’s was indeed a very capable person, but wasn’t a proponent of sports. In most journalism classes, the females outnumber the males and He suspected that Gordon was appointed to captain the sports page on the Ye Castle Crier because of his gender as all other editor positions were held by the opposite sex. Gordon prevailed, his personal demeanor wasn’t exactly befitting the summary of a sports enthusiast and with his milquetoast mannerisms and pullover sweaters he seemed somewhat out-of-place in the athletic environment of the gym.
Gary understood the assistant sports editors position on the Crier and was ready for the challenge, Chris asking if he would accept an added position of Staff Photographer. Hesitant at first, his thought being a lack of qualifications, his only camera experience with was with his parents ancient Anasco box camera, but soon discovering that photography was more than just taking pictures but in reality an art form. Once accepting this premise, he approached the task adapting and capitalized on flavoring the anomalous, not just the subject. Promulgating the papers sports page forum, he assumed an interviewer’s role in a traditional school sports column, ” The Athlete of the Week”. The weekly bio column providing him access to all the sports coaches and team members. Gary made a concerted effort to attend every games he reported on, unlike some who he wouldn’t name and would just gathered statistics and never were in attendance. He was endowed with the respect of the coaches and team members and felt somewhat privileged when permitted to join them on the team bus when traveling out-of-town. On occasion he was asked to participate in officiating, in charge of the down marker at a football game or as the school’s official team statistician. He soon developing a rapport with the sports desk at the Oakland Tribune, after a game phoning in the results, highlighting players and performances, their names to appear in the Tribunes high school sports page the next day. With the Giants major league baseball team having recently moved from New York City to San Francisco, interest was thriving in their new home at Seals Stadium. Gary now a senior, deciding to add an additional column, “Following the Giants With Mike”, resorting to his shortened middle name used in elementary school, concluding, because of already writing most of the sport page, he deemed it best not to give that appearance. Chris was surprised at the notoriety of Gary’s opinionated ‘Following the Giants’ column, the school publication receiving correspondence from sports editors on many of the bay-area school papers that were on the circulation departments mailing list.
The student body of Castlemont had little knowledge of the Ye Castle Criers preparation, except that it was available to the student body every Friday afternoon. A typical agenda for a reporter would entail receiving a subject assignment, the copy submitted on typed forms to the Page Editor, the article edited for content and column length and a cap (title) with the final approval coming from Chris who as the class instructor read and graded everything printed. Each article having two grades, the first was for grammar/sentence structure as the news/publication class was an english curriculum substitute and the second was for news worthiness or content presentation. The accumulation of four Crier pages of copy and pictures were ready to be processed and printed at the Laney Trade School. Twice a month, alternating with other editors, Gary’s as Sports editor would be able to leave school mid-morning, travel to the Laney Trade located on 7th St. in downtown metropolitan Oakland for the assemblage of the Castlemont Ye Castle Crier newspaper. It was at Laney the Teen was able to attained the important aspects of the mechanical attributes involved to providing a finished product. He watched as the copy handed to a linotype operator sitting at the keyboard controls of these purveyors of indelible conduction spewed forth the embossed hot lead alloy. The molded lines of typesetting traversing into a collection area, placed in a page galley for espousing a proof, the inserting the cuts ( photos) into their proper place in the galley. The sports editor developing a skill to read the backward print, checking for misplaced slugs (blank spacer), then finally inking the galley, a proof being made, making a final assay of the proof before according the printers. The experience of Laney giving Gary another perspective of world of journalism with an insight to the mechanical aspects behind this profession and the hidden participation makeup of others.
Gary having developed into a student of analogy, coming to recognize there was a corollary between Mr. Christensen’s Journalism class and Mr. Charrington’s Trigonometry class although the subject matter were totally estranged they shared much in common. In trig you are given the final solution but have to determine the perplexity and structure that gives you those results. When composing a written itinerary it is much the same, one had determined the contingency, but it’s the perplexity, structure and how you tincture the words that determines the intellection.
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