The 2024 Summer Olympics are winding down – hopefully you got to watch some favorite events – and now we’re embarking on a brand new school year.

My plans to take a break this summer didn’t really come to fruition. I had a day off in late June and took the Fourth of July off but that was pretty much it. Of course, the pace does slow down some but there were still plenty of events to cover. We do have a little mid-August family trip on the calendar so that will be a welcome break before we get into the heart of the fall sports season.

We are also lucky enough to have a short-term summertime employee with us at work, Caleb Fox, and he has been running around doing lots of stories and photos for Oakdale. He will likely show up in Riverbank and Escalon, too, before he has to be back at school in September.

The best part about having someone new to the business come in – at least for me – is that it reminds me of why I started doing this in the first place. My writing career began with a column in my hometown weekly paper as a teenager (don’t remember if I got paid but seeing my name in print was good enough!) and while in college I worked on the college paper, a magazine and also submitted some college sports stories for the local paper.

Several years later I would join the staff at that paper, which actually covered the entire county, encompassing several towns and villages. What drew me to that small newspaper is the same thing that I enjoy most today; variety. My years at the Times-Journal in Cobleskill, New York introduced me to all aspects of newspaper production.

My editor and I (along with an occasional part-timer) covered news, sports, community events, took the photos, developed (yes, it was THAT long ago) the film and printed out our own photos to use in the paper. Then we wrote the stories, had a headline maker that we set the style and type size on, along with laying out the pages on light tables, not computers. We even had border tape so that we could put frames around the photos or put a dividing line in between the stories; and the printed out stories would be applied to the pages with hot wax. Just writing this I can’t believe how much we were in the dark ages back then, but it seemed perfectly natural to put out a weekly paper that way.

How we managed to get the issues out on time, I don’t know, but we made it work. But back to Caleb, who goes by his middle name, Jebb, in the office; it has been fun to share some stories and experiences with him as well as offer some guidance. He has sought out many of the stories he has done and has jumped in without hesitation to those I have assigned him to, getting a well-rounded experience.

Point being, small town papers let you do it all, learn it all. As opposed to focusing on one specific beat like you would at a larger paper, you get a taste of everything. It’s a great place to start because then you can figure out where your interest primarily is.

Or, in my case, it’s a great place to stay because you like everything about it and the variety keeps it fresh.

We’re hoping Caleb is one of our summer reporters who chooses to come back each summer, at least for a few years, now that we’ve got him broken in.

Marg Jackson is editor of The Oakdale Leader, The Escalon Times and The Riverbank News. She may be reached at mjackson@oakdaleleader.com or by calling 209-847-3021.