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FIELD NOTES

In certain minds, ideas
flow copiously. Mine
confesses to have this

quaint affliction. Ever
since my late mother
taught me the magic The Thrill

of prefixes and suffixes,
I have suffered the
malady of the internal of the Quill
smile.
Reading newspapers Lee Coyne, ATMS

was my brain's daily diet as a teenager. Little
did I imagine that karma would involve me in joining
a newspaper staff one day. Yet I became a journalist by default.

What happened was a hope to attend a top law school that simply
didn't pan out. Thus reluctantly, Plan B was my new route.
New York (then my hometown) is the epicenter of publishing. The
rivalry was fierce. Fresh out of college, I met up with dead ends. Then a
good friend advised an obscure resource: Go to the Yellow Pages under

"newspapers." Also mail out one college paper feature as my preview.
That strategy proved an effective lure.
The first fish to bite, so to speak, was a NYC Black weekly called The

Queens Voice.
Publisher Ken Drew had never previously hired a white reporter.
However my credible recall of the famous Brown vs Board of Education
case that spurred the civil rights movement forward won the day. I got
the job on a trial basis. And soon was assigned covering the issue of mass

picketing of a restaurant chain that refused to hire Black employees.
That article found its way to the NYC Police Commissioner who
responded with a letter of commendation.

That was my launch pad in 1963. Over a dozen lively newspaper
opportunities followed literally from coast to coast. The big bug had bitten.
The thrill of the quill was now mine. It then gripped me forevermore!

VOICES! | SEPTEMBER 2022 21