Musing on a recent trip

Stephen Woody

The Notebook

The Notebook spent a couple of days in eastern Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota earlier this week, along with Daily Press production personnel, Chris Kennedy (MIS) and Denny Haulman (press). Some notes from a bang-bang consulting trip:

  • A longtime publisher friend, Don Mrachek, announced his retirement Wednesday morning. He has been publisher of the Williston (ND) Herald for 20-plus years and before that, was publisher of its sister publication, the Sidney (MT) Herald. I was fortunate to be in the room when he announced the news to staff. Throats tightened, there were tears and applause. He’s had a distinguished career. Don and I are in a number of group photos over the years. We’ve sat in ballparks, publisher meetings and solved any number of problems by figuring out the math on bar napkins.

    Don and I are big baseball fans and he’s related, in a shirttail sort of way, to Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew and has played golf with the former Twins star. In his younger days, while Don was playing baseball for Alexander, he hit a home run off of one of Williston’s better-known native sons, the famous NBA player and coach, Phil Jackson.

  • The Herald published Tuesday its annual local high school graduates section. (Ours is coming Sunday.) What’s remarkable are some of the class sizes. In Grenora, N.D., just up the road, the Class of ’07 was one person, Derek Bendixson. Ditto in Alexander, just down the road a bit, the valedictorian, honor student and likely the president of the class was Caydee Lynn Hystad. Both the Grenora and Alexader ‘Class of 07’ had mottoes, distinctive colors and such. Nearby Trenton had 13 graduates, and in Ray, home of the Jays, there were 14. Must say, there’s something sweet, admirable about school systems these days matriculating just one, or a few students into the outside world.

  • Over in Crosby, N.D., they’ve got a clever brochure singing the praises of its community. There’s a lot of “freedom” in Crosby:

  • Terrorist “free” for 102 years.

  • Murder “free,” for as long as anyone can remember.

  • Traffic jam “free” since Henry built his first Ford.

  • “Free” of long lines, commutes and short fuses.

  • “Free” of red necks, but not Red Hats.

  • Smog “free,” but with lots of black gold and lumps of coal.

  • “Free” of school security guards, but full of school books.

  • “Free” of strangers - everyone’s welcome here.

  • My time in Sidney, Mont., home of the Sidney Herald, was brief, but worth the trip. Sidney just built a huge water slide recreational center for its youth and visitors, using local oil revenues and not hitting up taxpayers.

  • Over in Wahpeton, N.D., home of North Dakota State School of Science and Math, the newspaper, the Daily News, is putting the finishing touches on a 10-year retrospective how the Red River flood wrecked the town 10 years ago. The “Twin Towns” (Wahpeton and Breckinridge, Minn.,) have come back stronger than ever thanks to the resolve of its citizens. A quick side trip also included Hankinson, N.D., home of the News Monitor, now in a new building. Hankinson, N.D. is the home of St. Philips Convent/Church Hall, a handsome building and campus.

  • En route home, we stopped in Pierre, S.D., home of the Capital Journal. Like the Daily Press, it’s celebrating 125 years of publishing this year. It’s a unique newspaper publishing opportunity - on one hand it’s a “capital city newspaper,” and yet on another, it’s a community paper for about 14,000 people, the second smallest state capital city. Pierre last year had the ignominy of U.S. weather extremes: one day, 22 below, another 118.

  • Ascendant country/western star Sunny Sweeney tonight at 9, at La Cabana/Sicily’s.

  • Saturday, the Montrose Botanical Garden hosts its 10th annual plant sale at the MBG. Good place to be outdoors and raise money. Starts at 8 a.m., next to the Pavilion.

  • Montrose Wine Festival benefits a variety of local charities. It’s at the Holiday Inn Express/Suites, tonight and Saturday.

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