A new media adventure begins

By Jeff Orvis
They say "You can't teach an old dog new tricks," but I with this posting, I am attempting to disprove that saying.

I've definitely come a long way since that fateful morning more than 35 years ago when I walked into a weekly newspaper office to begin my career and at the same time, they were removing the lead letters that had been used to set type for many years at the newspaper out the back door as we converted to offset printing. Those of you familiar with newspaper production know what I'm talking about. For the rest of you, it would be interesting to Google "history of newspaper production" and see how the industry evolved.

With this first posting, I am entering a new realm of communication and I hope you will join me for the ride. By way of a brief introduction, I was born and raised in the Quad-City region along the Mississippi River. I graduated from Pleasant Valley High School (GO SPARTANS!), attended Central College in the beautiful Dutch-influenced town of Pella, IA for a year, before financial circumstances sent me back to the home region, where I attended St. Ambrose College (now university) for two years.

While in high school and then while attending St. Ambrose, I had been a part-time reporter for the weekly Bettendorf News, where I gained much valuable training from the publisher and his wife. When I decided to end my college career, I was offered a full-time reporting job at the News for the princely sum of $75 per week.

After a couple of years there, I was ready to "leave the nest" and was hired at the Independence Bulletin-Journal in Buchanan County, IA. My association with that organization lasted about 19 years, including several publishers, several more editors and at least two owners. After that, my wife and I published our own weekly newspaper in that town for a year before financial reality hit. We then moved to the Benton County, IA town of Belle Plaine, where I edited the Belle Plaine Union for about 11 years before that paper merged with a neighboring publication and my position was cut.

My media career took another turn at that point, when I was asked to edit a community news web site in Belle Plaine, which was owned by the local community development corporation. A year later, financial reality hit again and the corporation board decided it could no longer support a full-time editor for the site and once again my position was eliminated. Several months later, I relocated to Davenport, where my mom generously agreed to allow me to live with her in her beautiful condo as I began my work search here.

As I continue my search, I was prompted to try my hand at writing a blog. I have always enjoyed writing a column for the various newspapers and the web site I've worked on. I write on a wide range of topics. I am very opinionated, which might please some and anger others. At times I enjoy and at other times I am frustrated by politics. I am passionate about sports, especially the Iowa Hawkeyes, along with the Northern Iowa Panthers and Iowa State Cyclones, as well as the Chicago Cubs and Bears. I was more interested in the Bulls when Michael Jordan was playing and was happy to see the Black Hawks win the Stanley Cup.

With this blog, I intend to keep my writing skills sharp, while venting a bit. I truly valued my time living in a city of just under 6,000 residents and later in a city of just under 3,000. I tell my friends that I really didn't live in Iowa until I moved to Independence. Before that, I lived on the Iowa side of the Quad-Cities. We had little interest in what was happening in places like Quasqueton, Rowley, Blairstown or Van Horne. I not only learned where those places are, but also learned that this state has a lot of good people living very comfortable, easy-going lives in those small towns and I hope to bring that message to a wider readership.

Thanks for checking out this blog. I hope to have the discipline to update it often and I hope you will find some things worth reading. My thanks to all my friends and relatives who have helped me get this far in life. My particular thanks goes out to Garrison Reekers, Belle Plaine city councilman, Benton County Sheriff's deputy and all-around good guy, who told me about blogspot. Check out his blog at

http://reekersresearch.blogspot.com/

More to come...