Roger’s notes on his desire to be a news photographer

“There was a big fire when I was probably in my early teens. It was in Palmyra, IL and on a very windy day. The fire was in the daytime. By the time I saw it, the fire was mostly over but several businesses on the SW corner of the main intersection in town were gone. The fear had been that the wind would ignite other buildings across HWY 111.

I have a particularly fond memory of seeing a car pull up and a pudgy guy wearing a hat jumping out holding a 4x5 Speed Graphic and started taking pictures of the scene. On the car door were the words, Illinois State Journal. I was hooked! Years later I got to know Bill Calvin, the photographer at the fire who, by that time, had left the newspaper and was on staff as GOP Governor William G. Stratton’s personal photographer. One year there was a National Conference of Governors in Puerto Rico. The governor wanted Bill to come. Bill brought his wife along. In an appropriate amount of time she gave birth to twins.”

Paper Route

“I had a couple of paper routes in my youth. One was a short lived of affair delivering the St. Louis Star Times in the afternoon. I had a much longer gig delivering the Illinois State Journal, a morning paper that was printed in Springfield. The part of the job I truly hated was “collecting” from my forty something customers. Since I was a small-time businessman, I had to pay the Illinois State Journal for my papers each week by sending them a money order that I got at the post office. To get the money I had to spend Saturday mornings trying to “collect” from my customers who, mostly, paid by the week. Some people almost never had the proper change for me, and I couldn’t handle a ten or twenty dollar bill. It was usually the same people that messed me up. The money I made came in handy and it allowed me to buy a “Cadillac” of a bike that would be worth a lot of money today. It was a Schwinn, purchased in a shop in Jacksonville, with a “tank” that contained a horn. It also had a “knee action” joint up front for a less bumpy ride. I still used my older Montgomery Ward bike that I’d got soon after the war ended.

There were several things that I liked about my early morning route. I have fond memories of delivering papers in the dark of winter under a full moon. I had the town to myself as few others were out and about. I was also among those who first discovered the damage brought about by a nighttime thunderstorm that included a lot of wind. I would proudly report my “news” to my Grandma when I got back home to have my big glass of Horlicks chocolate malted milk that was usually waiting for me to mix and drink.”