I’ve been in the newspaper business longer than I can remember. Not that I started out five decades ago with a burning desire to be a journalist. As a kid, I read the funnies in the Sunday paper, but that was about it. No, I thought I would grow up to be an artist. Or maybe a rock musician. Because I had no musical talent, I wisely opted for the first option. I went to college and got a degree in fine art (yes, there really are such things).

After years of scuffling in New York City, I got a job doing paste-up for an ad agency that just happened to have the Villa Roma as a client. I did a few of their billboards (visible on Rte. 17 until they finally collapsed), and I soon became curious about the Catskills. The mountains seemed like a nice place to live, and I loved Grossinger’s Rye Bread, so my wife and I moved to Liberty in 1986.

Of course, there are few ad agencies and graphic design studios in Sullivan County, and after a few years, I found myself looking for work. Any work. A friend, knowing I was good with an X-acto knife and One Coat, suggested I try freelancing for the daily in Middletown, the Times Herald-Record. A three-day-a-week gig quickly turned into a full-time career at the Record. One that lasted fourteen years.

I did page one for everything from presidential elections to terrorist attacks, Friday entertainment supplements, Sunday special sections, pull-outs for multiple World Series, and countless maps, charts and photo illustrations. I even produced an award-winning regional magazine for the Hudson Valley. Then the paper was acquired by a hedge fund and I was laid off. Along with 300 of my colleagues. A common story these days.

A few years back, my friend Carolyn Bivins asked me if I’d like to do production work for the little paper in Livingston Manor she had helped start. Her timing was perfect. I said yes, and thus restarted my career in the news biz. At Manor Ink, I get to work with exceptional kids and civic-minded adults on a weekly basis, putting out a monthly newspaper that is, by all reports, greatly appreciated by the community it serves.

It’s not something I planned to do. I pictured myself hanging in MoMA; instead, I hang around the LMCS art room, encouraging our young staff to hit deadline. They do, and the paper comes out, and that feels great. Best career ever!