Whew … what a year 2021 was.
The good thing is if you’re reading this, then you survived and are still in business. Congratulations!
The night before I got elected TPA president last January through a Zoom call – which was a first for TPA and kind of weird in itself – I dreamed about Capt. Edward Smith on the bridge of the Titanic. And I sure was hoping we weren’t going to be steering TPA on the same course and that I wasn’t destined to go down with the USS TPA.

As we exit the Thanksgiving holidays and approach the Christmas and New Year seasonal festivities I would like to share some thoughts with my fellow members of the Pica Pole.
1. I have not been a big fan of holidays ever since I ran Westward’s East Texas printing plant for 20 years and had to deal with holiday schedules. Sure — I love all the presents and food with my family. I’m not THAT much of a Grinch.

Happy September - or is it still August? I don’t really know if I’m coming or going these days. No doubt I am not in this leaky boat by myself. Am I right? Suzanne and I are headed to the NNA convention in Jacksonville, Fl., at the end of September and then slipping over to Orlando for the 50th anniversary of Walt Disney World for some much-needed R&R.

It’s almost time to work up our 2021 Fall Sports posters (we include football, band, volleyball, fall tennis, cross country, cheerleaders, twirlers, flag lines and drill teams) for two of our area schools. Suzanne works very hard every year to top the previous year’s revenue and I expect she will do the same this year.
And no – you can’t borrow her to sell yours.

I would like to thank everyone who attended last month’s Texas Press Association’s 141st convention held in Denton. We all had a great time, learned a lot of new things about making money for our newspapers, and got to visit with dear old friends while making many new friends.

If the mail service has improved, you should be reading this column before heading out to the 141st Texas Press Association Convention in Denton June 10-12.

You are coming, aren’t you?

After all you’ve been through this past year you really deserve a convention and some newspaper fellowship! And I promise this won’t be one of those Chicken Little conventions where all we talk about is how the “sky is falling.”

Suzanne and I were privileged to attend the first combined regional press association convention between the North & East Texas Press Association (NETPA) and the West Texas Press Association (WTPA) held in Rockwall in April. We are planning to attend the Texas Gulf Coast Press Association convention this month and the other association’s conventions this summer.

It is taking 10-14 days for my Lindale News & Times newspaper to make it just 40 miles down the road. It is mailed in Smith County on Wednesdays and is supposed to be delivered to adjacent Upshur County on Thursday – the next-day Thursday, not Thursday a week or two from now. 
I am sure this is nothing new to many of you, if not all of you.
I am losing subscribers and advertisers because of the lack of timely delivery. And when we ask the post office why the service is so slow we get no answers. 

Well, this is one heck of a way to start out my term as TPA president.
First, we have to cancel the convention in January and I get elected via Zoom – which was okay, but different and kind of weird.
Then, in February, Texas gets hit by the worst snowstorm in a decade and for the first time in my 45-year career the presses don’t roll and I don’t get any of my three newspapers out. A printed paper, that is. We still got digital versions out, like a lot of you did.

As I write this, most families are readying themselves for the upcoming holiday and new year.
However, many of us in the Texas newspaper industry are readying ourselves for Jan. 12 — the beginning of the upcoming session of the Texas Legislature. 
This session will be different from any session we have seen in the past—but how different? 
Well, this remains an open question.
Initial information coming to us from lawmakers was that we’d have almost no access to the Capitol, and most lawmakers would have their offices closed to the public.