30 years on the beat seems like it began just yesterday

Sometimes being a reporter gets a little dicey, but it is always interesting.

DAVID V. GRAHAM Journal Staff Writer

Once, I wrote a story critical of a certain county commissioner. The next time I saw him, he grabbed me by the shirt and tie, slammed me up against a wall and threatened to kick my ... tail. Fortunately, he soon cooled off and we ended up having a cordial relationship for years.

I started here as a reporter in 1970, and in many ways it feels like yesterday. Then, somewhat depressingly, I look around the newsroom and see reporters and editors who weren’t even born when I started my journalism career.

Mostly, those years have gone by quickly because I have usually enjoyed my beats, or job assignments. Over the years, I’ve covered suburban governments, county government, Flint City Hall, features, urban affairs, business, the Model Cities program and social services.

There was even a five-year stint as the paper’s theater writer and critic. For 15 years, I’ve been the newspaper’s outdoor writer and a suburban police reporter.

Some jobs I liked more than others.

Once, I was made a business reporter by an editor who assumed that because I liked being urban affairs reporter — covering downtown Flint redevelopment plans — I would like covering local business.

When I protested some months later that it wasn’t working out too well, in part because I still considered myself a leftist then, he asked me with a grin if I could spell “Arbela,” as in Tuscola County’s Arbela Township.

It was a hint that I ought to be careful before I ended up covering the boondocks.

Some of the people I wrote about have been a little tough to work with from time to time.

Some years ago, for instance, I wrote a story about a Flint city councilman who had rented a house on N. Saginaw Street to the county for use as an office building, even though it lacked off-street parking. I drove up to check out the house and discovered that it wasn’t set up for an office at all. Later that day, I found that the councilman had just purchased the house for less money than he expected to get in the first year’s rent.

After I pointed out these facts in my story, the councilman threatened — during a council meeting — to shoot me the next time he found me “peeking” in his windows. He was even more unhappy when the deal later collapsed.

Fortunately again for me, he and I later established a cordial relationship, although I still had opportunities from time to time to write stories critical of him.

I was also lucky enough to write a number of political stories over the years, covering a number of prominent public officials such as Jimmy Carter (one of the brightest people I’ve ever met), Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, President George Bush (the first one), the past three Michigan governors and several past and present congressional leaders, including Dale E. Kildee and Donald W. Riegle.

I was at the old IMA Auditorium the night before Carter and Riegle were elected president and senator, when both men were making their last campaign stop here in Flint. I wrote a column describing the highly pitched atmosphere that night that I thought was a harbinger of both men’s success the next day. Everything seemed so promising that night.

Later, I covered Jimmy Carter’s visit to Flint when he came here after his presidency to ask the Mott Foundation for money for his presidential center. I was waiting when his limousine showed up at the back door of the foundation building, and he asked me to wait while he went inside.

During my two-hour wait, a reporter from a local television station showed up and started waiting for Carter, too. During our wait, the reporter, a particularly attractive woman, asked me what I intended to ask the former president. I paused for a few seconds, wondering why she was asking, but then, thinking she didn’t want to ask the same questions, I told her what I had in mind.

When Carter finally came out, he walked up to me and I asked my first question. Then the TV reporter stuck her microphone in his face and started asking my questions! I was so shocked and so chagrined that I couldn’t say a word.

For the past 15 years, I’ve had my favorite beat of all times: the outdoors.

As a longtime hunter and outdoorsman, I really enjoy talking to men and women who share the same outdoor interests and pursuits that I do.

Nearly all are a joy to talk to because their lives are so full of joy, enthusiasm and a commitment to giving back to the outdoors. Along the way, I’ve been lucky enough to win four national outdoor writing awards and several state writing awards.

My friends here at work think I get paid to go hunting and fishing and goof off all the time, but I tell them that there is far more work to this job than they realize. They don’t believe me.

On the other hand, I can tell some of my old friends from my days as a political and urban reporter think I’ve been demoted to the dungeon — but I don’t see it that way at all.

Most days I can hardly wait to get to work. And time does fly when you are having fun.

Staff writer David V. Graham started at The Journal in 1970. He can be reached at (810) 766-6306 or dgraham@flintjournal.com.