Lynchburg: Math & English

Today’s big event was lunch with Joe and Ellen "Butch" Stinnett. He’s among my first bosses when I interned at the Lynchburg News & Daily Advance as a college student in 1983; and she’s my favorite teacher ever, who taught Strele and me ninth-grade Algebra. Carlton and I saw them in New York several years ago, but it’s been a good long time. Even so, we've kept in touch over all of these years.

We met at Charley's, then I had a full tour of The News headquarters—which I barely recognized from, um, 26 years ago. Can you imagine?They gave me a photo taken when I was covering a story as an intern, on July 25, 1983 (dated on the back). I believe I was interviewing a family that had rescued an injured bird. Big news! God, look how young I am. Life was all still ahead of me. A beauty.The offices of The News & Daily Advance.