Hyrum Crusader

Between the time I graduated from high school, and when I went on my mission, I published in Hyrum a city paper.  I had several ins that made me a good person to do this.  My brother and I had run the city recreation programs for several years.  I was also a curious sort of a person, and had friends who were willing to help.  I found a printer, Downs Printing, who were willing to print for a reduced fee.  I also new the owners of one of the businesses in Hyrum, and my brother-in-law helped manage so I had a source of advertising.

So I was up and running as a newspaper man who had no idea of what he was doing.  I went to every business in the community to ask if they would be willing to advertise.  There weren't that many as Hyrum was a small community, and dominated by, where most went to do shopping and business.  However in the end, we even had some advertising from Logan.

I didn't charge much to advertise.  I just wanted to break even rather than make a big profit.  I had  Hyrum Crusader account at the bank, and it had some money when I went on my mission, (a few dollars) but as the account went inactive the bank closed the account and took this little bit.
 We had fun.  We wrote stories about the local sports teams, Little League and Jr. High sports.  At that time there was no high school in Hyrum.  We did some investigative work.  One time I called a sample from town to ask people what they thought about the noise from snow mobiles in town.  I wrote a story when the city allowed the place recognized as the founding spot of Hyrum, to be destroyed by development.  They moved the plaque to a new park, but it was not the same.  I took pictures of the light poles for the lights at the new ball diamonds.  I even attended city counsel meetings and wrote articles about what was discussed.

Sherrie Nelson, a friend from Hyrum, was my co editor.  I also recruited family members to write for me.  My brother-in-law wrote Clyde's Corner, My sister Personality of the month.  There were also others who would provide articles.  Another friend, Sherrie McBride, wrote about the civic clubs.  Carol DeBolt was my agitator.  She was the parent of my friends, and a friend herself.  She would get me going on local politics.  Fortunately I didn't usually put in all she said, otherwise I would have been hated, but it was fun to have the frame of reference.

When I went on my mission, the little paper died, but I had a mission in life to come home and study journalism and go into the newspaper business, which is what I studied, until I decided I wanted to pursue a different career.