FAIRMONT TIMES WILL BE THERE JULY 17. WILL YOU?

 

Fairmont Times to cover and photgraph July 17 J&J&Lions Get-Together in Monongah Town Hall

 

The Fairmont Times will be at the July 17 J&J&Lions Get-Together in the Monongah Town Hall to interview me and to take photos.

So, if you make your Reservation for the party within the next few days you might get your picture in the Fairmont Times.

Maybe Fairmont Times editor Eric Cravey put the reporter up to it. In May, Cravey found one of my articles so interesting that he asked me if I wanted to be the Times’ Monongah columnist.

I appreciated the offer but rejected it because:

1. I live 195.9 miles from Monongah, where I was born in my Olesky grandparents’ house on Walnut Street.

2. I’ve been retired 25 years after a 43-year newspaper career and want to stay retired.

3. I only do the 2 blogs – Monongah High Alumni blog and Akron Beacon Journal retirees’ blog – to keep my brain from atrophy. They draw 7,000 visitors a month so there much be something there worth reading.

I have a lot of connections to the Fairmont Times over the years.

As a Monongah High student I regularly had my poetry published in the Fairmont Times.

Bill Evans was sports editor of the Fairmont Times and used so many big words that he drove me to the dictionary to find out what they meant . . . and contributed to my education as an ancilliary.

The late Fairmont Times editor John Veasey and I were friends for decades. I tried to lure John to work for me in the Dayton sports department, where I was #2 in command, but he preferred to turn down a pay boost and remain in Fairmont, which was win for Marion County.

As I was ready to graduate from WVU School of Journalism, working 40 hours at week at the Morgantown Dominion-News under the helpful care of legendary Hall of Fame sportswriter Mickey Furfari, Bill Evans – by then the Fairmont Times’ editor -- offered me a job in his sports department.

But I turned him down, respectfully, even though he offered me more money than the Williamson Daily News, which needed a sport editor while another legend, Jim Van Zant (who has the Williamson football-baseball complex named for him as his permanent memorial), was serving his country in the military.

Why would anyone turn down a job for more money?

1. I was still an immature 22-year-old.

2. I felt that working in my native Marion County would be a hindrance to my career because the adults still would think of me as “that little boy John Jr. who lives on Church Street.” Was I wrong? Possibly. But I wanted to make a name for myself where nobody knew me and, therefore, could not pre-judge me.

It worked out well for me. I founded and was chairman of the first West Virginia High School All-State selections in 1954.

I advanced to the Charleston Daily Mail under another legendary sports editor, Dick Hudson, who retired and moved south where he lived till he passed away as a 100-year-old in Shady Springs, Georgia!

Then I DID leave for more money,  a 50% pay raise, by joining the sports department of the Dayton (Ohio) Daily News under another legend, sports editor Si Burick, Ohio Sports Columnist of the Year for more than a decade straight.

After a 9-month stay at the St. Petersburg Times in Florida owned and run by a national journalism legend, Nelson Poynter, again in the sports department, I wound up at my final stopping place, the Akron Beacon Journal, in 1969.

I was assistant State Editor,  newsroom computer liason, mananging editor Scott Bosley’s right-hand man and problem-solver (for situations that took more time than Scott could devote to it without doing all his other responsibilities) and, finally, television editor to finish off my 26 years of my 43-year newspaper career.

Two of my tactics benefitted the Beacon Journal by $5.3 million dollars.

For a coal miner’s son, I did OK.

And put aside enough money to finance my travels to 56 countries, 44 states and more than 30 winters in Florida of 1 to 4 months.

As for Reservations to the July 17 gathering of family, cousins, friends, former Monongah High classmates, Monongah residents who did not graduate from MHS and others, you still have a chance to join the fun.

Phone the co-host and my sister, Jackie Olesky Straight (thus the J&J in the title of the gathering), at (304) 278-7157.

She will give your directions to her house. She has Reservation forms you can fill out. Give Jackie $20 per person (CASH ONLY at this late date) and you’re part of the party.

Jackie keeps me informed of those who make Reservations and pay her.

Not only will you possibly get your picture in the Fairmont Times but those who enter the door (ONLY those who have Reservations) are the only ones allowed to buy lottery tickets for the items that Alabama football coach Nick Saban, Class of 1969, sent to me in a large box.

Top prize is a football autographed by Brother, the most successful college football coach in history (if you go by number of national titles), and his wife, Ms. Terry (Constable Saban).

More tickets will be drawn and winners can choose from what’s left on the raffle prizes table until everything is gone.

Best of us, the money from the raffle will go to the Monongah High Alumni Association scholarship fund to help North Marion graduates finance their college education.

Win-win, right?

So, will I see you there? Or will you be square?

If you aren’t there you can read the article and the photos both in this Monongah High Alumni blog and the Fairmont Times and wonder why you passed up such a marvelous opportunity to find something normal after our terrible pandemic year.

It’s your call.

To Jackie. To have fun. Or to stay home and feel left out.