Sometimes I feel like I came into journalism late, that I’m behind people like Brian and Jacob who did it in high school. However, I had in fact been a reporter, editor, publisher, pressman and delivery boy long before I ever got a byline in the Evergreen.

I founded and ran the New News Newspaper for my second-grade class. It think it published about monthly, and I’d completely forgotten about it until I found this old copy. It was one of the first issues, maybe the actual first one. There weren’t that many total. As usual, I apparently got into journalism due to boredom and needing a challenge.

It’s not especially professional, but I apparently knew that:

I like the guidelines I wrote at the time for getting an article into the paper. They’re not that different from the tip sheets I wrote for the Evergreen when I was editor:

1. Find Lisa Waananen and tell her something.

2. The thing you tell her must be exciting

3. Things that are gross or bloody are not allowed.*

4. You do not have to put a article in New News Newspaper.

*I think Rule 3 was preemptive against a classmate. Joel, who is mentioned in this issue for his birthday, was the “smart boy” in the class and an expert on World War II. He had a crush on me, so he liked telling me about the war and calling me “jailbird” for some reason, which I found intolerably annoying.