Old and In the Way

I don't need too many reminders that I'm getting older. I'm not hung up over it. It's just a plain fact.

Today I saw a story in the local paper that a Peabody guy who was convicted of murder in 1992 was getting out of jail on parole. That stuff happens. But then I realized that I actually covered the guy's murder trial back in '92. You know you're old when a dude you saw get convicted and sent away to jail has already served his time and is out. Wow.

It was a strange time when I covered the trial. I was working for the Peabody Times as city reporter and had just moved into this very house, albeit into the apartment downstairs. The trial was in Lawrence, which was in the midst of a string of unsolved arson fires. The Rodney King beatdown by LA cops had just happened, resulting in the LA riots, and things were just tense in general in the nation.

The trial lasted two weeks. The defense attorney claimed his client acted in self-defense and alleged a vast conspiracy by the Peabody police. It was pretty wild stuff, but ultimately the judge wouldn't allow the allegations to be admissable in court. I was pretty exhausted after full days in court and then coming back to write the stories for the next day's paper. But it was notable in that it was one of the few instances that I received overtime. And it was pretty fun to get out of the usual grind of City Council meetings.

Tonight we went to an old-school newspaper goodbye party for my good friend Susan, who left the Salem News today after 18 years as a reporter and editor there. It was good to see some of my old newspaper colleagues again. It's weird to think I haven't worked at a paper in almost 15 years (yeah, I write a running column for the News, but that doesn't count). I left because I was burned out after six years in the biz; it was definitely a grind. I had no idea newspapers were going to be in such dire straits a few years after I got out. I was just ready for something different. And that was when I was still single.

Now life is very different indeed. We had to leave the party at 9 to get the kids in bed. I was in my PJs 10 minutes after we got home. Times have changed.