By David Fong, Troy Daily News
I still remember when David Kennard walked into our newsroom seven years ago. My first thought was, “Well, where did they get this dork from?”
And as he prepared to leave our newsroom, my final thought is, “How can we possibly let this dork go?”
Often times in this business, we see our co-workers more than we see our families (which, when you have a mother like mine, isn’t necessarily such a bad thing, I suppose). In any event, it sometimes gets to the point where we start thinking of our fellow journalists as family members.
I suppose since he was the boss, some might think of David as a father figure — but I never did.
Mostly because if I ever gave my father a “Wet Willie” or a “Purple Nurple” or “Forearm Skin Burn” — all of which I tried to administer to David on a weekly basis — my dad would have beaten the snot out of me.
No, David was more like an older brother — an older brother that I was physically superior to (or at least an older brother that allowed me to think I was physically superior to him).
Last Sunday, David wrote his final column detailing all the things he’s going to miss about living and working here in Miami County.
And here’s all of the things I’m going to miss about David being here:
■Throwing things on top of the roof of the Troy Daily News. In the past three months alone, pumpkins, doughnuts and muffins have all been thrown from the street to the roof of the newspaper by David and I. Good thing he’s leaving before he put something through our publisher’s window, huh?
■Working with David to put out “The Blitz,” our weekly high school football section. You ever notice how beautiful some of the covers have been, particularly during Troy-Piqua week? Thank him.
He’s one of the most talented newspaper designers I’ve ever known. Afraid you’ll notice a drop-off here in the next week or so? Blame him ... for leaving.
■Calling David at home at 3 a.m. when the computers crash — then him not remembering our phone conversation the next day.
■Watching David eat a nutritious dinner when he pulled a Saturday night shift. If, of course, you consider an entire can of sour cream and onion Pringles, a giant microwave burrito and six gallons of root beer (real root beer, not the kind of root beer I usually write about) nutritious, that is.
■The Strawberry Festival bed races. How can we possibly continue this tradition without him? Much faster, in all likelihood.
■Buying various forms of livestock with him at the Miami County Fair auction every summer.
Last month, David and I spent an afternoon at the fair. We drank milkshakes, we looked at pigs, we played midway games and we won one of those stupid painted sticks (which I spent the rest of the day poking him with, by the way).
By that point, I knew David was looking to move out West and likely would be leaving our happy family soon. In the back of my mind, I knew it was probably going to be one of our final chances to hang out.
While I was happy to see him move on to a new opportunity, I knew all of our lives were going to be a little worse off once he left.
In his final column, David wrote that what he’ll miss about Troy is everything. All I’m going to miss about him is everything.
The big dork.
Troy’s very own David Fong appears on Thursdays in the Troy Daily News. With David gone, he plans on channeling all his abuse toward Chuck Soder.
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