After losing my teaching job at Cass City, I was lost and set adrift. The odds of me ever getting another teaching job were infinitesimal. I was lousy enough at interviews. I couldn't see myself trying to rationalize why I lost my first teaching job. It was a different time. You really didn't get second chances.
I tried my hand at substitute teaching with Bridgeport - a bit of nepotism. Although I didn't mind teaching overall, I hated substituting. It played into all my weaknesses.
Not having anything else, I decided to visit a friend in Atlanta who came from Bridgeport and was a close friend in high school. He had recently broken up with someone who he had been involved with for several years, and I went down in part to console him.
By the time I got there, he had already found a new partner. Through them, I met someone who would become my own partner. Long story short, I soon found myself relocated to the South.
My first job in the South was working as a Circulation Manager for a small daily newspaper in Cartersville, Georgia. It mostly involved managing the newspaper carriers, from boys on bicycles, to redneck couples in pickups, to retirees in jeeps.
It was a rough job for a young guy who was more of a creative type than a skilled, commanding manager. Fortunately, one of the aspects of the job was to run contests and otherwise motivate the delivery staff. I came up with the newsletter you see in the picture above. It contained information about routes, new hires, contests, and more.
It also contained a fictional serial, cartoons, jokes, and whatever else I could think of. It was a creative outlet for me in a job I was otherwise having a hard time with, and I thought, hey, maybe somebody would notice! Maybe the publisher would take notice and let me write for the paper!
Yes, it was just a hand-typed, pasted together, mimeographed mess. But it was my mess, and I was proud of it. So proud that when it came time for the Southeast Circulation Managers Convention, I proudly entered it in the Best Promotion Contest. I was so excited because there were only two entries and three awards in our paper size group! Woohoo! I was in like Flynn!
The big banquet and awards ceremony capped off the event. It came time to announce the awards for our division. The emcee announced the other entrant as first place but then made a joke to the guy as he came up, that "he was the only entrant in the division." Everyone laughed, and there was no second place. There was no acknowledgment that I had even entered. It was like I wasn't even there at all. Like I didn't exist.
It was also a place where I learned early lessons about Southern culture. 1) People had many acquaintances but fewer close friends. If they invited you to come by for supper, they were often being polite and would be surprised if you actually showed up. 2) African-Americans were more deferential in the South than up North - it was quite embarrassing to experience. 3) Whites on the lower economic rung did not respond well to yelling or arguments - they would become violent, scary quick. I got upset with an adult paper carrier one time and learned quickly to never raise my voice. 4) Most small southern towns are run by what I call the "10%" - these are important family clans with a disproportionate amount of wealth and a family name that commands respect. 5) Even though I had student taught at the heavily Southern Michigan town of Willow Run, it took me a while to get used to the accent. People would call to complain about missing a paper or other delivery complaints, and it took me a long time to figure out what they were saying. I had no idea that the word "Paper" had so many syllables.
Although I did not shine at this job and only stayed about a year, I was not let go. Instead, I left of my own volition for something else. Something I was both more suited for in some ways and less suited for in other ways.
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