Column Writing

2008 TPA Better Newspaper Contest

First Place D5

Lampasas Dispatch Record

Hill Country’s all right by Daily, it’s all right by me, too

By Jeremy Heath

When I unloaded my yellow Labrador, Daily, from her carrier last week and led her to her new back yard, she cut her eyes over to me suspiciously and asked, "What are those?"

"Those, girl, are what they call trees," I said, wiping some slobber from her matted tennis ball and slinging it into the corner of the yard.

"Trees, huh?" she responded, stretching her hind legs for the jaunt to the fence to retrieve it. "I think I like ’em.”

"Me, too," I said. "Me, too."

"And what are those over there?" she asked.

"Why, those are hills," I said.

"Hills, huh?" she said. "I think I like 'em."

"Me, too," I said. "Me, too."

"Now, go get the ball."

You see, where I come from trees and hills are about as common as middle-class politicians or truly clean motel rooms. And it was the presence of those particular geographic features that first captured my attention as my plane circled over Killeen upon my arrival last month for a job interview with Dispatch Record Publisher Jim Lowe.

"Isn't that something?" I thought as the pilot glided the twin-prop in for a landing smooth enough to convince the homecoming queen to take in a movie with the president of the chess club. "Where is the turbulent descent? Wait a second. Could it be the wind doesn't blow 30 miles per hour here on a calm day? Nice."

While the Texas Panhandle certainly has its charms (starry skies and cool evening breezes come to mind), there's just something to be said for beautiful landscape — the type of landscape that reminds a man there is a God.

To be honest, my interest in the position here was minimal when I boarded that plane in Amarillo. I accepted Mr. Lowe's invitation for a job interview only because he expressed such a serious interest in my services, and I wanted to be nice.

About 15 minutes after he picked me up at the airport, we passed through Ogletree Gap. It was at that point I started putting together a game plan to convince my wife the best thing for both of us was to quit good jobs, sell a beautiful home, load all our possessions and our dogs into a truck and move 500 miles closer to the equator. Did I mention our infant son, Landry?

Needless to say, my wife trusts my judgment, because we're here. And barring any unforeseen circumstances, I think we'll be here for a while.

The people here — at least the ones I've encountered to this point — are good people. I'm looking forward to meeting a lot more of them. I'm looking forward to chronicling the athletic careers of many of their children. I'm looking forward to becoming one of the people and raising my son as one of them.

As for Daily, she's still too busy exploring those hills and trees to worry about any of that other stuff.