Forty years of a joyful career

I had a double degree in advertising and journalism and letters in music and to that point had pursued work writing jingles at advertising agencies. All this creative energy had left this girl who makes lists a bit bamboozled.  By the time I arrived home from Cleveland, the editor had phoned to offer me a job.

And so began a job that I have always loved in a community close to my heart.

The Redlands was a different place then and the paper a different publication.  It was a paid publication with a high circulation. Sometimes in peak period we would hit the 36 page mark. It was a heady ride in a publication filled with craft groups and parades.

I bought a car so I could get to work and took the windy single-lane road from Carindale, slowed by trucks delivering produce. My friends talked about bringing packed lunches to visit when I moved to Birkdale.

The Redland grape vine was a vibrant animal. I remember having a small surgery and wanting to keep it personal. On my return the councillor from Coochiemudlo phoned to see how I was. Someone had told someone who had told someone who had told someone. That sort of thing almost made the paper redundant.

I am relieved to say that my 40 years with the paper hasn’t been without its breaks. There was, for example, a stint in Sydney as manager of public affairs for a large bank. And then there was a significant break while I raised the children. Like my original employment, my return again was coincidental. I was chatting with a mother at playgroup and she turned out to be the current editor’s wife.  Again, a phone call brought me back. 

This time, he gave me a chance to write a little about myself via this column, a continuous glimpse of a happy life, since it was first published in May 1989.

It may not have been the most salubrious career, but it’s been a happy one.

It has enabled a lifelong love of writing. And it has given me a voice in the community I still am proud to be a part of.