Hip Czech
by CYNDY SLOVAK-BARTON
The start of a new year is always the perfect time to reflect on the past.
But sometimes the past slams headlong into you, reminding you to slow down and appreciate your friends.
When the past comes at you twice in one day, it’s really time to stand still and pay attention.
And so it went a couple of days before Christmas – with two different phone calls – one from a former professor at Baylor University, and one from the family member of a former Hays Free Press employee.
Both of those friends – the employee and the professor – seemed to be saying “Keep the faith.”
Above my desk is a note sent to me from Dot Moore. She inspired me, and I don’t believe I ever told her that.
Her note? “Never be satisfied merely with printing the news, always be drastically independent, never be afraid to attack wrong whether by predatory plutocracy or predatory poverty. – Joseph Pulitzer ..
You have kept the faith.” – Dot Moore
I don’t remember what story ran in 2003 that prompted her to send the note. But I hung that note above my desk and kept it all of these years.
Dot was quiet, distinguished. She worked in the Texas Legislature long before it was accepted for women to work there. She raised four girls, worked as a teacher, ran the book department at Colloquium Bookstore in San Marcos and, after her “retirement,” she made sure that staff members of the Hays Free Press crossed their t’s and dotted their i’s.
Dot passed away a few days before Christmas. The call from her family was not unexpected. She had been sick. But it still was a shock to the senses.
She was known to my children as “Mama Dot.” She always had books to read when, as preschoolers, my children would “make the trek” along the road to Mama Dot’s house, not knowing that I called ahead to make sure she kept an eye out for their approach.
Dot was a Democrat. She voted, she worked, she made phone calls. She grew up in Frost among working class parents and she never forgot her roots, travelling back to her hometown and always proudly displaying her polar bears, her hometown mascot.
Yes, she was an inspiring person.
On the same day, my former Baylor journalism professor, Dr. Don Williams, called. He had seen on the internet that the Hays Free Press had won numerous awards and he just called to chat.
We had corresponded over the years, but this time he was just calling to catch up and stay in touch.
You know the kind of teacher he was – the one you wanted to impress; the one who made you nervous when he called on you; the one who made you strive for a higher goal – making your story better.
We talked about his retirement, how his wife was feeling and what his children were doing.
And he caught me in a grammatical mistake. I misspoke. What a pleasure it was to laugh with him at my misspoken word.
He made me nervous then; he made me laugh about it this time around. It was a joy.
And, so, I closed out 2011 thinking about two people who wielded so much influence over me.
Last year was tough. The economy was down, employees came and went, and the newspaper business made a string of changes.
It was a year to forget, to put out of my mind.
Yet, these two people made me think it was a year to remember – all those who came before me and gave me hope.
Here’s to 2012!
