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Locked cars
February 08, 2007Everyone has their distinct personalities.
Their own peculiar quirks.
And that goes triple for our photography staff, which I've realized first-hand traveling many miles with them through our region.
We have four photographers at the TRN, and Jeffrey Haderthauer is the latest edition. He's been here about two years and joined the paper when I wasn't working here, so I'm just starting to get to know him.
One of Jeff's main attributes, in my own opinion -- MY opinion, let me stress -- is that he's not from a small town.
He's not necessarily "big city," mind you, but he grew up in the north and has spent most of his life in towns/suburbs not the size of Vernon or Henrietta and definitely not Crowell.
Jeff's not snooty about it, per se. He doesn't degrade small town life.
He's just not small town. AT ALL.
Which brings me to the story.
Anytime I'm out in the region with Jeff, I always laugh after we stop for an assignment because he always, always, always, locks his SUV.
Always.
We were in a cotton field off a little FM road.
He locked his car.
We parked outside the closed Megargel High School.
I heard the beep-beep of his car alarm.
We stopped at the Bluegrove Cemetery to wander around the old historic graveyard hidden deep in the heart of Clay County.
Beep-beep again.
And Jeff always does it, and I always make fun of him.
"Who's gonna break in? Coyotes?" I joke.
So you can imagine my surprise and sheer joy when he and I went to the Joe Schroeder Dairy in Windthorst two weeks ago.
We pulled up to Mesquite Valley Farms, a new milk bottling facility on the farm located about a mile outside of Windthorst.
Down a dirt road, of course.
We got out of his SUV and started to walk to the door.
I didn't hear a beep-beep.
Jeff looked at me and proclaimed his new-found trust of the region.
"Hey, Lara, I didn't lock my car."
And I smiled like any proud small-town mama would.
Posted by Lara Richards at 10:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
