I don’t have kids, and I don’t want to leave my detritus for my nieces and nephews. (There will be enough Stuff of Life for them to deal with anyway.) Thanks for the reminder!
Rachel, this resonates with me! I was a copywriter for the Sears catalog in the mid to late 80’s. My beat? The women’s lingerie department .
After obtaining a totally useless communications degree, I bounced around a bunch of low paying jobs at various enterprises that were akin to Levy Pants of “Confederacy of Dunces.” One day I was taking my lunch break at a coffee shop and overheard a couple discussing “the Sears copywriting test.” I paid my tab and walked from Chicago Avenue to Sears Tower, took the elevator to the 33rd floor Human Resources department, and asked the receptionist about this writers test they supposedly offered. Without pause, she handed me a catalog and a large envelope with the test. She told me to return it upon completion.
After six years at Sears, I had amassed an enormous stack of writing samples and every catalog they appeared in. They took up several bankers boxes that moved with us for years (my husband worked for radio stations and the Chicago Tribune). I mean they took up an enormous amount of space and weighed a ton. Finally, after six moves my husband and I left them in the alley.
After Sears, I worked for Hasbro/Playskool/Tonka in Pawtucket,RI. That portfolio which included packaging, toy assembly instructions, and GI Joe bios was a casualty of one of the “hundred year” floods that swamped our basement in 2020.
There are times I miss those tangible results of my work life. I was lucky to stumble into a career that paid the bills, was interesting and was also a lot of fun. But now I know that if I google Monster Face Hasbro, I can summon one of my favorite projects to appear like magic on my laptop screen.
I thought I’d be a journalist -- JBA UW-Madison and one huge folder of clippings. When the basement floods, I’m always afraid to check if they’ve been ruined yet.
Hi fellow Badger! I was at UW Madison - Communications major. (Totally useless major but took some fantastic Film courses). Live in the Chicago area and lost an entire portfolio of work to one of the “One hundred year floods” we get every few years.
Hello, Jennifer! So fun to meet you here. Were you hunkered down in Vilas Hall for your degree? I don’t remember much of what I learned except for the rules of AP Style from class and editing tests. It came in handy until I began teaching English at UWO & had to unlearn AP for the sake of MLA 🙃
Nice to meet you, Laura! Yes, Vilas Hall and the Union were ground zero during my time at Madison! I wish I had learned AP Style because it would have been a big help in my career, but I never thought I’d write for a living, and I hadn’t been taught even basic grammar (went to a “non-traditional” grade school). Are you still teaching at UWO and do you ever get back to Madison? One of my best and oldest friends lives there and I visit from time to time. It’s astonishing how built up it’s become!
I do still teach at UWO -- 20 years & counting -- but always thinking about shifting away. UWO is in shambles, sadly. But I still love my students ... good writers continue to show up! Funny you should ask about Madison. My husband and I are going there today for his 46th birthday. It’s hardly recognizable! What about you?
I got rid of my notebooks, but still have my clippings. They were good then, and good now. I may use them to teach introductory journalism when I retire.
I won 10 awards for my newspaper in less than a year. Two hours after I got my 10th, my boss hauled me into his office and fired me for taking another award off his desk and giving it to its recipient, who was in a depressed mood. I knew that my boss would present it in a nasty, backhanded manney.
Anyway, the boss exploded at me, fired me, told me "What kind of recommendation do you think I'll give you? I'll tell everyone I fired you for taking stuff off my desk! You won't work anywhere!"
Then he demanded I write him an apology on the spot. I called home, and outlined this to my father, a 40-year veteran of the advertising industry.
"He just fired you and wants a written apology?" Dad said shrewdly. "You don't owe him anything. Grab your coat and come home." I did just that, leaving the copy desk in my rear, an article still being edited. That was Wednesday, November 8, 1989...the day after my birthday.
Next day the Berlin Wall fell. Everybody was happy. I was upset...I was the editorial writer, and I had one in hand for it, but I never got to write it.
On Saturday, November 11, I went to my newsroom -- we didn't publish a Sunday edition -- and found my nametag stripped of my mailbox, my computer directory emptied., but my personnel stuff still in the active file.
I cleaned out my desk, dumped stuff that was important on other editors' chairs, walked out of the newsroom and never went back.
A few months later, I was interviewed for a job at the Troy Evening Record. The interview consisted strictly of the publisher grilling me abou thow I got fired, refusing to accept me saying, "That's between me and them," and then him chewing me out for my insubordination. Then he left the room. The editor apologized for his boss's harshness -- that was his style -- but I was appalled. My old editor had been right. Furthermore, I did NOT want to work there....I knew that if a staff member lost a box of staples, security would strip-search me in front of the whole newsroom to find it.
Anyway, it was clear my old boss was right -- I wouldn't work anywhere. Sometime after I got home, I pulled my awards down off the wall, and took them to his new paper. Two weeks after he canned me, he was transferred to another nearby paper in the chain. I slapped the pile of hardware on the front desk, and went hom.
When I got home, I found frightened parents...the editor had called them in fear over what I had done. I told my folks that I did NOT want those pieces of wood and plastic poisoning my life. They were lies. We worked out an agreement that when the editor mailed them back, they would not display them.
I went in the Navy in January. While I was in basic training, my father sent me a newspaper story. My paper went out of business 14 months after firing me, due to falling circulation. With me, it had won 10 awards. Without me, it won "Best Food Page."
The awards, along with more recent ones, are in my attic. I will never display them. Before I die, I may mail them to people I know who had told me that I was a lousy writer, along with a note that reads, "Consider these shoved where the sun don't shine."
Sounds like you were a great writer, even if your editor wasn't. Thanks for your service, both in journalism and the military. I think they're both saving us.
I got an MFA in Creative Writing from the New School for Social Research in 2001. That and $2.90 gets me a ride on the New York Subway.
You must tell me how you sold your stuff...I can't even get a nibble on anything more hefty than 5,500-word articles on World War II battles from WW2 History magazine.
At least I don't get offensive ad hominem attacks on my writing ability from Holocaust deniers on the History Channel's web discussion groups any more -- they shut them down because it was dominated by 15-year-olds of all ages.
Instead I get Facebook messages from women -- or people claiming to be women -- who are instantly in love with me and my writing ability...and can I help them out with some money? I give them the three "R"s.
Ridicule.
Reject.
Report.
The world is run by con men. Look at the Bloated Yam, leading Joe Biden in the Galloping Polls. The American people are going to happily vote away their freedoms and democracy to a traitor, bankrupt, racist, and crook.
Kate, this is such a beautiful reflection. When I bought my first house three years ago, I threw away a lot of paper, but held onto just as much, a good deal of that in boxes in my garage....
And I still have my notebooks and scraps and sheets of paper.
But your piece is almost an elegy, but with more sweetness than sadness.
Kate. I loved this piece as much as i have enjoyed all your pieces. Keep writing. You have a real talent and that will never go to dust. And tell J to suck it up and keep those boxes! Xx Margaret Atkinson
I relate to this a lot. I was an editor of a print weekly until my layoff 5 years ago, and now still write local news online. I also have published some in-depth pieces in the NYT and other places. I keep everything and worked so hard to get the most important pieces published, but sometimes I wonder which ones did some good and which just served to get me to the next step. I do know, though, that even the so-called "fluff" gets people to open a publication and read other important work. I'm guessing you have a list of stories you're most proud of, as well you should. I miss the days of print and the excitement of a newsroom. There is still a place for all kinds of news and features, just not as much in print, although I still prefer to hold a physical book or newspaper. The latter is actually a pleasure when I get time to sit down with it (especially the Sunday Times.) Thank you for gracing us with this great piece. Also, I have two kids and they already wonder why I keep so much stuff. ;)
Happy Birthday to your husband! Sounds like you’re going to have a wonderful time!
In the mid-aughts I started writing for nonprofit organizations which was really gratifying. At the tail end of the worst of the pandemic I got back into photography, a hobby on and off since high school. Been taking classes and workshops but want to do more- maybe a part time gig of some kind. Things are so different now!
So well put - the fleeing nature of things that once mattered so much. And I love the ending, imagining your kids. Beautiful piece!
I don’t have kids, and I don’t want to leave my detritus for my nieces and nephews. (There will be enough Stuff of Life for them to deal with anyway.) Thanks for the reminder!
Rachel, this resonates with me! I was a copywriter for the Sears catalog in the mid to late 80’s. My beat? The women’s lingerie department .
After obtaining a totally useless communications degree, I bounced around a bunch of low paying jobs at various enterprises that were akin to Levy Pants of “Confederacy of Dunces.” One day I was taking my lunch break at a coffee shop and overheard a couple discussing “the Sears copywriting test.” I paid my tab and walked from Chicago Avenue to Sears Tower, took the elevator to the 33rd floor Human Resources department, and asked the receptionist about this writers test they supposedly offered. Without pause, she handed me a catalog and a large envelope with the test. She told me to return it upon completion.
After six years at Sears, I had amassed an enormous stack of writing samples and every catalog they appeared in. They took up several bankers boxes that moved with us for years (my husband worked for radio stations and the Chicago Tribune). I mean they took up an enormous amount of space and weighed a ton. Finally, after six moves my husband and I left them in the alley.
After Sears, I worked for Hasbro/Playskool/Tonka in Pawtucket,RI. That portfolio which included packaging, toy assembly instructions, and GI Joe bios was a casualty of one of the “hundred year” floods that swamped our basement in 2020.
There are times I miss those tangible results of my work life. I was lucky to stumble into a career that paid the bills, was interesting and was also a lot of fun. But now I know that if I google Monster Face Hasbro, I can summon one of my favorite projects to appear like magic on my laptop screen.
Jennifer, this is its own offshoot essay ... from lingerie to Hasbro!
🤣🤣🤣 ohhhh the stories I could tell…
I thought I’d be a journalist -- JBA UW-Madison and one huge folder of clippings. When the basement floods, I’m always afraid to check if they’ve been ruined yet.
Hi fellow Badger! I was at UW Madison - Communications major. (Totally useless major but took some fantastic Film courses). Live in the Chicago area and lost an entire portfolio of work to one of the “One hundred year floods” we get every few years.
Hello, Jennifer! So fun to meet you here. Were you hunkered down in Vilas Hall for your degree? I don’t remember much of what I learned except for the rules of AP Style from class and editing tests. It came in handy until I began teaching English at UWO & had to unlearn AP for the sake of MLA 🙃
Nice to meet you, Laura! Yes, Vilas Hall and the Union were ground zero during my time at Madison! I wish I had learned AP Style because it would have been a big help in my career, but I never thought I’d write for a living, and I hadn’t been taught even basic grammar (went to a “non-traditional” grade school). Are you still teaching at UWO and do you ever get back to Madison? One of my best and oldest friends lives there and I visit from time to time. It’s astonishing how built up it’s become!
I do still teach at UWO -- 20 years & counting -- but always thinking about shifting away. UWO is in shambles, sadly. But I still love my students ... good writers continue to show up! Funny you should ask about Madison. My husband and I are going there today for his 46th birthday. It’s hardly recognizable! What about you?
I got rid of my notebooks, but still have my clippings. They were good then, and good now. I may use them to teach introductory journalism when I retire.
I won 10 awards for my newspaper in less than a year. Two hours after I got my 10th, my boss hauled me into his office and fired me for taking another award off his desk and giving it to its recipient, who was in a depressed mood. I knew that my boss would present it in a nasty, backhanded manney.
Anyway, the boss exploded at me, fired me, told me "What kind of recommendation do you think I'll give you? I'll tell everyone I fired you for taking stuff off my desk! You won't work anywhere!"
Then he demanded I write him an apology on the spot. I called home, and outlined this to my father, a 40-year veteran of the advertising industry.
"He just fired you and wants a written apology?" Dad said shrewdly. "You don't owe him anything. Grab your coat and come home." I did just that, leaving the copy desk in my rear, an article still being edited. That was Wednesday, November 8, 1989...the day after my birthday.
Next day the Berlin Wall fell. Everybody was happy. I was upset...I was the editorial writer, and I had one in hand for it, but I never got to write it.
On Saturday, November 11, I went to my newsroom -- we didn't publish a Sunday edition -- and found my nametag stripped of my mailbox, my computer directory emptied., but my personnel stuff still in the active file.
I cleaned out my desk, dumped stuff that was important on other editors' chairs, walked out of the newsroom and never went back.
A few months later, I was interviewed for a job at the Troy Evening Record. The interview consisted strictly of the publisher grilling me abou thow I got fired, refusing to accept me saying, "That's between me and them," and then him chewing me out for my insubordination. Then he left the room. The editor apologized for his boss's harshness -- that was his style -- but I was appalled. My old editor had been right. Furthermore, I did NOT want to work there....I knew that if a staff member lost a box of staples, security would strip-search me in front of the whole newsroom to find it.
Anyway, it was clear my old boss was right -- I wouldn't work anywhere. Sometime after I got home, I pulled my awards down off the wall, and took them to his new paper. Two weeks after he canned me, he was transferred to another nearby paper in the chain. I slapped the pile of hardware on the front desk, and went hom.
When I got home, I found frightened parents...the editor had called them in fear over what I had done. I told my folks that I did NOT want those pieces of wood and plastic poisoning my life. They were lies. We worked out an agreement that when the editor mailed them back, they would not display them.
I went in the Navy in January. While I was in basic training, my father sent me a newspaper story. My paper went out of business 14 months after firing me, due to falling circulation. With me, it had won 10 awards. Without me, it won "Best Food Page."
The awards, along with more recent ones, are in my attic. I will never display them. Before I die, I may mail them to people I know who had told me that I was a lousy writer, along with a note that reads, "Consider these shoved where the sun don't shine."
Sounds like you were a great writer, even if your editor wasn't. Thanks for your service, both in journalism and the military. I think they're both saving us.
I got an MFA in Creative Writing from the New School for Social Research in 2001. That and $2.90 gets me a ride on the New York Subway.
You must tell me how you sold your stuff...I can't even get a nibble on anything more hefty than 5,500-word articles on World War II battles from WW2 History magazine.
At least I don't get offensive ad hominem attacks on my writing ability from Holocaust deniers on the History Channel's web discussion groups any more -- they shut them down because it was dominated by 15-year-olds of all ages.
Instead I get Facebook messages from women -- or people claiming to be women -- who are instantly in love with me and my writing ability...and can I help them out with some money? I give them the three "R"s.
Ridicule.
Reject.
Report.
The world is run by con men. Look at the Bloated Yam, leading Joe Biden in the Galloping Polls. The American people are going to happily vote away their freedoms and democracy to a traitor, bankrupt, racist, and crook.
I was a copy boy at the NYT beginning in late 1987, then a news assistant for many years. It's probable we crossed paths.
Kate, this is such a beautiful reflection. When I bought my first house three years ago, I threw away a lot of paper, but held onto just as much, a good deal of that in boxes in my garage....
And I still have my notebooks and scraps and sheets of paper.
But your piece is almost an elegy, but with more sweetness than sadness.
Kate. I loved this piece as much as i have enjoyed all your pieces. Keep writing. You have a real talent and that will never go to dust. And tell J to suck it up and keep those boxes! Xx Margaret Atkinson
I relate to this a lot. I was an editor of a print weekly until my layoff 5 years ago, and now still write local news online. I also have published some in-depth pieces in the NYT and other places. I keep everything and worked so hard to get the most important pieces published, but sometimes I wonder which ones did some good and which just served to get me to the next step. I do know, though, that even the so-called "fluff" gets people to open a publication and read other important work. I'm guessing you have a list of stories you're most proud of, as well you should. I miss the days of print and the excitement of a newsroom. There is still a place for all kinds of news and features, just not as much in print, although I still prefer to hold a physical book or newspaper. The latter is actually a pleasure when I get time to sit down with it (especially the Sunday Times.) Thank you for gracing us with this great piece. Also, I have two kids and they already wonder why I keep so much stuff. ;)
Happy Birthday to your husband! Sounds like you’re going to have a wonderful time!
In the mid-aughts I started writing for nonprofit organizations which was really gratifying. At the tail end of the worst of the pandemic I got back into photography, a hobby on and off since high school. Been taking classes and workshops but want to do more- maybe a part time gig of some kind. Things are so different now!
Thanks so much for reading and responding!Your writing cottage sounds wonderful!