Did not know she was a veteran.

[calimary]

63. Not too many, really. Every day was pretty doggone cool.

Had a few shitty bosses. Worked with a few backstabbed. That was treacherous going.

But the WORK - it was always the WORK. You had to go out and witness it, report on it (sometimes live on the spot) and then write about it.

In that job I was hired as an entertainment reporter. However, if I was the only reporter-type in the bureau late at night or on a weekend and there was an airplane crash at LAX or a highrise fire downtown, they’d send me to that, too.

But ordinarily my beat was all-things-entertainment, the studios, the films, the TV series and specials, the strikes, any breaking news - from casting to firings, from new babies to obits, arrests and trials and personal appearances and premieres and interview junkets and everything else, and every event and ceremony from the Oscars to some celeb getting their star on the “Walk of Fame.”

It was fun, but it was also hard work. I had three TV networks and a set group of studios to cover. But now? Shit - there are so many outlets to keep track of, I’m not sure who’s coming and going anymore.

When I was hired at the AP, they had one guy at the base of ops in Washington covering it all, and quickly realized they had to have somebody in L.A. That turned out to be me. But soon enough, they also realized it was such a big mouthful to try to chew through that it needed to be further. subdivided. So they kept me on the TV/prime time/feature film beat and added three more people to cover music: rock, R&B, and what they called “urban”. So I didn’t cover music-anything anymore. There were “specialists” too cover that end of things. Actually did me a favor, workload-wise.

I kept that gig til I retired because there were two new little people at home that I thought should get all my attention.

It was a wild ride while it happened, and a genuinely fun job! It was secure employment for the first time in my career. And it left me with a lot of cool stories to share - but only if/when somebody asks. I don’t like arbitrary name-dropping.