Missing Millie in modern times: Lessons learned from coffee correspondents still inspire

Published 12:44 pm Thursday, January 8, 2015

Editor’s Note: Seth Truscott, Editor of the Valley Record for seven years, has left the Valley. Reporter Carol Ladwig is the new editor.

The newspaper I started at was a classic. It fit the idea that everyone secretly harbors of life at a newspaper:

• Did we listen to a police scanner? Absolutely, and a lot of times, we beat the fire department to the scene. It also helped when I was — very briefly — an EMT and had my own pager.

• In a slow news cycle, I’d do stories on people just because they were so nice. Or because the newspaper manager, thinking about the future, was trying to fix me up on a date with a local farmer.

• It was on an assignment here that I first met a deer being raised as a pet.

• It was another assignment that, after living in Minnesota for 10 years, introduced me to the great sport of hockey. I developed a love of the sport that continues today. No great ability to photograph it, though.

• The publisher’s dog “wrote” the occasional column.

• Every issue in the summertime featured a Yard of the Week winner, and it was always, always on page three.

• There was a linotype machine in the back, next to the darkroom, but we didn’t use it. We were in the modern age, of laser printing and hot-wax paste-up.

• We did our own inserts, too, flipping open individual papers and sliding in IGA and SuperValu flyers, and usually checking out the sales as we did it.

Paper day was always fun, but we were also glad to see the papers disappear into the back of the manager’s Bronco, so we could get onto next week.

And we had correspondents, one for each city we covered, except, weirdly, the town in which we were based.

I don’t remember all of their names, but I miss them, their hand-written “reports,” their absolute reliability, and their complete confidence that people wanted and needed to know the information they provided.

Most memorable among them was Millie, nearly 90 years old but untiring in her pursuit of the news. She made her phone call circuit of sources every Sunday night, finding out who went to coffee (that’s what they called it) with whom, who went out of town for the weekend, and ending nearly every bulletin with a “report” on something she missed because her husband, Felix, was doing poorly, or else just an update on his unpredictable health.

We used to joke that she added the Felix reports because she was paid by the inch. Maybe that’s true, but I prefer to think that she was just passing on her own contributions to the news. Fair is fair, and if she wanted to know about other people’s doings, she had to share her own.

It’s possible that someone is still doing Millie’s job, 20 years later, but when I think about people’s privacy concerns, and conversely, their ability to publicly share all their big moments online, I don’t really think so.

People probably don’t have time to read about those coffee klatches, anyway.

Still, just the thought of Millie dialing away, getting the hot news of the day makes me smile. I’m pretty sure she never touched a style guide in her life, but Millie, and all the local correspondents, are a source of inspiration for me. I hope, as the editor of your Snoqualmie Valley Record, I can honor her tradition.

So, if you have a pet deer, a column idea, or any other hot news tips, give me a call at (425) 888-2311, or send an e-mail message to editor@valleyrecord.com.