When Collections Are Auctioned

  A few days ago, I learned that the Media General Art Collection was being auctioned off. That fact denotes another sad "changing of the times".

I was proud to have one of my pastel paintings, "Blue Seas", in their collection. According to the auction house documentation, Media General purchased my painting in 2001. I don't recall from what gallery they got it. It was one of 369 pieces of art in the auction that ended this morning.

Media General owned the Richmond Times-Dispatch that operated out of a building in downtown Richmond, Virginia for years. That same building was once also the home of the Richmond News Leader, the afternoon newspaper for which I served as a correspondent and wrote many feature articles and news stories for nine years.

We were in competition with the Times-Dispatch, so I spent many hours on deadline, on the telephone, and learning lots about being a good news reporter. I worked with John Gunn, an outstanding and very professional editor who made certain that every fact was checked for accuracy. That was a wonderful and valuable experience that helped develop my writing career.

When Media General purchased my painting for their newspaper building, it was especially meaningful to me. The printing presses were long-gone, but the reporters were still there.

Things change. Newspapers vanish. Art moves on. Because it is an auction, the new owner is only a number.

Times change.

Don't Chase Fire Engines

"Don't Chase Fire Engines" ©Mary Montague Sikes

Years ago, John Gunn, the state editor of The Richmond News Leader (an afternoon newspaper that no longer exists), came to our home to interview me for the job of area stringer for the paper. Gunn contacted me after reading my letter to the editor that was published in The Tidewater Review, the local newspaper where I lived.

"You don't have to chase fire engines," he told me that day.

Be alert, carry a camera, and be ready to promptly file a story, he said. The News Leader was always in competition with The Richmond Times-Dispatch (the morning newspaper) for stories. My job was to "beat" the competitive reporters which was hard to do unless I was attending a morning meeting and could file the story before the press deadline.

I loved this job with the newspaper even though, when officials decided to go into closed session to block public coverage, I was thrown out of meetings, along with the other reporters. This happened most often with the boards of supervisors of the three counties I covered. Until we were readmitted, we would sit together in narrow corridors, in stairwells, and occasionally outdoors when there was no other place else to go. Sometimes the closed sessions lasted for hours.That happened so often in those days that Gunn decided to do something about it. He co-authored Virginia's Freedom of Information Act that became a law in 1968.

Although I was often in rooms filled with dense clouds of smoke, I learned so much from the experiences there. I learned about local governments, schools, people, and I learned about writing and doing interviews.

Yesterday, as I watched one tornado warning after another come up on the television screen for our area, I thought about those early experiences with the newspaper. I thought about how that young reporter would have gathered the news somehow. She would have typed out her story and dictated it over the telephone the next morning. Then she would have taken her camera and gone hunting for tornado damage photos. Finally, she would have removed her film from the camera and taken it to the post office to send by special delivery to Richmond.

What a different world from the one in which I learned not to chase fire engines.

Recalling Freelance Journalism Before the Digital Camera

My first freelance journalist job was with the Richmond News Leader as a reporter and feature writer covering events and meetings in three Virginia counties. When John Gunn, the state editor at the time, interviewed me, he explained that while he didn't want me chasing fire trucks, he did expect me to carry a camera and report any breaking news. John taught me so much about journalism--training I cherish to this day.

The job was exciting. I got to keep up with everything in our town and in the surrounding three counties. I found that one of the hardest duties was covering county boards of supervisors meetings where cigarette smoke swirled from inside the rooms in heavy, thick clouds. Talk about second-hand smoke!

During nine years of reporting for that paper, I got to meet and photograph many of the most important people in the area. I dined with all kinds of groups from woodcutters to General Assembly members. It was an exciting time, especially for a young woman who never planned to be a part-time writer/reporter and who stumbled accidentally into the job.

So many memories came back earlier this week when someone asked me about using photos I took as a News Leader freelancer in a book a local group is putting together. When the News Leader ceased publication, I thought all my photographs and articles were lost. I am thrilled to discover they are not and am wondering if it will be possible for me to create a book using some of the published feature articles I wrote on my typewriter after extensive research.

In those days before the Internet, I dictated news stories over the telephone to meet a mid-morning deadline for the afternoon newspaper. Feature articles went by way of the postal service. I mailed rolls of film Special Delivery or, if urgent, sent them by someone who worked in the city near the newspaper offices.

It's amazing how much everything changed from the last years of the 20th century to now. Because of digital pictures, the change in photography is especially profound.

I look back on those freelance writing and photography days with nostalgia. The big newspapers are almost all gone now, replaced in many cases with what look like pamphlets. While I love my digital camera, I'm glad I have memories of opening the pages of those city papers and finding my byline and photographs with the credit, "Sikes photo".