When did this start? To my way of thinking the moment I had all my sophomore credits I was a Junior - I'm not a loaf of bread, for crying out loud.
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OK, that's it - on to the summer after my tour with KWWL.
I shared an apartment with friends from Trinity's college group, Mark and Jeff, just east of campus on 24th Street. It was not plush. There was no air conditioning - when it got so hot the overnight low was 80 I slept with my head on the windowsill so I could breathe in as much fresh air as possible. Their place also had interesting things in the bathroom - since I still had real early wake up calls occasionally I would share the shower with a couple (or more) cockroaches who would try to scurry back down the drain when I turned on the light.
I was back at KDMI (which had held my job for me) and took classes during the interim and each summer session to make up the credits I couldn't take during the spring semester. It kept me off the streets, as they say, except for the time I was on the streets riding my bike back and forth to work.
There was an attempt at math - similar to the math I took in high school and I thought it would be good to get a refresher in mathematics (one reason I chose Drake was Math wasn't required for J-school grads). I was wrong. The prof covered three chapters a day and I failed two tests during the first three days of a three week crash course.
It was the only class I ever dropped - I didn't "need" it to graduate and I didn't want to kill my G.P.A. So long, math!
The Political Science and Philosophy courses were much better fits for summer and I polished off 12 credits before the fall semester of Junior year.
That summer meant I could do something else, graduate early. With the right number of credits each semester, I could graduate in December 1984 instead of May 1985, saving my parents and me a bunch of money.
As the fall started I moved back into Crawford Hall with Scott. I took some of the more advanced Journalism (Broadcast News, Radio-TV) courses that made up the heart of my major course of study. Journalism Law was one of my favorite - it was tough, but extremely interesting to learn about the laws that protect the public via Freedom of the Press. There was a studio production course, where we created, wrote, produced, and shot our own TV situation comedy. I was cast as a nerd for the show (really, me?).
Death and Dying is something I still vividly remember - we had tours at a funeral home, crematory, and the cadaver lab at the Osteopath Medical College downtown. The lab wasn't gross - but thirty years later I can see it if I close my eyes. I enjoyed Philosophy and trying to make my point in the essay tests written in the little blue books. By the time I was done, I had a Minor in Philosophy which probably helped along the path of my career arc... but I never noticed any want ads looking for Philosophy students.
In the fall, KWWL asked me back to work part-time with their new bureau reporter covering the Capitol. Linda K. was fun and another great mentor for me - and before it was over I worked with Sheldon R. who served as another mentor and a great example of a recent Drake grad.
December 1983, my Dad came out for a weekend. I recall sharing a beer with him in the Olmstead Rathskellar and telling him I had met the girl I was going to marry. He was happy for me and bought into the plan I had dreamed up for the proposal.
Over Christmas break for the first time in college, I went back to Wisconsin and took Rhonda with me. Christmas Eve after getting back from worship services we sat around the fire, exchanged presents, and then my family got very tired and went to bed.
With "The First Noel" playing on the record player in our stereo system and in front of the fire, I got on one knee and asked her to marry me. (The asking of her father happened earlier when I picked her up on the way home.) After she said yes, the family came back down for the celebration and the next day we drove through a heavy snowstorm to Central Illinois for a family Mossner Christmas.
Break doesn't last long when a job awaits back at school, so soon it was back to Des Moines.
During the spring semester, I was selected to produce the Annual Bulldog Tales show - put on by the Society of Professional Journalists to raise scholarship funds. It was a big campus event - we got local DJ's to serve as Emcees and found talent across campus (resident halls, Greek houses, individuals) and had a great three night run. It was different than anything I had ever been part of - and enjoyed the payoff of full houses and seeing great (well, good) performances.
That spring I needed to find something else to stay busy and was hired on at Tait's IGA Grocery on University Street as a cashier. That, my friends, is much more difficult task than it might appear.
Scanners hadn't been installed everywhere yet, so each item was keyed in by hand. I had to make sure I wasn't selling to underage kids and to count down my drawer at the end of each shift.
One time, I was sure that the people I just checked out and didn't "card" were going to walk out the door and cops walk in behind them (thankfully that didn't happen and I don't know why I didn't card them). My next shift I carded a young looking woman - and the 44 year old gal was thrilled (yes, she was) with me.
Another time, I had a long line of customers on a busy day when a man asked me for change for a $10. I gave it to him - he said he gave me a $20. ??? I didn't know, figured the customer was always right and gave him his change. At the end of the shift I was $10 short - the owner was watching me count and re-count the drawer - and I was instructed that when giving change you never put the bill being changed into the drawer until after giving the customer's change back. There was also the warning that if I was $10 short again I would be a former Tait's cashier. Lesson learned and never forgotten through the years of volunteering in concession stands and other places I've taken cash. (Maybe you just learned something from this blog, who'd a thunk it?)
My second KWWL experience led to a radio news job in the spring, when another J student Chris and I shared the Legislative job scheduled around our classes. Working for KWLO radio I learned a different type of journalism with sound the medium.
One lesson from that session stands out - I was supposed to interview a state senator from the area. I finished my interview and went to send it via phone to the station. There was nothing there - zip, nada on tape. I went back, apologized, asked for another interview and returned to the phone to send the sound. Zilch, no sound, not even crickets were to be found. Tail firmly between my legs - I went back a third time, swallowed hard and asked for a third attempt. I finished, double-checked, and finally was able to finish the job and get the story to the station.
The exact value of that experience? Well, humility for one and learning that others are understanding about human mishaps. I would NOT have wanted to go back a fourth time - and I made sure all the mistakes and technical errors were resolved before the last time behind the mic.
When this session ended it was time to find another job - and what I found didn't involve radio, TV, or groceries.
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