The Smoke Signal

Before it became politically incorrect, the Corning High School teams were the "Red Raiders". The school mascot was an Indian Chief. The school newspaper was The Smoke Signal.

I'm uncertain which came first, wanting to be a writer or writing for the school paper. Journalism was a senior elective. The journalism class edited the school paper each month during the school year.

Lawrence LaChappelle was my junior English (literature and composition) teacher. He was also the journalism teacher. We had an assignment to write about "Home". He liked my paper so much he wanted to have it published in The Smoke Signal. I was afraid some of the things I had written might peeve some fellow students. I agreed to having it printed as long as I could use a nom de plume. "My Home Is Devoured" by Paula Shane appeared in the next issue. Naturally everyone knew whose story it was and I took some teasing about being "Paula", but I was a published writer; heady stuff for a 16 year old.

There was no question about signing up for Journalism my senior year. My older brother had been editor of the school paper his senior year. I wanted to follow in his footsteps. The first semester I was a co-editor. The second semester I was editor-in-chief. Editorials and feature articles were my bailiwicks. I wrote news stories and solicited the downtown businesses for ads if I had to. I (think) I also wrote a sometime column; "Drum Beats", though I don't remember that for certain.

"Getting out the paper" was my number one priority. I know I felt as though I was doing it single-handedly because in December I was hospitalized for a week with pneumonia followed by a week of recuperation at home. How on earth would the paper get published without me? Much to my chagrin, it did.

Mr. LaChappelle encouraged me to go on to college and major in journalism. I might have done had my roll model been Lois Lane instead of Della Street. That plus his words of encouragement included this line: "I can just see you as editor of the women's page someday." I cared not a whit about the women's pages. I wanted to right (write) the world with my editorials.