George,

I was sorry (tho not surprised) to hear of the Observer's demise. It had been in a great decline for quite some time now (and not just dating from Peyton's ownership).

I worked at the Observer for two years, back in the early 80's, and, as my then co-workers and now long-time friends and I like to say, it was the best of jobs, it was the worst of jobs.

Kay Peaslee is correct when she says in the Hook that the salaries she paid were "wretched." I started at $3.50 an hour. I think I was making slightly over $5.00 when I left after nearly two years -- and I was the senior person in the news/production department.

I became the production manager after less than a year. Turnover was very high -- it was a stressful working environment. However, the staff managed to bond together and have a good time, which kept many of us on after we might have left.

One of the reasons we stayed was because of the editorial content of the paper. Although Kay could be difficult to work with, she did give a lot of latitude to the writers, and so we wrote about those local issues, and national issues with a local "hook," that we felt were important, and not being covered by the Daily Progress. We were able to write about things that mattered to us: we wrote about the misleading unemployment figures, teen pregnancy, D. French Slaughter's unwillingness to dialogue with local nuclear-freeze activists, and many other issues that otherwise would not have seen the light of day.

One of Kay's especial strengths as an editor was spotting -- and creating a forum for -- local talent. The Observer was filled with the voices of people with a real connection to the community who had something interesting to say. The Observer's columnists were one of my favorite aspects of the paper. I especially enjoyed K. Chase's ruminations on the natural world, and Paul Saunier's observations. ("John Carter of Earlysville" was always amusing even if not to my political taste.) These voices made the Observer so much more locally relevant and interesting than the current reliance on syndicated columns.

The first story I ever wrote was about the opening of the Exchange Center, now the location of the Downtown Grill and SELC. At the ribbon cutting, I interviewed Satyendra Huja. When I asked how to spell his name, he told me I could just get the spelling from Kay. I also covered the meeting that Rep. Slaughter finally had with the nuclear-disarmament folks. It was remarkable in that they were so much more well-informed than he on issues of national security and the arms race with the Soviets.

In reading over my old clips and other saved issues I have, I see that the quality of the writing was very high, and the articles far more in-depth than the Daily Progress. Even the C-ville and Hook don't fill the niche left by the original Observer. I certainly hope that the Observer's morgue doesn't get lost by the wayside. There's a wealth of local history in those old files.

Valerie L'Herrou (electronic mail, September 1, 2004)