Here’s to good friends
Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.
Do you ever read this Editor’s Note and think to yourself, “Man, that Burghart’s got ’er dicked; he’s got the best job in the world, the respect of his peers, his finger on the pulse of Reno society”?
Wah-hah-hah-ha. Hee hee hee hee. (Picture a tall bald guy slapping his knee as tears roll down his face.)
Sometimes this job is better than others. Last week was a great week—a combination of the investigative cover story and the Bars & Clubs insert. I heard from many appreciative readers, and I heard from people inside certain businesses who were emptying out nearby racks and discarding our newspapers (as though that would stop the news in this internet world). I should mention that I heard from people who didn’t necessarily like the content of those issues, but, knowing what I know from working on this paper for the last 15 years, I can say both those sections are going to be read by many people far into the future.
But still, sometimes you can’t hear the praise through the echoes of the criticism.
So at any rate, in between the highs and lows of emails and phone calls, I got a message from one Dave “Opie” Hilley. We used to tend bar together back in ’87 or so at Eddie’s Fabulous ’50s, that ultraschlock casino where we’d get up on the bar and do the mashed potato and the twist. Opie and I lost touch, somehow, over the last five years or so. Every once in a while, I’d check the internet for him, and once I even got a number that had been recently cut off, but it was like he vanished.
Anyway, he’s fine. He’s living up in Seattle with his wife of 10 years. Still fishing in Alaska and doing other nautical stuff.
At any rate, it’s weird: The noise of all the well-meaning strangers and uncaring acquaintances fades to nothing in comparison of that friendly voice from out of the past—back from those days when the most important thing was whether we’d be able to scrape enough change out of the couch to have a good time on Sunday morning.