March 31, 2016
I WAS THERE
A Personal History of THE AX
By Randy Porter
I seem to be the only one who could have told the tale. In those fleeting moments of the last day of my senior year in 1986, it was I who raided the Diboll High School newspaper offices and absconded with a backpack filled with unsold back issues. Those papers would surely just be raided for clip art the next year and lost to the ages. But my inner historian would not permit it. They had to be preserved for all time. So I carefully stored them away.
And promptly forgot about them for thirty years.
Some didn't make it. There are a few missing issues, and it's likely they are gone forever. The ones prior to the fall of 1984 I didn't work on at all. I became Sports Editor for 1984-85 and Co-Editor for 1985-86. I had my own semi-humorous column and was responsible for a bold new front-page layout which premiered in the fall of 1985. We had no computers, and it was all done by hand with scissors, rulers, and glue. We had our type set by the Diboll Free Press weekly newspaper, which is still in business.
It was a horrible time. A teenager in East Texas is something no one should ever have to be. I never wanted to revisit the past to this extent. And yet, I felt it was my duty. I'm doing some spring cleaning and a lot of the old stuff is finally being thrown out. If I trashed those yellowing old papers out without scanning them first, it wouldn't be right.
So, for better or worse, here they are. There are a lot of stories that go along with them, but I'm not going to be the one to tell them. I've done my part for posterity, and now I may move on. My duty to history is fulfilled. After all these years, high school is finally over.
RP
3/31/16
And promptly forgot about them for thirty years.
Some didn't make it. There are a few missing issues, and it's likely they are gone forever. The ones prior to the fall of 1984 I didn't work on at all. I became Sports Editor for 1984-85 and Co-Editor for 1985-86. I had my own semi-humorous column and was responsible for a bold new front-page layout which premiered in the fall of 1985. We had no computers, and it was all done by hand with scissors, rulers, and glue. We had our type set by the Diboll Free Press weekly newspaper, which is still in business.
It was a horrible time. A teenager in East Texas is something no one should ever have to be. I never wanted to revisit the past to this extent. And yet, I felt it was my duty. I'm doing some spring cleaning and a lot of the old stuff is finally being thrown out. If I trashed those yellowing old papers out without scanning them first, it wouldn't be right.
So, for better or worse, here they are. There are a lot of stories that go along with them, but I'm not going to be the one to tell them. I've done my part for posterity, and now I may move on. My duty to history is fulfilled. After all these years, high school is finally over.
RP
3/31/16
