When I got off the phone with Karen Rogers a few weeks ago, I began to sense there was something different about Carson City. I was making long-distance calls from Washington state, trying to rent a house in what was soon to be my new home. The house she was renting was already spoken for, however. Simple answer, time to get on to the next classified ad.
But somehow the failed transaction turned into a 20-minute conversation, much of it about her love for this place.
Karen first came here in 1981 with her husband. They'd flown into Reno and were on their way to a resort in Lake Tahoe.
The bus stopped in Carson City for only a few moments to pick up passengers at the Ormsby House Hotel/Casino.
She looked around and a feeling of serenity came over her.
"I want to live here," she told her husband.
They moved here the next year and she never left.
"It just felt like home," she said. "I still feel it today."
I think I understand what she's talking about.
In my short time here, that feeling has settled over me often. It happens when I'm looking up at the snowy mountains or talking to someone in the checkout lane at the grocery store. And it happens with nearly each new person I meet.
I am the newest Barry at the Appeal, and you may be wondering what it all means to you, if anything.
Short answer, it means you've got a new editor to train.
It's an assignment I hope you'll take to heart, because there's a lot at stake.
The Nevada Appeal has been around since 1865, and has served its readers admirably. I'm not planning to be the first editor to mess it up.
Fortunately, the previous Barry (Smith) set a good example. There are very few editors in the country these days who get to inherit papers with a growing circulation, but that's the situation at the Appeal.
So, in some ways, if you hardly notice me at all it would mean I'm not doing too badly.
My predecessor left some wise words in his last column, specifically his motto, "If it happens in Carson City, it ought to be in the Appeal."
I think I'll borrow that.
But, if I haven't mentioned this already, I'm going to need your help.
I'm going to need your help in telling us what kinds of stories we should be covering. To tell me when we mess up.
You can even tell me what you think of newcomers. I've developed a thick skin over the years.
But you can be sure that job No. 1 will continue to be to put out a local paper that's useful, entertaining and fun to read.
We'll continue to ask the tough questions and hold our leaders accountable. We'll be fair and accurate, and we'll get you the news before anyone else does.
That would be a tall order, if the staff here hadn't already been doing it long before I arrived.
So my invitation to you is to drop me an e-mail, or give me a call. Stop by and visit. In fact, if you're one of the first five people to do so, you just might get a free lunch on the Appeal's dime.
It's your newspaper, after all.
-- Barry Ginter is editor of the Nevada Appeal. Contact him at editor@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1221.