Eight years of retirement

I've been preoccupied with computer problems and other stuff lately and let a significant anniversary slip by without notice.

Last Saturday was the eighth anniversary of my early retirement from The Indianapolis Star. And the Sunday before (Oct. 5) was the eighth anniversary of my mother's death- the event that precipitated my escape from The Star.

I won't dwell on the reasons why I quit as soon as I realized my mother had handed me a golden parachute, except to say it just wasn't fun anymore and everyone around me was feeling the same way. Within two years of my departure, virtually everyone in the Metro North Bureau of The Star had taken retirement, left for another job or just flat-out quit. It stopped being a news organization and became a newspaper factory.

Since then, I've done newspapering on my own terms, freelancing and working parttime for Maria's papers. I've written more award-winning stories and shot more award-winning photos since I retired than in my entire career at The Indianapolis Star and The Indianapolis News. Granted, I pretty much never entered my stuff in competition in the old days, but the point is that I'm doing better work now that I no longer toil in the service of people I couldn't respect.

My coworkers - Art Harris, Diane Frederick and Scott Miley especially - watched in a kind of stunned silence as I cleaned out my desk at the Metro North Bureau on Oct. 11, 2000. They never expected a precipitous move like mine. Actually, neither did I. I went through the whole thing with a kind of detachment - watching myself pull the plug on a 34-year career with the largest newspaper operation in Indiana. "Wow! I'm really doing this!" I thought as I stuffed file folders into a cardboard box.

I never would have imagined that box would end up in a garage in Arkansas.

And I'm still waiting for the panic attack that never came after I made that life-altering decision.