“HELLO, THERE!”
Hey, wait a minute. I’m a radio guy! When I first received an invitation to join The Daily Star as a columnist, I had to stop and think about it.
I mean, for two decades now, I have started my mornings off by putting on a pair of headphones and cueing up an old country music song. And now comes the bimonthly ritual of putting on a green visor and some sleeve garters and licking the end of an old No. 2 pencil to start scratching down my thoughts for readers instead of listeners at an old oaken desk in a dark warren somewhere at The Daily Star.
I read The Daily Star, sure. Doesn’t everybody? But to work there? Well, I am definitely not giving up my regular WDOS radio gig, but you will start seeing my column frequently within these pages. And that will be a challenging mid-to-late-life adventure that I am certainly looking forward to.
In 1959, our teacher took my whole class of youngsters on a field trip to our local paper, The Sidney (N.Y.) Record- Enterprise (now the Tri-Town News).
It was dark, musty, kind of scary and smelly. Ol’ John McLaughlin (publisher) remained crisp as a dollar bill throughout the tour of the work stations and printing rooms of the old paper. He reminded us to always “check the facts … and then check them again,” as he orated to us about the miracle of American journalism.
The little Tri-Town News was the only newspaper that I had ever been inside of, and that was 50 years ago. But still, I do have vivid images of what the inside of a paper should look like.
From the 1940 film “His Girl Friday” comes the image of the old roll-top desks lining crowded corridors. Reporters darted in and out of their offices hollering at each other with great urgency.
All of the women in the movie were secretaries, until, that is, Rosalind Russell whipsawed through the place shouting down every man she came in contact with, including Cary Grant. I haven’t seen a roll top desk yet at The Daily Star.
Badger-like reporters with hair over their collars shook the newspaper world to its foundation in the 1976 classic film “All the President’s Men.” This Watergate epic modernized the popular image of newspaper writers and editors. Gee, I wonder if I will ever be called upon to meet up with a local “Deep Throat” in a dimly lit alley somewhere along High Street behind The Daily Star building to trade confidential news tidbits some dark night?
On TV, I watched with great interest as blustery Lou Grant (Ed Asner) battled royally with his polished patrician publisher Margaret Pynchon (Nancy Marchand) week after week at the fictitious Los Angeles Tribune. I wonder what the walls hear when The Daily Star editor (Sam Pollak) closes the door for a meeting with his paper’s publisher (Tanya Shalor). Fascinating.
I have worked in radio long enough to know that the transition to writing will not be without its travails. On my radio show, I just turn on the microphone and start talking, and I have been talking since 1989 on WDOS. I’ve written several books, all of them about our upstate New York region and its people and history.
And yet, a regular column?
My loyal legion of listeners know that I am a storyteller, and that I love a good anecdote or factoid. You can rest assured that those familiar traits will surface with great regularity in my column.
I’m an observer by nature and a chronicler by trade. I look for the story that makes you question your sanity, the story that tickles your fancy, the story that puts a lump in your throat and the story that will make you say, “What the heck is he talking about?” We’ll take this new adventure together.
Oh, and one more thing. I’ll be keeping my eye out every time I drop by The Daily Star to pick up something or to meet with someone. And I’ll be looking for shades of, say, The Daily Planet from one of my great black-and-white TV memories of the 1950s, “The Adventures of Superman.”
Will Sam Pollak morph into a Perry White? Are there modern-day Clark Kents and Lois Lanes out there hunting down stories? Is there a cub reporter like Jimmy Olsen feverishly at work in the back room at the Star? I’ll let you know if they really are here or only in my mind.
After all, like I said, I am a radio guy, and I have surely worked with enough characters like Johnny Fever, Venus Flytrap, Les Nessman and Herb Tarlek to know that television and reality do indeed blend together once in a while, whether it is in Cincinnati or Oneonta.
‘BIG CHUCK’ D’IMPERIO can be heard on weekdays beginning at 6 a.m. on WDOS-AM 730 in Oneonta, and also on Thursday nights from 7 to 9 p.m. on WSRK-FM 103.9 for his “Oldies Jukebox Show.” He invites you to contact him at wdosbigchuck@aol. com. His columns can be found at www.thedailystar. com/bigchuck.
Big Chuck
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"Big Chuck" D'Imperio
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I Was Just Thinking: 'Big Chuck' brings experiences, ideas from behind mic to new column gig
- Big Chuck
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George Wallace gives us the 'one-finger salute'
This is Black History Month. I regret that I was never involved in the Civil Rights movement.
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When delivering papers was all in a day's work
I walk to work in the morning. Shortly after 5 a.m.
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Readers who write get a little feedback
Well, it's that regular interval where we stop for a minute and take a look at some of the offerings from the mailbag over the last six months. And it has been busy. And please, do not hesitate to drop me a line if something stirs you in one of my columns.
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I Was Just Thinking: Inventors, writers and others pass on in 2011
Plenty of ink was spilled this year reporting on the passage of such giants as Steve Jobs, Andy Rooney, Elizabeth Taylor and a couple of baddies named bin Laden and Gadhafi. But let's take a peek behind the final curtain and see who else merits a tip of the hat.
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I Was Just Thinking: Stella turned me into a pet person
I never really understood being a "pet person." I just didn't get it. My wife, however, is incomplete without a pet. When I met her, she was in the waning days of a relationship with her dog, "Jake," who was a venerable elder presence in the house until she passed away many dog years beyond her typical span.
- Monday, December 5, 2011
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I Was Just Thinking: Waiting for a friendly wave that never came
My earliest recollection of taking a train ride was when my dad would take me and my brother Jim and sister Fran on the train from Sidney down to the Afton Fair. Mom would greet us at the crossings along the way with a baby in her arms and a big wave to the four of us.
- Monday, November 21, 2011
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I Was Just Thinking: Local youngster created amazing tribute to veterans
When I think of veterans, I often think of the older ones who fought in World War II. I honor all vets from all wars, but as my radio listeners know, I just love to hear stories from the old warriors of the Greatest Generation.
- Monday, November 7, 2011
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I Was Just Thinking: Remembering my small glimpse of the Cuban Missle Crisis
I read recently in a newspaper that the U.S. was beginning a "year-long observance of the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis, culminating in October 2012." Fifty years? I'd been following the crisis on TV as my mom and dad fretted over the news being presented by the dour-faced men in gray business suits who gave us the news each night on our brand-new Zenith television set.
- Monday, October 24, 2011
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I Was Just Thinking: A remote-controlled cooler sounds enticing
Here they come! I am ready to gird myself against the onslaught of junk mail that is starting to roll in for the holidays already. I do not buy from catalogs. Never have. Don't even read them. North Face? L.L. Bean? Omaha Steaks? Vermont Country Store? No thanks. Except for one.
- Monday, October 10, 2011
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I Was Just Thinking: I never took a hike in my life; would do it again
"Take a hike!" That is what my father used to tell me when he'd had enough of my smart talk as a kid. Unfortunately, I never took that hike. In fact, I don't think I've ever hiked in my life, either formally or informally.
- Monday, September 26, 2011
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I Was Just Thinking: Local traffic's got nothing on LA
I will never complain about traffic again. I just got back from a wonderful vacation with my daughter, Frances, in Los Angeles. I had lived there many years (and a million people) ago. While I was there from 1974 to 1980, I saw this exciting and vibrant city through the eyes of a longhaired wanderer. It was great.
- Saturday, September 10, 2011
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I Was Just Thinking: 9/11 is behind us but we'll never be the same
Since the horror of Sept. 11, 2001 is now a decade in the past, many will use this as a time to reflect on how our nation has changed since my generation's Pearl Harbor was visited upon our country.
- Saturday, September 3, 2011
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I Was Just Thinking: 'Radioathon' was about more than just donations; it meant love, sharing
Over the years I have been involved with many fundraising efforts at our radio stations. As far back as the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. We raised a thousand dollars in change and turned Main Street Oneonta into one large collection bucket.
- Monday, August 29, 2011
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I Was Just Thinking: No mystery about good works done by PEO
I get a lot of requests for speaking engagements. A lot. Most of the time I actually know who the audience will be. I've addressed more than 50 historical societies, dozens of reading groups, several museum groups and enough Rotary and Kiwanis luncheons to make me feel like the Toastmaster General of the U.S.
- Monday, August 15, 2011
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I Was Just Thinking: Back-to-school used to be a simpler affair
Have you seen the "back-to-school" sales now going on in stores? Ahem, hello? It's still summer! Which got me to thinking about back-to-school shopping when I was a kid in the 1950s. The list seems almost infantile by today's standards.
- Monday, August 1, 2011
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I Was Just Thinking: Messages from the (virtual) mailbag
Well, it's mail call time again. Every six months I like to recap some of the correspondence I have received from readers. I welcome any and all emails!
- Monday, July 18, 2011
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I Was Just Thinking: St. Mary's was part of Oneonta life
One of the longest-running chapters of Oneonta history just came to an end. Officially.
- Tuesday, July 5, 2011
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I Was Just Thinking: Small-town memories have universal appeal
This Friday, July 8, I will be presenting my one-man show, "My Town is a Cathedral," at the Oneonta Theatre. It is sponsored by the Green Toad Bookstore and is a benefit for the Catskill Area Hospice and Palliative Care. The show is a gentle look at growing up in Smalltown U.S.A. in the black-and-white days of the 1950s and 1960s.
- Monday, June 20, 2011
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I Was Just Thinking: Father's Day gifts reflect the man ... or the times?
Well, Father's Day 2011 is history. Hey, dads, did you dodge a bullet this year? Gift giving for dad is always problematic. Being a father now for nearly 30 years, I can certainly identify with the touchy situation that my own dad was put in on Father's Day back in the 1950s. As they always say, "What do you give a man who has everything?"
- Monday, June 6, 2011
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I Was Just Thinking: How a softball game can conjure youthful memories
While listening to a sports report at the radio station last week, the high score tallies for local youth softball games struck me as unusual. Eighteen, 20, 27 runs and more. Geez, I thought. What does a game like that look like?
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George Wallace gives us the 'one-finger salute'
