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Melanie Polk writes that "I can still remember the look on my mother's face when my father came home one day in the '70s and said, 'We're in the newspaper business.'" Their paper was The Watts Times, "part newspaper business, part group therapy center, part fried chicken restaurant and part family compound." Now that the paper is being joining up with the Los Angeles Sentinel, Polk reminisces a little in print. Excerpts:
As I recall that look on my mom's face all those years ago, I know she could never have imagined that this legacy of storytelling that is part of our DNA would have endured and flourished for so many years. She could not have known that I would fall madly in love with the journalistic creative process and rise to the challenge of balancing the books, with a lot of help (of course). I think she would have been proud that I remembered her mother's advice: Sometimes you have to tell folks to go to hell in such a way that they look forward to the trip....I wish only the best to Danny Bakewell, Sr., and his team as they embark on this new venture. I have confidence that my friend Danny will carry the L.A. Watts Times legacy forward with reverence and determination. He was a friend of the black press long before he became publisher of the Los Angeles Sentinel and president of the National Newspaper Publishers Association.
Via L.A. Beez.