By OSWALD T. BROWN
WASHINGTON, D.C., May 8, 2020 — I received a wonderful letter via email yesterday that really “made my day.” It was from a journalist in Canada who worked for two months during the summer of 1964 at The Tribune, where I began my journalistic career in May of 1960. As Lorraine Hunter explained in her letter, she was 17 years old and had “just completed my first year of journalism school at Ryerson University in Toronto and working at the Tribune was my first job on a real paper.”
“I accompanied you on many assignments and learned a lot from you,” Lorraine wrote, adding that I gave her some advice that she has followed throughout her journalistic career.
HERE’S THE LETTER FROM LORRAINE:
“Dear Oswald,
This is a voice from your past although I doubt you will even remember me.
I read your comments on Dr. Sands posted by someone on the You know you grew up in Nassau… Face book group yesterday and I was reminded of the two months I worked with you on the Nassau Tribune in the summer of 1964. I had just completed my first year of journalism school at Ryerson University in Toronto and working at the Tribune was my first job on a real paper. I accompanied you on many assignments and learned a lot from you. For instance, you told me always to try to turn a news story into a feature. I followed that advice all through my own career as a reporter on various Canadian newspapers including the Ottawa Journal, Toronto Star and various Canadian magazines covering everything from courts and school boards to interviewing kings and queens visiting Canada during our Centennial in 1967. I also had a public relations agency for a few years.
“I read your bio with interest. I am now 73, still writing and editing now mostly about gardening, but I was 17 in 1964. I had red hair and freckles. I was fairly quiet but an enthusiastic learner. I’ve been married to retired Toronto Star sportswriter Rick Matsumoto, for 52 years. Right now we are self isolating thanks to Covid-19.
“Just thought I would say hello and thank you for helping me to get started on a long and rewarding career.
Lorraine Hunter
Writer/editor”
In my response to Lorraine, I noted, “I am embarrassed that I do not recall your internship at The Tribune.” However, during my five years at The Tribune, Sir Etienne Dupuch, Editor and Publisher, took a special interest in the development of many young aspiring journalists that included a very active internship program during the summer.
I have noted on more than one occasion in articles I have written that I owe a great deal to Sir Etienne and Sir Arthur Foulkes, who was the New Editor of The Tribune when I joined the staff in May of 1960, for the special interest they took in my development as a journalist.
Actually, the fact that I offered advice to Lorraine that she says she has followed throughout her career may very well have been because Sir Arthur constantly offered me advice on how to improve my writing as well as the development of my vocabulary. One piece of advice that he gave me early in my tenure at The Tribune was to develop a love for reading, delaring that “reading is the basis of all knowledge.”
Consequently, I became a voracious reader and made it a habit to keep a dictionary nearby to check out the meaning of a word that I was not familiar with. I may have told this story before, but while reading James Baldwin’s classic novel ANOTHER COUNTRY, I learnt the meaning of the word “metamorphosis” and I used it in an article that I wrote.
Sir Arthur asked me what I meant by “metamorphosis” in the context that I had used it, and I quickly responded, “Change,” clearly proud to demonstrate my newly acquired mastery of a new word.
“Well then, why don’t you say ‘change,’ a word that our readers would be more familiar with?” he admonished me, or something to that effect.
Like Lorraine indicated about advice I offered her back in 1964, I have likewise complied with Sir Arthur’s sage advice throughout my journalistic career.
Lorraine, please give my regards to your former sports reporter husband Rick Matsumoto and let him know that I started at The Tribune as a sports reporter. I am also a former President of the Bahamas Baseball Association (BBA), the governing body of baseball in The Bahamas. Of course, baseball is my most favourite sport and I am currently a die-hard fan of the Washington Nationals, which I am sure Rick knows moved from Montreal to Washington, D.C. following the 2004 season.
As a former sports reporter for the Toronto Star, Rick more likely that not is a fan of the Toronto Blue Jays, so hopefully whenever this COVID-19 pandemic becomes history, Rick and I can have an ongoing long-distance rivalry whenever the Blue Jays met my beloved Washington Nationals.
