BY Vicki Gilhula
In the soundtrack of your mind go back to
September 1973.
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He got a custom Continental
He got an Eldorado too
He got a 32 gun in his pocket for fun
He got a razor in his shoe
And it's bad, bad Leroy Brown
The baddest man in the whole damn town
Badder than old King Kong
And meaner than a junkyard dog
Jim Croce's Bad, Bad, Leroy Brown was a big
hit that summer and continued to get a lot of airplay after the
singer was killed in a plane crash Sept. 20, 1973 at the age of
30.
That same month, Michael Atkins bought
Northern Life and in the Wednesday, Sept, 26th issue he was
listed as editor and publisher for the first time.
In September 1973, I was in Grade 13 in
Chatham, Ont.
I was attending a new high school, The Pines,
Ursuline College. There were lots of students like me who had
transferred from other schools to get their required credits. I
wanted to be anywhere but there. As it turned out, it was a
memorable year that stands out among many that are just a
blur.
Thirty years is a long time. Yet it feels
like yesterday.
You may remember wearing platform shoes or
clogs, bell bottom jeans that dragged on the floor. If you were
a
man of a certain age, you might have had
sideburns and long hair. The shag was the trendy look for
ladies.
In 1973, American president Richard Nixon
announced an accord had been reached to end the Vietnam
War.
Thirty years ago, Bonanza was in its last
season, while The Young and the Restless was in its
first.
The Montreal Canadiens played the Chicago
Blackhawks in the Stanley Cup and won 4 games to 2
In March of 1973, Marlon Brando won the
Academy Award for best actor in The Godfather, but Cabaret took
most of the other awards. Everyone was lining up at "the show"
to see The Way We Were, Live and Let Die, and
American Grafitti. The latter started an
pre-Beatles 1960s craze with the tag line, "Where were you in
'62?"
Where were you in 1973? (We would love to
hear your stories, please send them to [email protected]
or by regular mail.)
It was a time when a young woman from Chatham
knew she was heading for college or university; knew she didn't
have to be a secretary, a teacher or a nurse; knew she didn't
have to be someone's wife; and took for granted things women
who were just a few years older did not.
It was a time when the generation that grew
up on television began to realize that mass media had the power
to bring about dramatic changes in thinking. We just knew we
could make everything better if we tried.
I suspect Michael Atkins had those same
thoughts when he bought this newspaper.
And if my reading of that period is right, he
used his influence as a publisher to help Sudbury grow up and
out of its company town mentality.
In the coming months as Northern Life
celebrates its 30th anniversary we have invited a series of
guest columnists to share their memories of the last 30
years.
I am currently looking for 30 people in their
30s who are making a difference in this community. We are
planning a special tribute to these future leaders in November.
Please send me your recommendations.
Few of us are as idealistic as we were 30
years ago. But Northern Life is still an independent thinker-we
are not owned by a chain that is doing to newspapers what
McDonald's has done to burgers and fries.
In Ontario, the number of community
newspapers owned by independents or small chains of less than
10 papers is 105. The number of community newspapers owned by
larger chains, many of which own daily newspapers as well as
radio or television stations, is 106.
Sudbury is very lucky to have an independent
community newspaper. What was true 30 years ago, is even truer
today.
Vicki Gilhula is the managing editor of
Northern Life.
