Can we all take a breath now?
It has been virtually non-stop for us since mid-May, what with graduations for all three of the school districts we cover – Oakdale, Riverbank and Escalon – each with multiple graduation ceremonies over several days – not to mention postseason spring sports, end-of-the-year school activities and lots of community events as the weather warms up.
It’s time for a break.
We typically are able to slow down a little in the summer months, as there aren’t all the high school sports teams in action, but before we know it, the Friday night lights will be back.
Still, I am grateful that the pace will be a little slower for a while, as it seems to take me longer now to bounce back after a busy week.
The past several years I have not only covered but also volunteered at the Escalon High School Sober Grad Night. This year, my daughter forbade me (it was the end of a long week, I’ll give her that) and I was provided with strict instructions to “be home before midnight” when I was leaving to go get some photos.
Pretty funny how the roles get reversed.
Yes, I was home before midnight. Not much, but I made it.
The next day brought a handful of other assignments that had me going back and forth between our communities – all good stuff – and with summer activities like Oakdale’s weekly Morning Market on Saturdays and Concerts in the Park on Friday nights, Riverbank’s Tuesday night markets and the upcoming Escalon Park Fete, there is still plenty to do.
Just at a more leisurely pace.
Probably the most fun the spring sports season brought for me was following the Escalon Lady Cougars to the softball section championship game. This season, the schedule was so quirky that every single home game in league play fell on a Tuesday. Well, that’s deadline day for our Oakdale-Riverbank paper and there really wasn’t a way for me to get done in time to go to a game.
So, when they had a rain out on a Tuesday late in the regular season and the game was rescheduled for a Friday, I was truly overjoyed since it gave me the opportunity to go cover them. The postseason schedule gave me a couple more chances to be there, and when they advanced to the Section final for Division 5, there was no doubt a trip to Cosumnes River College was happening. Friend Matt Smith and I attended together; he does photos for the sports boosters and school district and we were the first arriving press so we were assigned these incredibly bright zip-up vest/smocks just so officials on the field knew we had a right to be there.
I would think the cameras, long lenses, notebooks and CIF press pass would have been enough evidence, but, whatever.
All the other later arriving press did not have to wear them. Apparently, they only had two. Matt and I ditched them after the fourth inning.
It was a great trip, though; an easy drive, a really nice facility, and a 5-1 victory for Escalon over Casa Roble to bring home the blue banner. I was also spared the cold water drenching their coach got, as I was doing an interview with her at the time and saw the players sneaking up behind her with the big cooler of ice and water, sidestepping just in time.
The other day, my granddaughter was practicing writing her numbers and she asked: “Mimi, are you old?” and then asked me what my ‘number’ was so she could write it down. When I said the number out loud, I thought ‘that used to seem old’ – now … it’s just a number.
Marg Jackson is editor of The Oakdale Leader, The Escalon Times and The Riverbank News. She may be reached at mjackson@oakdaleleader.com or by calling 209-847-3021.
