Did you have a childhood experience that precipitated your eventual adult career? I did.

I remember the experience vividly. My family had moved from the farm into a two-bedroom apartment on the main street of Ellsworth in early February 1953. I had just turned five and enjoyed playing with the other children who lived in the downtown area.

There was Jackie whose parents ran the drug store, Larry whose father worked at the produce and several other kids, including Marla, whose parents ran the weekly newspaper.

One day that spring I found myself standing in front of the Ellsworth News building where, through a big plate-glass window, I could see a printing press pumping out newspapers. I was mesmerized.

Marla, who was my age, asked if I wanted to go into the building to watch the press. Of course I did.

How long I watched the press in action that day can’t I remember but I do recall enjoying every minute.

My parents subscribed to the Ellsworth News and when I learned to read I read each issue, including some of the “locals” where I learned who had Sunday dinner with whom each week.

My seventh birthday party was reported in the Ellsworth News. Seeing my name in print increased my interest in newspapers.

Life went on. By the time I was 10 we lived in nearby Jewell and I was an avid reader of the Jewell Record. At the time, the Record was publishing aerial photos of area farmsteads on the front page and if you called the newspaper and correctly identified the operator of the farm they published your name in the next issue.

One week I recognized the farm so I called the newspaper office and said, “This is Arvid Huisman and I can identify the farmer …”

I was correct and the person who answered the phone attempted to confirm the caller. “You say you are Mrs. Arvid Huisman?”

Oh, my gosh! My prepubescent voice hadn’t begun to change and this guy thought I was a woman. I would be horrified if my name was printed as “Mrs. Arvid Huisman.” My uncles who loved to tease me about girls would have a heyday.

“No, no,” I protested. “I said ‘THIS IS Arvid Huisman.'” I was assured they had it correctly now but I sweated out the week until I saw that my name was printed properly in the next issue.

Life went on. When I was in high school I worked on the school newspaper staff for three years, serving as editor my senior year, and shot some photos in our little town for the county seat daily, the Freeman-Journal. When a well-meaning teacher asked what I was going to do with my life after school I told her I wanted to be a newspaper reporter.

That was truly my intention until I had an opportunity to read school news on the county seat radio station during my senior year. I was quickly hooked on radio and my career plans took a turn for broadcast news.

That went well for seven years until the new radio station owner decided he could hire someone with less experience for less money and I ended up without a job.

Word travels fast in a small town and a couple days later I received a call from the local newspaper publisher offering me the job of sports editor. I accepted and my desire for a newspaper career was rekindled.

Newspapering — in any department — is hard work and long hours. Few other careers, however, provide the opportunity to work so closely with and for the communities you serve. I have had the pleasure of meeting hundreds of incredible people who I remember with pleasure Oh, there were a few turkeys, too.

I spent 35 years in the newspaper business, hanging things up only when the newspaper I was managing was being ruined by bean counters. By then I was too old to put up with that baloney.

Now that I’ve been retired for nearly 12 years I can look back over a career that I could have only dreamed of when I was growing up in a little farm town 72 years ago.

But I do remember when and where it all started: the big plate glass window at the front of the Ellsworth News office in the spring of 1953.

Arvid Huisman can be contacted at huismaniowa@gmail.com. ©2025 by Huisman Communications.