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Where's Anne? Smiling under a rain cloud
The downpour in Loudoun County this week flooded roads and ended the drought – but it also reminded me of how weather has shaped my years at the Loudoun Times-Mirror.
A few days after I took the job of county reporter in August 2003, my editor sent me to cover the aftermath of Hurricane Isabel. My newly purchased Loudoun map directed me toward the junction of the Goose Creek and U.S. 15 – which was underwater at the time.
Clutching nervously at my fresh reporter’s notebook and pen, I watched as deputies drove a boat down the highway and rescued a mother, father and two children from their home.
I knew at that moment that I'd better be prepared for anything at this job.
I wasn’t disappointed. That same week, I hustled to the scene of a bus for senior citizens that had crashed into a townhouse. Later, I had an angry finger pointed in my face, as a local activist informed me that I was part of the “liberal media” – before I had even written a word.
A little more than a year later, tornadoes hit Loudoun County. Ignoring the weather reports, I drove with my mother on Route 7, en route to dinner with my sister. The rain was coming down so hard, I had to pull over -- to what I hoped was the side of the road.
Suddenly, the rain stopped and an eerie calm surrounded us. The sky turned orange and debris began to whip around the car. In front of us, a black, spiraling cone appeared. My old, rickety Toyota Camry lifted ever so slightly off the ground and settled down again.
The next day, my editor asked me to write up this harrowing experience for the next issue. Eventually, I got a weekly column, complete with a photo of me next to various Loudoun landmarks. Readers were quite adept at guessing where I was each week – no matter how we tried to trick them.
All that traipsing around the county taught me a lot about Loudoun’s geography. It also led to many bizarre encounters, including a stranger approaching me in a supermarket and saying, “Hey – I know where you are! You’re in the Safeway! Do I get a T-shirt?”
Now, it's my last week at the paper -- after almost five years reporting and editing – and as the rain pours down again, I marvel at the intense variety of this job.
The industry itself has provided its own turbulence. Loudoun has added nearly 68,000 residents since I arrived, the newspaper has gone from subscription- to ad-based, and we know now that the Web site must attract our next generation of readers.
But whatever the format, the reporter’s job is the same – to tell stories about the community and to be the eyes and ears for the public.
I joke with my husband that I can’t drive down any road in Loudoun without having a flashback to a controversial development proposal, a tragic car accident or a major weather event. I never expected to become so intimate with my community.
Just like I didn't expect to meet my future husband in the Times-Mirror newsroom. But there he was, sitting 3 feet away from me, reporting on the town of Leesburg. We married in 2006.
And so I don't mind drenching rain. Hurricanes, tornadoes and floods – they’ll always serve to remind me of the exciting energy in the Times-Mirror newsroom, all the great people I’ve worked with and how much I’ve grown during my time here.
Unpredictability, it seems, suits me just fine.
Anne Keisman, assistant managing editor at the Times-Mirror, has accepted a position as an online media manager with the National Wildlife Federation. Read more memories of her time at the Times-Mirror at http://www.loudountimes.com/blogs/anne-about-loudoun/2008-05-14/goodbye-ltm/ .
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