Madison Taylor

I’m not in the habit of lying to Don Bolden, even when I was a young sports writer and occasionally came in late for work after a wild night out in Chapel Hill, Raleigh or Greensboro. Burlington in those days didn’t have much in the way of nightlife.

But even then I had to fess up and tell the truth.

So when Burlington Mayor Ronnie Wall asked if there was some way I could get Don to the City Council meeting on May 19 so he could be honored with a day of his very own, I hesitated a minute. They did, after all, want it to be a surprise.

Fib to Don Bolden? Hmmmm.

After a moment or two, I decided a little white tall tale couldn’t hurt. I told Don, our editor emeritus, the Times-News would be recognized for celebrating its 125th anniversary, which closed at the end of December. They just now cleared time enough on the calendar to do it, I told him. Could he be there on the 19th? After all, Don made a major contribution to our celebration series and special section.

He quickly agreed.

And thus the story was set.

Tuesday night Don was quite surprised when the mayor and council brought out a proclamation announcing that March 19 is Don Bolden Day in Burlington. It noted Don’s accomplishments as a reporter, editor, photographer, community leader and historian.

“You got me,” he said, and shook my hand. Well worth it.

Here’s what the proclamation said:

WHEREAS,Don Bolden dedicated his 51 year career to the documentation of Alamance County history through the stories published in the Burlington Times-News; and

“WHEREAS,during his 18 year tenure as the Editor-in-Chief of the Times-News, Don Bolden crafted the narrative through which this community consumed the news; and

“WHEREAS, Don Bolden’s tenure with the Times-News allowed him experiences ranging from interviewing American presidents, covering civil rights riots, photographing ACC basketball games, and bringing the stories of local residents to print; and

“WHEREAS, due to his tremendous wealth of knowledge, coupled with his most generous nature, Don Bolden has become an invaluable historian in the community.

“WHEREAS, Don Bolden’s mark will always remain in the pages of Burlington’s history not only for what he has written, but also as a result of his character;

“NOW, THEREFORE, I, Ronnie K. Wall, Mayor of the City of Burlington, in recognition of his tremendous contributions, do hereby proclaim March 19, 2013, as

“‘Don Bolden Day’

“IN THE CITY OF BURLINGTON

“This the 19th day of March, 2013.”

I don’t think I could disagree with one word. Thanks to the city for taking the time to recognize such a longtime significant figure in our community — and a newspaper guy, the one who hired me here originally in fact.

And hopefully, Don will overlook that little white lie I told him.

Several years ago, when I was working in Jacksonville, N.C. for the Daily News, we began planning for the newspaper’s 50th birthday.

Yeah, compared to Burlington, Jacksonville is a young whippersnapper of a city. The place wasn’t the size of Yanceyville before 1930. It wasn’t even the largest most vibrant community in its own county before World War II. Swansboro (shipping and fishing) and Richlands (farming) beat it all to heck.

Then, of course, the government came in and built Camp Lejeune and thousands of Marines and sailors called the place home for short periods of time. Tons of businesses sprang up. A newspaper, first called the Onslow News and Views — motto, “The only newspaper to give a whoop about Onslow County” — emerged under the guidance of first editor Billy Arthur.

The rest is pawn shop and topless bar history. Well, that’s too flip, but you get my drift.

Anyway, the 50th anniversary of the newspaper that would become the Daily News was to arrive in January 2004 — during my time there. We planned a big section to note the date and celebrate it with our community.

Trouble is, the community didn’t really want to celebrate with us.

Oh, we produced a special section and a good one. I think it turned out to be 12 pages. As it happened, that was quite a bit because there were only two advertisements in the entire thing — and one was our own.

I remember being dejected and depressed by the entire project. Certainly people there couldn’t hate the newspaper that much. It was a humbling and bitter experience. It truly soured me on the entire community now that I think back on it.

So when we began plans in Burlington to mark the 125th anniversary of the Times-News I was hesitant and a little leery. No one wants to be bitten twice.

But I should have known better. After all, one of the things I have always known about Burlington, Graham, Mebane, Elon, Haw River — and all of Alamance County is that this community supports its own. If there is a festival, people attend and participate. Local events don’t die on the vine for lack of nurturing. People here participate, volunteer, buy tickets and show up.

Believe me it’s a great thing that not all communities have. In Jacksonville, for example, the city has tried for years to have a festival. They scheduled it in spring, summer and fall. Each time it has failed due to lack of interest and attendance. Stands to reason in a way, Jacksonville is a transient town made up largely of people transferred there from somewhere else. It has a core group of longtime residents — but not nearly enough. What I can say about Jacksonville is this, in times of trouble, that community steps up big time. In a military community that does matter a great deal and I salute them for it.

But there is a lot to be said for living among people who support local businesses, schools, concerts, art, theater, festivals and fireworks shows on Halloween. The Times-News 125th anniversary section is testament to it. In all there were dozens of ads bought by local businesses and institutions that wished the newspaper well on its birthday. As a result, we were able to produce a 32-page section that could be seen as a keepsake for readers in Alamance County.

It might seem like a small thing, but to me it was huge and reminded me just how much I enjoy living here. I’d like to take this space to thank each and every advertiser who purchased a spot in our section. It was much appreciated. I would also like to thank the waves of people who visited our office for our open house on Thursday. So many stopped to speak and offered such words of encouragement.

I’ll never forget.

And here a couple of photos from events this week celebrating the newspaper’s birthday. Some old friends showed up.

Me with Jim Wicker (left) and Jack Sink (right). They worked at the Times-News for a combined 66 years — 46 of those were Jack’s. He probably took photos of every person in Alamance County during his time there.

Jack again, this time with our current photographers Scott Muthersbaugh (near) and Sam Roberts. These photoguys stick together.

I snapped this photo for Don Bolden who is with former and current staff members Tim Rodriguez, Don himself, Frances Woody, Jay Ashley and Louie Jones.

Wednesday for the 125th birthday of the Times-News we are  not only producing a special seection about our history but our regular A section will be inside a wrap — a four-page sheet that covers the front and pack of the newspaper. The wrap will feature photos of our folks — from newsroom to advertising to production and circulation — getting out the newspaper. Photographers Sam Roberts and Scott Muthersbaugh took the pictures and managing editor Jay Ashley wrote the text. Advertising will be included.

Here’s what the cover looks like — only the one in the paper will have an ad at the bottom. I love this photo of pressroom foreman Sherwood Bland standing by as newspapers roll of the press. Sam took the image. It’s a keeper. The romance of the press itself is a big part of why I love the work we do.

The bag used by Times-News carriers around 1950. It belongs to editor emertus Don Bolden.

The countdown to the 125th birthday for the Times-News on July 25 has had some unexpected pleasures. First and foremost is the reader interest in our daily publication about a historic event in Alamance County occurring over the lifespan of this newspaper. The feedback we’re receiving on this feature — produced by editor emeritus Don Bolden with help from managing editor Jay Ashley and design editor Linda Bowden — has been phenomenal to say the least. Nearly every day we get a positive comment in some form or another about it.

That has to be some kind of record.

But we’ve had great response in other ways, too. A story last week about the 60th anniversary of a state championship baseball team from Williams High School came as a direct result of a reader calling in something he thought might be of interest for the series. We turned it into a feature by reporter Molly McGowan.

And every so often someone in the community has dropped off old newspapers, clippings or other items they think might be useful for us. Often, they leave something they planned to toss out anyway. I told my spouse that the Times-News was becoming something of a landfill recycling option for old newspapers. “Yeah, and a lot of this stuff is coming home with you, which worries me,” she said.

You can’t please some people.

Anyway, just yesterday a woman from Mebane brought over some Times-News clippings largely about the Burlington YMCA. But her folder included other items. There was a column by my longtime friend and former colleague, retired reporter Jim Wicker (it’s about Scrabble, by the way). She also had the final column written by syndicated writer L.M. Boyd, a newspaper photo of my former boss and sports editor, the late Bill Hunter and a postcard showing downtown Graham in around 1900. All were in great condition. The same couldn’t be said for a 1905 newspaper from Knoxville, Tenn. She found it behind a framed item, under glass. Oxidation had pretty much turned it into the texture of ash. It crumbled as we tried to read it.

Later Monday we had the next to last of our planning meetings for the anniversary events. One of those, by the way, is an open house here at our office on 707 South Main St. It’s from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. on July 26. The public is invited to stop in and look the place over, meet staff members and have some refreshments. It’s open to everyone and anyone. There is no cost.

Y’all come.

Among the things planned that week is a performance of the Glenn Miller Orchestra at Williams High School. Tickets are on sale now for $35, $25 and $20. Pick them up at our office, online at www.thetimesnews.com/gmo  or by calling 336-506-3071.

On July 25, our actual birthday, we will publish a special section that looks at the history of our newspaper, including historic front pages. Walter Boyd, who is working on a massive history of Alamance County, has provided invaluable help in this effort. There will be other features in that day’s edition, including something about the youngsters who once delivered the newspaper — a practice that stopped long ago, sadly.

When that subject come up Monday, Don thought he might have a bag used by the carriers years ago and offered to bring it by the office. It’s a unique item, which Don believes dates to the early 1950s.

The good news for my spouse is this artifact won’t be coming to our house.

Don wants it back.

You know things turns out well when people ask for more.

That’s the best way I could describe the public event Tuesday night at the Paramount Theater where we officially kicked off a celebration of the 125th anniversary of what would become the Times-News. We did so with a one-hour presentation by Times-News editor emeritus Don Bolden about our community’s history and the newspaper’s role in it. He played off a theme we developed over the past couple of months: “Your history is our history.”

And I don’t think it could’ve gone any better.

A crowd of between 250 to 300 packed the lower portion of the downtown venue and nearly filled the upper. Tickets were free but still required because seating was limited. The prsentation was a sellout but a handful of people apparently couldn’t make it there. They missed a pretty cool show if you don’t mind my saying so.

Don promised an hour and he timed it almost perfectly. His show included photos from news events over the past 125 years interspersed with historic newspaper front pages. His narration was lively and often humorous. Based on the response I had from those in attendance, the crowd went away very happy indeed.

Of course, it didn’t hurt that we loaded them up with great refreshments after all the talking was done. Our marketing and community relations expert Michele Terry provided a great spread of fruit, cookies, crackers, cheese and lemonade for people to enjoy.

The reception gave our staff members a chance to mingle with folks or catch up with longtime friends. For example, I had a chance to speak at length with former Williams High tennis coach Ron Lee.  Nancy Thomas, a reader who contacts me often about things she likes or doesn’t like in the paper introduced herself with a huge smile. It’s great to put a face with a name.

And more than one audience member suggested that Don present two or three similar shows between now and our anniversary date on July 25. I told one that we had not planned on more than one program but that could change. I also mentioned that we are hoping to produce a DVD of Don’s show that we will make available for sale sometime closer to our anniversary date. When told this, most were excited to hear it.

 Like I said, leave them asking for more.

And before closing here with a couple of photos by our circulation director Todd Benz (my own were pretty pathetic), I want to express thanks to the folks who really stepped up and made the show a success. Michele Terry did a fantastic job coordinating it all, putting the program together and providing food at the reception. Roger Creasy offered invaluable techincal advice and showday help. HR director Joyce Thompson supported Michele’s efforts. Publisher Paul Mauney greenlighted the entire deal and encouraged it all the way. Mnay of our associates pitched in to volunteer by taking tickets, canned goods, answering questions or serving at the reception. And special thanks to Nathan Terry, Michele’s son, who dressed as an old-time newspaper hawker and passed out programs. He was a hit.

And thanks especially to Don for doing what he has so often over the 62 years he has been associated with the Times-News — making us all look good.

And I took this one of publisher Paul Mauney, Don and managing editor Jay Ashley.