My Sunday column

My Uncle David retired last week.
After more than 50 years in the newspaper business, he is walking away from his job at the Summerville News, the weekly newspaper my family has owned for a century or so.
To say David is one of a kind is to trot out an exhausted cliche. It also greatly understates his uniqueness.
David is a philosopher-malcontent-iconoclast-jackass-genius-newspaperman — with the emphasis on NEWSPAPERMAN.
David is so old school he thinks the Linotype is a “newfangled invention.” For years I taunted him about the inevitability of using a computer. He told me it would never happen.
That time I was right.
The Summerville News, as traditional a newspaper as you are likely to find these days, finally made the move to computers a few years back. David started laying out the paper on a computer screen. He even got pretty good at it but don’t dare tell him I said so.
I grew up in that newspaper plant and one of my fondest memories was “stuffing” papers with inserts on a Wednesday night. The work was monotonous and Lord knows the pay was lousy, but it was worth it to listen to my daddy, uncles, brothers, cousins and assorted other employees/pickle barrel Platos weigh in on a wide variety of issues.
The list of topics was wide open but most of the subjects were not the kind that could be addressed in polite company. Of course, to be a youngster and privy to this kind of man talk was a thrill.
Uncle David was often at the center of the more outlandish stories, either as the spinner of the tale or the star of the story being told.
David was and is a wiseguy — that’s putting it nicely — which is something I usually don’t do because I am a wiseguy, too.
Charles Darwin would probably disagree, but I swear I inherited my smaraleck genes from David (as did my older brother Greg).
David is a born rebel. Tell him everybody else is headed one way and you can bet he’ll be the guy going against the crowd. Sometimes that makes you want to beat him with an ax handle. More often it makes you laugh. Heck, sometimes he’s even right.
David is also a semi-official Rebel. Until recently he served as a Brigade Commander for the Sons of Confederate Veterans. He did a bang-up job at that for years — winning many awards — at which point he did the natural thing for him which was to get in a spat and resign.
Uncle David’s not much for retreating or even flank attacks. He’s all up-the-middle CHARGE!
Despite his obtuseness and aversion to any technology created after the 1841 Mississippi Rifle, David is a quality newspaperman.
In an industry dominated by bean counters, mooncalfs and degreed dilettantes who’ve never had to clean printer’s ink from under their nails, my Uncle David has helped publish a family newspaper in the best sense of the concept.
The Summerville News may not look like the L.A. Times, but the people who pay for it every week want their new baby’s pictures in there and it’s the place they expect their own obituary to run when the time comes.
THAT’S a community newspaper and my uncle has been a huge part of just that kind of operation for a very long time.
David didn’t want anyone to write about his retirement and said so in that lovely, demure way he has of making a point.
But he doesn’t sign my checks and I live far enough away that I don’t have to worry about running into him often, so I’m writing this column anyway.
Besides, as HIS nephew I find the idea of honoring his wishes absurd, just as he has always scoffed at mine.
Somebody will surely shove this column in front of him, if only to hack him off, so I’ll take the opportunity to say, I love you David, every cantankerous inch of you. Thanks for all those Wednesday nights.
You’re one of the main reasons I’m in this business ... but I promise not to hold that against you.

Jimmy Espy is executive editor of The Daily Citizen. He blogs at Espysoutpost.blogspot.com