Behind the Scenes of A Veteran Journalist

By Gene E. Herrick

This Jesus book is a fantasy story by a retired journalist who always wanted to cover Jesus and delve into his life. The act of finding Jesus on many occasions and documenting some of those miraculous events for the Jerusalem Inquirer newspaper were almost more exciting than some of the stories I covered during my twenty-eight years with the Associated Press as a photographer and writer. I know it sounds strange, but I really "got into" being with Jesus, at first as a skeptic, and then turned around as a person in awe. I really had the emotion of living in those times and feeling the emotions of the people in the story. I found Jesus to be a man of honor, and despite his power to do miracles, all the while, Jesus seemed quiet, normal, and communicative. I also felt that we had bonded and we're friends. Writing about his death, burial, and resurrection was very interesting.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Aug 30, 2022
• ISBN: 9798886161304

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Behind the Scenes of A Veteran Journalist

Gene E. Herrick

ISBN 979-8-88616-129-8 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88616-130-4 (digital)

Copyright © 2022 by Gene E. Herrick

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Foreword

Where I Grew Up My Playground Near the Ohio State Penitentiary

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1

An Arkansas Police Chief

Chapter 2

Civil Rights

Till

Civil Rights One—Till

Chapter 3

Civil Rights

Autherine Lucy

Civil Rights Two—Lucy

Chapter 4

Civil Rights

Rosa Parks

Civil Rights Three—Parks

Chapter 5

Civil Rights

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Civil Rights Four—Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Chapter 6

Civil Rights

The Riots at Clinton, Tennessee

Chapter 7

End of an Era

Chapter 8

Twins and the Vikings

Chapter 9

Neil Armstrong

Chapter 10

Blue Babies

Chapter 11

Itssss Cold

Chapter 12

I Am Accepted into the Virginia Communications Hall of Fame

Hall of Fame

Chapter 13

Ah, My Special Interest

Zoos

Ah, My Special Interest—Zoos

Chapter 14

Fischer Quintuplets

Chapter 15

The Beginning of the Space Age

Chapter 16

Elvis Presley

Chapter 17

Meanest Man in Memphis

Chapter 18

When I Was a War Correspondent in Korea

When I Was a War Correspondent—Korea

Chapter 19

Boxing

Chapter 20

United States Presidents I Have Covered

Chapter 21

Former President Dwight D. Eisenhower

Chapter 22

President John F. Kennedy

Former President John F. Kennedy

Chapter 23

President Lyndon Johnson

Former President Lyndon Johnson

Chapter 24

President Richard Nixon

Former President Richard Nixon

Chapter 25

Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey

Former Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey

Chapter 26

World Leaders

Chapter 27

My Creed

Chapter 28

Pretty Scenes

Chapter 29

That's My Turkey Leg!

Chapter 30

Golf

Chapter 31

Odds and Ends

Goodbye the End

About the Author

Foreword

Where I Grew Up My Playground Near the Ohio State Penitentiary

Yes, this is my beginning. This aerial view shows the industrial area, including the ancient Ohio State Penitentiary of Columbus, Ohio, about 1934. This is where I lived with my mother and my father's parents after my father died in 1934. We lived in my grandparent's tiny restaurant just one block from the pen.

My playground, the most important educational school a kid could learn, was all of the factories that surrounded me. It was a ground-level education. I received that imaginary graduated certificate from the big wild world out there.

Included in the immediate area were the following:

A real lumberyard (across the street from the restaurant, where big logs would arrive on a horse-drawn wagon, and be processed right there), one of my favorite hangouts.

A big brick building filled with stuff. It was a junk dealer's warehouse.

A gasoline filling station where we could always sneak extra gasoline rations stamps during World War II.

A big building supply company, where I helped unload materials from rail cars.

The big A&P grocery warehouse and bakery.

A mattress factory.

Dean & Barry paint manufacturing plant.

Fruehauf truck trailer manufacturing plant.

Belmont Casket manufacturing plant.

Union Fork and Hoe manufacturing plant.

Columbus Asphalt plant.

Columbus Water Plant.

The Ohio State Penitentiary.

Fairmont Dairy processing plant.

Hires Root Beer Co.

My family physician (also the physician to the penitentiary).

Warehouse where trustees from the penitentiary gathered to go to the prison farm.

Rubble of old buildings, on the Scioto River, and the hangout for the homeless.

The Riviera Nightclub, which was operated by the mafia.

Yep, that was my paper route and real-life educational school. I went through the usual school system. Periodically, my mother would send me to relatives in West Jefferson. The little country elementary school would put me back a year because their curriculum was more advanced than that in Columbus. However, when I returned to Columbus, they would push me ahead one year because I was smarter. That figures.

A typical day for me in elementary school was getting up, cleaning myself, setting the table and filling water glasses in the ground floor restaurant, and catching a ride with the big power company trucks and crew, and big, big poles they hauled. I'd sit up front like a man. They would drop