Monday night at the Lions Club meeting, the guys wanted to know where I went during my hiatus last week. Finding nothing clever to say, I simply said, "I never left the area."
My vacation was wonderful, yet painful in a weird way. A few events jogged my memory.
TV is a powerful collector of images and memories: It captures moments in time. Sometimes that's good, and other times, well ...
At the Mount Gretna art show two weeks ago, I spotted a former math teacher, Ken Weaver. We didn't get to talk, but just seeing him transported me back to eighth grade. It wasn't the math that was painful, although I'm wired more for history and English, but it was what I saw in his classroom Jan. 28, 1986.
Weaver, who also was the audio-visual guy at Conestoga Valley Junior High School, had the TV on when the space shuttle
Challenger blew up shortly after launch. This was a powerful sight, one of those "Where were you when ..." memories, and the media replayed it over and over.
Sitting in his class watching that historic event on television is something I've not forgotten. TV, and the images it captures, can have that effect on viewers.
I watched a lot of Olympics coverage during my hiatus, and again, my mind wandered, recalling vivid memories tied to the Games.
First, I was transported back to 1988. I'm sitting in a room at Lankenau Hospital near Philadelphia. In the bed in front of me is my grandmother, who is losing her battle with cancer.
This wonderful woman who was instrumental in my early schooling, who drilled me on multiplication tables and much more, was dying, and we felt helpless. My mother and grandfather stayed at the hospital, while my father brought his three young sons for visits.
Just past her bed, in a corner of the room, was a TV. I remember watching figure skater
Brian Boitano perform the near-flawless routine that would eventually win him a gold medal. From that room, we would watch and root for U.S. Olympians and feel a sense of normalcy in our lives during trying times.
It's been 20 years, yet Olympics coverage still takes me back to that room. It's a sad, happy thought.
The gymnastics coverage two weeks ago caused a flashback to 1984. (Can you tell I like the 1980s?) I'm 12 and sitting on the TV-room floor with my parents. It's nearly 1 a.m. when
Mary Lou Retton nails a vault and wins the all-around competition.
Thanks to the power of TV and memory, I did a lot of traveling during my time off, but I never left the area.
Change coming: John A. Riggle is retiring as vice president and general manager of Tribune Co.'s WPMT-TV Fox 43 in York, effective Monday, Sept. 1, and will be replaced by Larry Delia, vice president and general manager of the company's two stations in New Orleans.
I am happy for Riggle, who now will have more time to spend on his two passions: his grandchildren and Boy Scouts of America. He helped to educate me on the television industry, and his professionalism and sense of humor will be missed.
Riggle leaves WPMT after 20 years with the station and said in a statement that he was "thrilled to be leaving on such a high note," citing the station's performance in the May ratings period. "We're expanding our morning news aggressively, gaining market share, making progress online, and I figure, at this point, I can only [mess] it up."
Staff writer Eric Stark discusses trends and tidbits in broadcast media each week in the Sunday News. He can be reached at estark@lnpnews.com.
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