My Weekly Bones to Pick

To the people that have messaged me saying they enjoy ‘My Weekly Bones to Pick’, thank you. And assuming y’all really enjoy the venting aspect of those columns, I’ll be sure to continuously remain in a cold, bitter mood all for your personal pleasure.

However, this week’s going to be a little different.

—wt— For those who have Facebook or keep up with us from week to week, you’ve probably heard about the passing of Mike Brown, who was with the Reporter for nearly 50 years.

It’s just awful to be honest. He was diagnosed with leukemia in early August and was gone about two months later.

With Mike, he was a lot of good things to a lot of people. To Marc, Kayla and Briana, he was their dad. To Sue, he was a husband. But to people like my dad, he was a role model and someone who inspired a lot of youth coming up in Rockdale during the ’70s, ’80s and maybe even the ’90s, if I’m not mistaken.

For me, it was a bit different. He was a coworker that came from a completely different generation and grew up in a much different world than the one I know.

But he was someone I deeply respected.

When I think of Mike, I remember how he treated me when I first started here in the summer of 2018.

This was the first job I’d ever had as a reporter and, although I went to school and earned a journalism degree, I never planned on working in the field the moment I received my diploma.

I kind of just stumbled into this role without any paid (or non-paid) writing experience for about three years and had no clue what I was in for when I started here.

The transition was incredibly hard for me and day-to-day, it was very tough on me mentally. It’s not a time I look back on fondly.

But not once did Mike make me feel dumb when I didn’t know how to do something. He never made what was a difficult experience for me any harder. Even though he had no way of knowing how out of my depth and overwhelmed I felt at that time, his kindness and patience always stood out to me. —wt— Ugh, I really should’ve made that an entire column... Go Tigers? —wt— Church groups that swarm area restaurants after your morning sermon, don’t forget to tip your servers. And none of that two dollars on a $200 tab stuff. Starting rate is 20 percent. Can’t afford that? They got bread, sandwich meat and potato chips at every grocery store in town.