Rummaging through some old stuff, I happened across some notebooks from my first year as a reporter at The Advance.

Really old stuff 鈥� 1977 鈥� and a bit of a window into my newspaperman鈥檚 soul.

Some reporters like to keep everything chronological, from one notepad to the next in succession. I kept several pads going at the same time, each containing similar story assignments 鈥� one pad for special events interviews, another for police and court, another for 鈥淐rap and Other Assorted Goodies.鈥�

I titled all those pads, often adding revealing subtitles, from the straightforward 鈥淢unicipal Council (and other matters political)鈥� to the disdainful 鈥淪o Say the People (and other such inconsequential items).鈥�

All reporters at The Advance had to walk through the mire of So Say the People.

It was a feature that appeared on the editorial page. We wandered through 91原创 City鈥檚 downtown and interviewed whomever we bumped into about whatever topic we managed to scrounge up for the upcoming edition.

And the topics we had to work with ran from the banal to鈥� even more banal. Now that 91原创 City has closed its dump, how do you feel about taking your garbage to the Jackman Landfill in Aldergrove? Do you prefer street names or numbers for 91原创? Have you noticed any changes in prices since the Anti-Inflation Board鈥檚 wage and price controls were lifted?

My favourite answer to that last one was, 鈥淛ust beer. Beer鈥檚 gone up a lot. I noticed that.鈥�

Most people answered whatever question, no matter how complex, with 鈥淵eah, sure,鈥� or 鈥淣o,鈥� or an 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know鈥� that was usually aggressive enough to move us along. Quickly.

So the beer guy鈥檚 relative verbosity was a breath of fresh air. Even if it did reek of alcohol.

We went out in teams of two: one to snap head shots of the impromptu interviewees, the other to interview and take notes (tape recorders were, at best, bulky, off-putting devices back then).

The one with the camera had the easy job: stand back with a long lens and let the guy with the notepad take the heat.

As reporters, we all hated So Say the People. That was back in the day when real reporters thought reporting facts and truth was more important than collecting opinions of people who鈥檇 never bothered to actually think about the opinions they had.

My! How times have changed!