Day 10: Stars & Stripes, Brush pick-up

The drive to work was fantastic! My a/c was fixed the day before so no driving in the awful heat and getting my hair messed up from having to keep the windows rolled down! It was amazing and wonderful.

I got into work a little later than I intended, closer to 11a. I had seen the budget though in my email on my way to work. It only showed that I would have a story on Sunday for the Pecan Classic Steer Show that would take place on Friday and Saturday morning. Although it has the word “pecan” in it, it isn’t a pecan event. The event is a good ol’ FFA style cattle competition. It seems geared toward kids and the goal is to raise money for scholarships and another steer show that they held later in the year.

After I made it to my desk, Derek called me in to talk about my next assignment: the Stars & Stripes drive in theater that had opened up in New Braunfels! He asked if I had any familiarity with magazine writing. I told him that I hadn’t written a magazine style article before, but I was confident that I could do it. Magazine writing seems very similar to blog style writing, very casual, but only maybe a bit more professional sounding. Derek told me that he would forward me an email from a journalist at the New Braunfels paper, that had the contact information for the PR firm that handles the Stars & Stripes.

I called the number to the Stars & Stripes PR firm, but got a voicemail and left a message. I also sent them an email as well.

Derek emailed me information about brush pickup and asked me to write a story on it. I spent the majority of the day just working on this story and waiting around for the PR firm to call me back.

At the end of the day, the PR firm never called. I told Derek that I could go down to the Stars & Stripes at 6:30p when they open and see if I could talk to someone there. He said that was a good idea. So I hung around the office until about 6:00p, and then headed out.

I had never been to a drive-in theater before. It looked really cool! The Stars & Stripes is located in the middle of a corn-field in New Braunfels, it looks really incredible though.

When I pulled in, I went down this long drive-way. I explained who I was to the ticket booth guy, and he waved me through. I parked at the front of this large diner type place that was at the center of the drive-through, and then went inside. The staff were still setting things up for the night. I walked up to the counter and explained who I was and asked if there was someone I could talk to for an interview. They mentioned the president of Stars & Stripes and went to get him.

A few minutes later I met Ryan Smith. He said that he would be okay with an interview, but asked if I could wait 30 minutes. I said that would be okay and took a seat. Waiting 30 minutes saves me more time of having to wait around in the office a few hours (if I have a day that finishes at 3p, for example, at the Gazette), so I was totally cool with it. Plus, it gave me some time to absorb everything.

Well, 45 minutes passed, and no sign of Ryan. People started flooding into the diner, and slowly all the food booths were taken up. I decided to interview patrons for about 15 minutes, and then go find Ryan.

I interviewed a couple that was with their children first. Then I interviewed two sisters that were there with their children. Both of these groups were very excited to be at the Stars & Stripes and their interviews went very well.

After their interviews, the hour mark had passed. I looked around for Ryan in the diner but didn’t see him. So, I walked around outside. I spotted him speaking to an employee, so I headed that way. When he saw me, he didn’t say this, but I could tell he had forgotten. He may have gotten super swamped, it looked very busy in this place for sure. I asked if he could still do the interview, but said that if it wasn’t a good time that I could set-up a time to come back. He said that setting up a time to come back would be better and gave me his card.

By this time it was close to 8p and I was exhausted. I headed back home and thus concluded day 10.