SIMCOE'S OLDEST TEENAGER RETIRES; A TRIBUTE TO TALK TO THOMAS

Well, last night marked the retirement of one Christopher J. Thomas, my friend and former colleague at the Simcoe Reformer.

It would not be at all surprising to learn that Chris, AKA Talk To Thomas, AKA Simcoe's Oldest Teenager, AKA Cautionary Example, AKA Small-Town Canada's Answer to Hunter S. Thompson, was born in a manger near Delhi, Ont., on December 21, 1946.

It's impossible to summarize the Thomas legend in one post. For thirty-five years -- "and two at the Delhi News-Record," as he was wont to point out, two bony fingers held aloft -- he was the Reformer. Now that's he retiring as his 60th birthday approaches, he's leaving to make a run at Norfolk County council. May he win, and win big.

Reporters and editors came and went between 1971 and today, but Chris was the Reformer's rock -- its 6-foot-4, 155-pound rock -- from the time of typewriters and yellow copy paper down at the old Argyle St. office to the current digital era in the new office on Gilbertson Dr. He covered it all -- courts, tobacco board, murder trials, junior hockey.

Yours truly has moved on to a bigger paper, a bigger town, and presumably bigger and better things, but today, thinking of what it was like to know and work with Chris and count him as a friend, I am not so sure.

There's a bond that develops between the newsroom staffers at a small daily, one that maybe you don't get at a major metropolitan paper. You're making next to nothing, you have a tough time making friends outside of work, and everyone you know is probably doing better financially at a much less daunting job, but you feel you're doing the right thing. There was this energy that made us work much harder than was justified at what some people would call a two-bit paper.

All I know is that I miss Chris coming by my desk on Thursday night, the end of the week (no Saturday edition, eh), that cryptic smile playing on his face: "Goin' out tonight?"

Sometimes you could despair for yourself, but Chris was always there to take you out for a beer, listen patiently, and pick you up. Sometimes it would take the form of introducing you to another barfly -- Chris knew everyone -- by saying, "This man could rule the world."

While others would have seen the Reformer as a whistle stop, as it was for me (to management's eternal confusion, since they never saw any ability in me), but Chris was content to stay and live in Simcoe. He saw it all, and he did it all, and the screwy stories he would spin over drinks on a Friday night -- Chris with his ubiquitous bottle of Molson Ex -- would make your hair stand on end, even when you had heard them once or twice before. Seemingly everyone knew him, even long after his astoundingly popular Talk To Thomas column was retired.

There's going to be a big retirement party for him, but maybe's it not needed. Chris has always brought the party with him. He is turning 60 soon, but he's forever twenty-one in spirit, and that just may be what has kept this man running through 35 years at a small-town newspaper.

(UPDATE: Chris has a campaign blog. Interesting to see how many candidates for Norfolk council will harness the power of the blogosphere.)

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.