I had just finished my freshman year at St. Mary’s College and had taken summer school classes every year of high school. Since I attended Catholic high school – summer school was a cool way to get credits for things that weren’t available at St. Genevieve’s High School. I took typing class two years and got pretty good at it. One year I took electronics shop and woodworking shop. We were expected to go to summer school. I don’t think we had a choice in that. My mom believed in that old adage that “idle hands are the devil’s workshop”. When I was seven years old, my dad bought me my first camera, a Kodak Brownie. We were in Jackson Hole Wyoming. It cost $4.50. Years later, I found out that he had bought it with silver dollars from his coin collection. That got me started – in my youth I thought I wanted to be a photo-journalist.
In 1968 summer school at LA Valley College, I took Speech class, Journalism class and Public Relations class. I met my wife in Speech class when she was in the nursing program. Speech was a required class for graduation and we had each decided to get it out of the way in the 6 weeks of summer school. She was the prettiest girl in the class and I was as shy as they come. I ended up passing her a note on the last day of class, asking her out and she sent it back with the reply “YES!!!”.
Then I began my sophomore year at St. Mary’s College. Because of my summer school classes I was able to get a job at the local weekly newspaper called The Lafayette Sun. They had a different front page for every community that they were in – The Walnut Creek Sun, the Orinda Sun, the Moraga Sun.
My first assignment was covering the City Council meetings. They were boring and nobody wanted to cover them. But I got a byline which was always exciting seeing my name in print. And it got me involved in the city of Lafayette’s politics. That was my assignment every week for the next year and a half.
My editor said if I covered the City Council meetings he would give me a feature story on page 1 and a byline in the freebie that went out on Wednesdays with the store ads. So for the next year and a half I wrote about the Lafayette City Council meeting on Tuesday evenings, and got my feature story and my byline. And I got front page of the Lafayette Walnut Creek, and Moraga Suns.
One night I agreed to pick up my friend, Joe Sanchez, at the airport. He was a photographer for the St. Mary’s College newspaper and I was one of the year book photographers. I had his car, a black Trans Am. We decided to stop at the Lafayette “greasy spoon” for a hamburger before going back to St. Mary’s. Two San Mateo Sheriff deputies were sitting at the next table. Their radios announced an explosion in Canyon, a little tiny hamlet between Moraga and the Oakland hills. Being the big staff writer for the Sun, I saw in exclusive with my name written all over it. Joe was a crazy driver with his souped up Trans A M. I don’t know how we kept up with the sheriff deputies through the winding hills, but I know that he broke a few laws to get the 10 miles to Canyon. I was the first photographer there. I had my camera and he didn’t. I told him that I was staying. He said he had classes in the morning. Of course I didn’t have press pass to get through the road block. So, there I was, standing there with my camera, hoping for a break.Within a few minutes another car stopped, the guy rolled down his window and asked, “you are a photographer?”. I looked down at my Roleflex and thought – I think I look like a photographer with my Roleflex and a big strobe. He said “good, I work for “Associated Press” and I don’t have my photographer here. Get in”. My lucky break! I was the only photographer there at that time of the morning. As it turned out, Shell Oil refinery had a high test fuel line running across the creek. Somebody had attached a bomb to it. When it exploded, the very volatile fuel gushed into the creek bed and started moving towards the little hamlet of Canyon. It seemed somebody lit up a match and the town blew up. I say the town but all there was was a post office and a market. As I was giving my information to the AP reporter, his photographer showed up so of course they didn’t need me any more. Even though my photography was more realistic with smoke, they were going to use his pictures. By this time it was probably 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning. I raced back to St. Mary’s, developed the pictures, then went off to San Francisco. I raced into the newsroom, found the news editor. The Chronicle was already being run so he told the to come back at 7 AM. Disappointed, I returned to my car and yes – I fell asleep. I was awakened by a city cop who told me I couldn’t park there. Of course by the time I got a parking space and went back in to the Chronicle they had the story and photographs by A.P.! I did get my photographs published in the weekly “Sun” but my big break with associated press was a wash.
The freebie went out to all of the citizens that live in Rheem Valley, Lafayette, Moraga and Walnut Creek. I did that for the next 1 1/2 years getting a feature on the top half of the front page of the newspaper, often with one of my photographs too.
Later on I worked for the Vallejo Times Herald which was a daily newspaper. Then I joined will the national guard and started a newspaper for the Florida national guard in Miami.
Stay tuned for more stories about my career in the newspaper business.
Tom Patterson – Photographer – Writer – and Seeker 