Dear Editor,

I enjoyed reading Bob Groeneveld's column about the old days in the newspaper business [From typed pages to Internet, Feb. 12 Odd Thoughts, Langley Advance]. It brought back many memories for me.

My father, Bill Dunford, was a newspaperman for over 40 years, starting with the News Herald for five years and then joining the Vancouver Province in 1941. He worked as a sports editor, a reporter, and wrote a column, Talk of the Town.

In those early days there was the excitement of scooping the rival paper, and my Dad had many such adventures: like the time he persuaded the first woman to escape from the Women's Detention Centre to return to custody, and when he was the first reporter on the scene of the collapse of the Second Narrows Bridge.

He, too, was an expert at "formulating a story in his head." I remember him returning home late at night after covering some event and phoning the story in to the paper, using notes he'd scribbled on his cigarette pack. He'd dictate the story and they rarely had to change a word - quite a gift!

In the newsroom he used a manual typewriter, and was petrified when computers were introduced.

Bob's column brought back those good old days. Thank you!

Heather Thomson, Langley