HeyJared491, Dan Conaway's Notes from Normal
A life in the city I love, stories stirred in its stew, slow-cooked in its fires, served to friends... with a little heat now and then.
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 12
- Latest publication
- Sep 25, 2026
- Audience
- Checking…
- Earliest in this view
- Aug 12, 2026
Latest issues
Adman in training: Prequel and Eulogy. (opens the original)
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Two weeks ago, I told my story of my coat-and-tie summer at Memphis Publishing, at the cost of their most expensive advertising product. The summer before that, I cost them a car.One wonders why I was hired for two summers. One wonders if they could afford to have me around.One wonders why I wasn’t barred from the building.On the editorial side, the lowest job was copy boy. My big brother, Jim, was one for a summer. On the production side, the lowest job was the service department. That was how
God’s sense of humor. (opens the original)
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Two Fridays ago, I gave my car to my granddaughter. Her wide blue eyes were sufficient payment. Nora and I decided we would become a one-car family.That brings me to last Friday.I had to go to Costco and get them to check my left hearing aid. Dead as a hammer. Shows a green light but gives me nothing. Since the hearing aid was only a couple of months old, I loaded my righteous indignation in our single family car and headed to the home of big everything to set things right.“Look, this is my job,
Adman in training. (opens the original)
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In the summer of 1970, I landed a job with the Memphis Publishing Company, publishers of The Commercial Appeal and the Memphis Press-Scimitar, the city’s morning and afternoon papers. Both papers, fierce and daily competitors, were housed in the same building, two floors apart, and owned by the same company – Scripps-Howard.Like the Roman emperors, Scripps-Howard owned all the gladiators, and put them in the ring to fight to the death. At least it seemed that way to me. Sometimes, I thought a fi
Now hear this ... the Memphis story. (opens the original)
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<img alt="" class="sizing-normal" height="646" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!w6_M!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd3d205ba-b2dc-4708-87e4-263bf1f60bfc_1456x646.web
"It's football time in Tennessee." (opens the original)
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That’s how the immortal John Ward began every one of his famed broadcasts of the University of Tennessee football games.Hey, if you think “immortal” and “famed” are over the top, you are obviously among the few, very few, non-Vols out there. Okay, okay. Let’s just say the man could describe the game in front of him in compelling fashion. He was also a fellow adman when not on the air, so there’s that.<a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!gQMq!
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