There I was, notebook in hand, midway through an interview with Drew Williams. She suddenly sat up a bit straighter, then turned the tables on me.
“I have a few questions to ask you,” she said.
Drew is 11. She’ll soon start sixth grade at North Middle School in Everett. Already, she’s a newspaper writer, editor and publisher.
She did have questions. It wasn’t so easy, coming up with spur-of-the-moment answers. Favorite book? Favorite sandwich? Favorite song?
I’ll be embarrassed when Drew’s next issue of The Norton Times comes out. Her neighbors on Everett’s Norton Avenue will see that I couldn’t do any better than “Moby Dick,” peanut butter and jelly, and “White Christmas.” Fortunately, they’ll also find real news.
Since Issue No. 1 of The Norton Times was delivered Jan. 20, Drew’s neighbors have read about Everett Silvertips hockey players visiting Jackson Elementary School; about one neighbor’s son, Larry Loorya, serving in Afghanistan; about a block watch meeting at the home of Don and Julie Teigen; and about a Norton Family Fun Night, when neighbors went bowling together.
For the Feb. 3 issue, Drew wrote about a house fire on 35th Street: “Man, I sure do feel bad,” her article begins. “Luckily no one got injured in the fire. But I did hear that firemen rescued the family dog.”
Under the headline, “A Little More News for the Fire,” Drew added the location of a hotel where fire survivors stayed, and a thank-you to a neighbor who made a donation to them.
“Every Sunday she delivers her newspaper to everyone on the block,” Julie Teigen wrote in an e-mail letting me know about the young journalist. “She writes about her life, and what’s happening. She has a ‘Dear Drew’ advice column that we can all write in to. My son, the artist, does a weekly comic for her, and she often interviews different people on the block.”
Sitting at the family computer Thursday, Drew opened an e-mail from Matt Teigen, a recent graduate of Everett High School. Matt had made his deadline with a cartoon for Drew’s next issue.
Over the summer, Drew has switched to biweekly publication, but the paper is as packed as ever. There are word-search puzzles, one with the names of “The Norton Girls.” There’s a picture of a former neighbor who stopped by with her prom date. There are reminders of garage sales and one neighbor’s metal-recycling project, with proceeds going to charity.
In “Dear Drew,” she covers the gamut of neighborhood and personal predicaments, silly to serious.
“Dear Drew,” one person wrote. “People drive fast down our street and it makes everyone mad. What can we do about it? Signed: Slow it down on Norton.”
“Dear Slow it down on Norton, I think we should write down the license plate number of some of the cars that are speeding and call the police.”
There’s that, and then there is a cheeky answer to “Lost in the crowd,” who wondered how Drew always gets herself shown on the big screen at Silvertips games. “Well, obviously it’s my awesome dance moves.”
The paper is free, but some make donations. The March 9 issue has a bold-faced “Thank you” to one neighbor “for a huge package of 500 pieces of paper.”
Created using Microsoft Word and clip art of a clock as its front-page logo, the usually four-page paper comes out on printer paper, with pages stapled together.
Andrea Hubbard and her husband, Matthew, recently moved in next door to Drew, her 3-year-old sister Nola, and her parents, Karrie and Gregg Williams. Before they bought the house, Andrea Hubbard saw The Norton Times on the former owner’s dining room table. “It’s awesome, we thought an adult had done it. It really was a seller, such a great representation of the neighborhood,” she said.
“It’s really fun, you get to know your neighbors,” said Theresa Darmody, who lives across the street from Drew’s family. The May 11 issue has a photo welcoming Darmody’s daughter, Emma, home from college — “For the whole entire summer!!!!”
Drew asks what she calls “This week’s prompt,” and neighbors weigh in on such questions as “How would you spend your dream vacation?” and “What is your most embarrassing moment?”
“I like making stories, and making people laugh,” said Drew. “Sometimes I’ll sit on the couch for an hour thinking of what I could write. I could write about school being out, or my birthday.”
Drew’s subjects delight her mom.
“It’s life through a child’s eyes,” Karrie Williams said. “And because of her, the whole street has gotten closer.”
Columnist Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460 or muhlstein@heraldnet.com.
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