This is not a tear jerker but it is a story you may find intriguing.

It’s a tale about 2 young people who fell in love with reading, writing, journalism and newspapers – and eventually each other. They met and worked together on a South Carolina newspaper and found that they shared a passion for the work.

A professional friendship blossomed into a personal relationship deeper than either of them had ever experienced.

Young and eager for adventure, their wanderlust drove them to many states, other countries and other newspapers.

Along the way, working under the pressure of publishing daily newspapers, they fell in love with weekly newspapers and the way they touched their readers.

A colleague had chucked it all and gone home to a small Minnesota town on the Canadian border. He mailed them each week what he called his “nubby little newspaper” with the news from Rainy Lake.

Through his reporting, Ted took us to town council meetings where the members argued over earth-shaking matters.

These included where they were going to get the money – without raising taxes – to repair crumbling local roads and clogged water lines and hire a police officer to protect the citizenry from what little crime was committed in the village.

He took us to Romeo and Juliet weddings that united warring families, visits to Harry Erickson’s fine grocery store and lunch at Jim’s Cafe. He even reported on what the village dogs were doing and set the type for all of these stories by hand.

Another colleague packed up his wife and Pulitzer Prize – back when the prize meant something – and moved to their summer home on Martha’s Vineyard.

Bill kept up a correspondence telling the young couple about the changes of the seasons on an island in the Atlantic, what the wildlife – 2-and 4-legged –were up to and inquiring about his friends still slaving away on the newspaper where he had spent most of his career.

The young couple subscribed to the Vineyard Gazette when Bill began to write for it in retirement and discovered it was a lot like Ted’s paper, celebrating the joys and reporting the tragedies of small town life.

They began to dream about the possibility of one day publishing their own little newspaper in a small town.

What seemed like endless winters made them began to feel like Lewis Grizzard. If they ever got back to South Carolina they would nail their shoes to the floor,

An opportunity to acquire a newspaper in Lexington came along in 1984 and they grabbed it like a life preserver and moved back to South Carolina, a state they love.

Life in the small town of Lexington even in the 1980s was anything but bucolic.

They weren’t the only ones who longed to escape the endless winters, high taxes, traffic congestion, personal safety problems and other concerns of big city life.

The little town continued to grow and with it similar problems they thought they had left behind by moving south.

Over more than 37 years, Lexington’s changes have been like watching your children grow up. It’s not all smooth sailing but you love the little rascals any way.

Care to send me a comment? Please email JerryBellune@yahoo.com

An offer for you

Jerry Bellune’s new $9.99 digital book, “The Art of Compelling Writing,” is available now at Amazon.com. Chronicle readers can get a copy for $4.99 by emailing him at JerryBellune@yahoo.com