I would like to add my tribute to my old friend, the late Joe
Vodicka. He was a senior reporter on the Stockport Express when I
joined the paper in the 1940s. He took me on “district calls”, during
which one of our contacts, the local barber, insisted on calling him
“Mr Wodicka” – and there was a paucity of news.
“What can I write about?” I asked plaintively. “What about these bloody leaves?” said Joe, kicking at a heap in the gutter.
I
thought he must be mad but I did as he requested and it lead to a row
about street cleaning in the local council that gave me my first
headline.
Joe taught me a great deal in those distant days. I am glad that he had a long and interest-filled life.
Peter Clowes Former northern editor Daily Mail Stockport
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