Mike Townsend:
CLASS OF 1970
Dulaney High SchoolClass of 1970
Timonium, MD
Mike's Story
Life
Updated as of 1/08: I went by Mickey in high school, class of 1970. When I started my first job as a reporter, my byline became Michael, my birth name.
I reside in Burlington, Vermont. I'm a UM/College Park graduate, with a journalism degree. I've lived across country, working for newspapers: Carroll County Times (reporter, executive editor), The Baltimore Sun (suburban editions editor), Rockford (IL.) Register Star (managing editor), Marin (CA.) Independent Journal (executive editor), Des Moines (IA.) Register (managing editor; there for the 2000 Caucus. What an experience) and now The Burlington Free Press (executive editor.)
There were some big newsrooms I have worked in. Quite a show to walk into a huge shop with upwards of 250 journalists.
Vermont is a pretty state, the most beautiful you will find in this country from head to toe. It's a fun, funky, active place, so independent, peaceful and endearing
I have been married twice. My first wife died when I was 27. I am divorced in my second marriage. I have two children by second marriage (18, 25). They're great, unny kids.
I bought a cute bungalow in the Old North End of Burlington with an orginial green slate roof, where many immigrants and college students live. I am renovating the house, taking back to its native 1920s form. (This will take some time. But I am persistent.)
I walk to work for the first time in my life. I love that. I ride bikes and hike to stay in shape. I snow shoe in the mountains near Stowe. I learned to ski at age 50, snapped a ligament at age 52, while I was standing on flat earth! Holy ... d...Expand for more
id I feel stupid or what? I stopped skiing. I asked the doctor about whether I could start up again. He said, "What do you like better? Walking or skiing?" Good point.
At least I still have all my hair and all my teeth. I've seen a few of you out there. Holy, what happened to your heads?
From my front porch in Burlington I experience the wealth of life pass by. I live across from the park where the organic farmers sell produce, next to the bus stop, by Dot's corner market and adjacent to the elementary where 22 languages are spoken. Daily I see the Bantus in colorful outfits, hear the Sudanese who beep their horns 20 times to get your attention. Vietnamese, Thai, Bosnian and French Canadian make this neighborhood colorful and eclectic. There is this incredible cathedral on one end, really remarkable. I attend midnight Mass there, to hear truly the voice of angels. There is a cute synogogue on the other of my neighborhood. What a flow of culture.
This is a friendly place not far from downtown and wind-swept Lake Champlain. If you've never been here, mountains surround us, Adirondacks to the west, Greens to the east. It's magnificent. Burlington is a hip college town. Downtown can pack up, like a boardwalk. It snows here a lot. I like it.
I get back to Baltimore. My father Bill lives in the same house where I was raised on Northwood Drive in Timonium. He's 86. He sends me divorced jokes. My mother Ann died in 1998. My father and I take a lot of drives together and talk about all the change that has occurred. There are times we both get lost.
Thanks for stopping by my profile.
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