Still Puzzled

Topeka, Kansas

I left the broadcast news business more than four years ago. I spent the previous 24 years doing the TV thing--14 years as a sportscaster/reporter and 10 years as a news anchor/reporter. Looking back on that very public career I remain perpetually puzzled. My latest television-related conversation is a perfect indication of what I'm talking about. It went something like this.

"I'm curious. What exactly did you study in college so you could become a TV weatherman?" I was asked.

"I never did the weather," I responded.

"Really?"

"Nope. I was a news anchor my last 10 years in the business and did sports for 14 years before that but I never did the weather."

"Man, I could've sworn you did the weather."

Spokane, Washington

Conversations and comments similar to this didn't happen just a handful of times either. I'd say more than a couple of dozen times. I guess I could maybe understand a teeny bit why they take place in Montana. After all, a meteorologist at the rival station has the same first name as me but that is the only thing we have in common. Viewers would get my last name right but some people, like passersby in Walmart, would say something like,"Hey there's Mark Holyoak, Mark, how 'bout that weather forecast for tonight?"

Spokane, Washington

The thing is I somehow got that same label in Washington and Kansas. In both locations I only reported on sports--NOT the weather.

The funny thing is that even when I was in college at Brigham Young University and taking upper level classes in broadcast communications, I always found a way to wriggle out of my assigned day to do the weather on our live nightly newscast.

Now, it's all kind of evolved into a running joke between my wife and I over the years. I'd tell her about weather-related comments somebody makes to me. She'd then roll her eyes and we both get a chuckle out of it.

So life goes on. And as it does, my TV career gets farther and farther behind me in the rear view mirror but I'm sure the bizarre conversations will continue. There's probably at least a 50 percent chance of that happening anyway.

Missoula, Montana

Topeka, Kansas