Regarding Nancy Barnes' Nov. 1 column on Sid Hartman's 65 years of service: Twenty years ago my then-ninth-grade son, who was finalizing a paper on a potential career in writing or more specifically in sports journalism, received a call from a guy with a gruff voice. It was about 10 p.m. on a Sunday night. It was Sid.

He and my son had a nice, informative and positive 15-minute conversation about life in the newspaper business. Today, my son is using his creative writing skills as a Lutheran pastor in Milwaukee.

The headline description "at your service ..." fits Sid to a T.

CHUCK SQUIRES, BLOOMINGTON