Longtime Lewiston Tribune reporter David Johnson is finishing a lengthy run of weekly columns, written about the lives of ordinary people who were chosen at random from a phone book. Many of his columns were written in the solitude of the woods while sitting on a stump. (Lewiston Tribune photo: David Johnson)

When newspaper reporter David Johnson walked into the Cavendish Store 36 years ago, he was just looking for a good story. But the enterprising excursion into what Johnson fondly calls "the hinterlands" yielded the key to an idea that had been germinating in his curious mind for some time."I met Leo Koch, the owner," Johnson said of the day he got the spark that would eventually become Everyone Has a Story, the Lewiston Tribune column that ends its 30-year run today. "During our conversation, he said something like, 'Cavendish used to have a lot more oomph, a lot more people around. Now we're hardly listed in the phone book'"/Joel Mills, Lewiston Tribune. More here.

DFO: I was working on the news desk of the Lewiston Tribune on the day that DJ (Johnson) filed his first "Everyone Has A Story" column. I remember wondering at the time how long such a novel column would last. Now I have my answer -- 30 years. David Johnson is one of those wonderful free spirits in journalism that has blessed my life over the course of 44 years in newspapering.

Thoughts?