My office door is always open at the Daily News, and that can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on the day, what we print or whether there’s a full moon.

My doorway has been darkened by some wonderful folks as well unsavory subjects. I make it a rule to never turn anyone away and to always listen, no matter how painful it might be. While the visitors have been overwhelmingly gracious and bearing wonderful story ideas, I have sat through some truly crazy conversations. I thought I might share a few of the good and bad story ideas that come across my desk.

The worst idea ever was a local man, who had run for various city and county offices over the years, who wanted the paper to endorse the idea of turning Scottsville Road into a runway for the airport to handle more and bigger planes. He tried to persuade me by saying that the road was in proximity to the Bowling Green/Warren County Regional Airport and that it was long and straight.

On multiple visits, he argued that increased industrial growth would lead to more transport air traffic and we needed a longer runway to entice a big commuter airline to offer service to far away destinations. His plan included moving motor vehicle traffic to the access roads and push businesses back to make room for utilities and traffic lights. He produced pages of hand-sketched drawings of his plans with planes, which looked like a third-grader’s work, hanging in the air over Scottsville Road and Ashley Circle.

With a straight face, I listened and asked questions. He was not phased when I brought up the cost, safety issues and just basic feasibility. After the first meeting, I promised to consider it. After the second meeting, I said he had 20 minutes and at the third meeting I produced my own drawing of the plan that included moving the courthouse and city hall to integrate with the terminal. He hemmed and hawed and said he couldn’t support something that changed the face of downtown. Coming to an impasse, we agreed to disagree and parted ways.

Not all visitors have taken up that much oxygen. A recent visitor, Allen Graf, read my column about my experience, dressed in Lederhosen, at the Berlin Wall. Graf came in with photos of himself dressed in the same outfit in Germany at about the same time I was there. My column had reminded him of that time in his life. We pored over his family photos and shared stories as military brats overseas. We had a lot of similar experiences at the same bases and towns. He then pulled out an old copy of the Army Times and shared a story about his family that was a fascinating read.

His grandfather, Enoch Graf, was in the U.S. Army in WWI, later stationed in Vladivostok, Siberia, then the Philippines with the 27th and 31st Infantry. His unit adopted an 8-year-old Russian boy, Semion Strelkovitch, who had been orphaned when the Russians shot his parents in 1920. The troops dressed the boy in a uniform and he spent time with them in skirmishes.

The troops were later shipped to a base in the Philippines and tried to take their young mascot with them. Semion tried three times to sneak aboard the transport ship South Bend but was rebuffed by the military police. On his fourth attempt, he climbed up the stern rope with ship pulling away from the dock. Soldiers on the decks were cheering him on. Simon made it aboard and was given the job of taking care of the unit’s real mascot, a Russian black bear.

When in the Phillipines, Semion was adopted by Enoch Graf, took their last name, welcomed into the family and eventually moved with them to the United States. Semion, whom Allen Graf considers an uncle, went on to lead a productive life in California as an American citizen.

Graf’s family story is just one of many that readers have brought me. A few will end up in the pages of the Daily News in the near future. So, if you have a story idea, a story to share with me or just want to chat about life in the community, stop by. But, if I pull out a drawing, know that you are barking up the wrong tree.

– Daily News General Manager Joe Imel can be reached at (270) 783-3273 or via email at joe.imel@bgdailynews.com.