Longtime New Iberia resident Dave Hebert, who recently moved to Lafayette after surviving cancer, has read The Daily Iberian his whole life, he says.

Though he’s nearly retired and lives in Lafayette, New Iberia native Dave Hebert loves to read The Daily Iberian.

With a passion for writing, Hebert, 66, has been with the paper his whole life and still enjoys reading all of the sections today.

Hebert has been living in Lafayette since June of 2019 after selling his home. He’s set to retire from Ideal Steel in Broussard as a plasma-cutter on Thursday.

Due to the fact that Hebert is a recent cancer survivor, he wanted to move somewhere with little to no housework, which brought him to getting an apartment with his wife.

How long have you been subscribed to The Daily Iberian?

Well I’m going to be 66 on Thursday, and I have read The Daily Iberian my whole life.

Why did you subscribe to The Daily Iberian?

I grew up in the country so we had The Daily Iberian when I was a child. When I was in high school, I worked for the school newspaper and the school yearbook. And I worked for The Daily Iberian for the summer.

How was working for your school newspaper and yearbook?

For the yearbook, I took some of the papers, but not all of the newspaper. I did some of the reporting for the newspaper when I was there. In fact, I thought I was going to go into journalism at the time but I didn’t. I like to read, I like history. But there is just something about the newspaper. I get the newspaper online since I live in Lafayette but it’s not the same as holding it in your hand.

Why did you consider journalism?

I always like to write. I always like to express my feelings on paper. You can express them anyway you can but when you put them on paper, you can connect with your writing because the words don’t get lost in the air.

What about reading a newspaper do you like most?

There is just something about reading a newspaper. You can connect with the story. If you read it on a computer or a tablet, you can’t connect with it. I can’t hold a computer in my hand. It’s just a different feel. I feel like I am in the story.

What do you enjoy reading in The Daily Iberian?

I enjoy all parts of the paper, but what I really enjoy the most is that I am a history buff, and I like reading on the origins of the streets and how they came to be, how long they are, where they start and where they stop. You see all these places and you hear all these things but until you research the history, you really don’t know anything. Reading about the roads, that’s something I look forward to every week.