2007: What a summer!
Don Coldsmith
Monday, September 17, 2007
THIS HAS BEEN an unforgettable summer, any way I look at it. It could have been titled with slightly different punctuation, such as — “What?” A summer?”
This, because I don’t really remember much about it. It frightens me a bit to learn things that happened, which I don’t remember at all. But, let me back up and explain.
This weekly column, “Horsin’ Around,” started in 1971, in a small weekly paper, the Emporia Times. I didn’t really want to do it and asked advice from a close friend, Ray Call, editor of The Emporia Gazette. Ray had been coaching me on some of my writing.
“I think you should, Don. It will help your writing, and besides, one door opens another, and it’s never the door you thought it was when you took hold of the knob.”
What a prophetic statement! I really did not expect to have the part-time writing effort take over my life. I was a family doctor, raising horses and girls (five daughters), writing a little for the horse magazines and delivering quite a few babies, (total — 3,000 plus). My writing for the horse magazines was growing and expanding in several directions.
“Horsin’ Around” became a major part of my “day job,” that of a writer. It was gradual, the expansion of readership. A friend or acquaintance might show a few columns to someone in another part of the country. The Emporia Times failed, but by that time there were weekly papers in several states running “Horsin’ Around.” I had to do SOMETHING.
A little research taught me how to become “self-syndicated,” and there have now been 37 years of “Horsin’ Around.” That adds up to more that 1,900 columns.
From the start, I’ve never limited the subject matter. “Horsin’ Around,” in the usual country usage does not necessarily require horses, does it?
The fact that I’ve never taken myself too seriously really does help. Along that line, there would be times when there simply wasn’t much news to write about. I’d venture an opinion. I once read that a journalist should avoid certain topics, such as religion or politics. I don’t subscribe to that idea, and besides, it’s more fun to ruffle a few feathers occasionally.
I’ve mentioned the experience of raising five girls. No man who has done that can ever take himself very seriously. In addition, it becomes apparent that a smart and intelligent woman will always be more interesting than one who is helpless in emergencies and must wait for someone to help her out of trouble. You can bet on which kind we raised. One even joined the U.S. Marines. Also, which kind I chose to hire in my medical office.
When I decided to close the office, my office nurse had worked with me for 25 years. My receptionist-bookkeeper still works with me, now, in the writing and publishing arena (she is typing this). She is a good friend of my wife, which brings me around to the explanation of the recent year of “Horsin’ Around.”
Although I didn’t realize it, I was on the verge of some real health problems. For several years we have followed a routine which seems to work. I’m constantly writing on next month’s columns. To make it easier for the subscribing newspapers, we always mail them during the third week of the month for the coming month. Occasionally, a rerun, of which we recognize favorites. Maybe, even, readers’ requests for previous columns.
This seems to have worked pretty well, under usual circumstances. This past summer, however, has not been one of usual circumstances. I spent a considerable amount of it in hospitals. (At least, that’s what they tell me).
But, by the time I could recognize what was going on, my capable women had things pretty well under control. A few more summer reruns than usual, favorites filed in the computer. I have especially enjoyed some that I’d practically forgotten, from several years ago, that THEY picked to fill in.
But — what if they realize that they don’t even need me?
See you down the road.
Author and columnist Don Coldsmith lives in Emporia.