The smallish coastal community I’ve lived in for more than half a century has grown up over the years – aside from the view of the bay from the crest of the city’s center hardly anything of the original town remains. I’m probably one of a few who can recall the olden days with any clarity – I’m one of the old timers.
Through the years the community newspaper has kept residents up to date on the goings-on in the area – it has landed on front steps twice a week for as far back as I can remember.
As a teenager I paid little attention to local news, the stories in the paper were written with my parents and old codgers in mind. Once in a while something would catch my eye – a reported streaker perhaps, a friend of a friend hightailing down the main street wearing nothing but his sneakers – front page news in our neck of the woods back in the day (and a story good for a laugh to this very day).
Sometimes a story would hit closer to home – Two Black Cows Running at Large Flatten the Azaleas in Church Garden – my mother was thankful the paper went to press before the owners of those two black cows could be identified. Livestock was frequently featured in the news as was the weather and the state of ditches and country roads. We were small town back then, times were simpler and the news less urgent.
Letters to the editor were always of interest – crimes and misdemeanors complained about in detail by old farts with nothing but time on their hands and an opinion to share. The names of the letter writers would become familiar over time and evolve as generations passed – the community has never been at a loss for concerned citizenry.
Which brings me to the crux of this blog. It seems I have inadvertently joined the ranks of concerned citizenry with a lot to say – I fear mine might be one of the names people are starting to recognize. Another of my letters to the editor made the paper last week – I’ve become a new version of the old codger I used to poke fun at and I think I need to change my ways (or my name). I’m going to quit this penchant for penning letters to the paper and stick to my blog for a while lest I become just another old fart with time on my hands and an opinion to share.