We Will Not Go Quietly into that Good Night

"A good newspaper, I suppose, is a nation talking to itself." 
Author Miller

I had so many other plans for this column this week: the upcoming Railroad Run, Kiddie Kingdom, events at the Library, and signing up for swim team.  I was going to say that I hoped you had a good Easter, and that I hoped you were you were somewhere warm for spring break.  My 500 words, give or take, and my brief moment to spend with you this week.

And then it was all gone.  I had to find out from Style Weekly, none the less.  It was like a tall, pretty girl flipped her blonde hair and said, “Didn’t you know?”  No, I didn’t know, had no idea.  I am stunned.  I am standing on the sidewalk, tapping at a window but the lights are off and the door is locked, stunned.

I don’t understand why Jack Fishman, owner of Lakeway Publishing, wouldn’t have offered it for sale. I know we are in a digital age, but we haven’t erased our need for printed paper.  We still read books, we still need libraries, and we still write with pens on paper.  It makes my eyes ache to think that I will have to figure everything out from a glowing screen now. 

In April of 2007, I saw a classified in the Herald-Progress looking for someone to write the Ashland column and Greg Glassner hired me for $10 per column. I have made lots of typos, misspelled many names, and written wrong dates and times.  I have to work really hard to get the details right, and sometimes I would be in such a rush to meet the deadline.

But in almost 11 years, I only missed a handful of weeks.  You were my readers, and I was kind of protective of my time with you.  I wanted to show you the parts of Ashland that you might have missed.  I wanted to try and get you to stop, to look around at the wonder of this place.  And that was kind of hard for me sometimes. 

There have been many days when I was jealous of the people on the trains who passed by my stopped car.  I would wonder about where they were going, as I held a crumpled grocery list in my hand.  You always pulled me back, though.  There was always a Variety Show to rehearse for, or a PTA fundraiser, or an event at the Center.  Something as simple as an evening sitting at the Ironhorse could tame my wanderlust. 

There is still so much to be written about this town and the people here, and I am not done.

Which leads me to say that old habits die hard, and an eleven year-old habit is pretty old.  Please call or email me with your Ashland news because I would rather not stop writing about this little spot in the universe: 310-5320, ashlandnews@gmail.com. Have a wonderful week!