At 80+ Years of Age, I Just Became a Columnist For a Newspaper

As life stories go, mine is different from anyone else's.  So are everyone else's from mine.  

But I've got one thing going for me that might put me ahead: I've probably got more stories to tell simply because I've been around longer than anyone younger than me.  And, in all likelihood, my stories will be unique to me alone, just as everyone else's stories are unique to them.  They may even be interesting. But so will everyone else's life stories.

Of course, not everyone's stories ever get told.  And that's a shame because none of us can go through life without 'something' very interesting happening to us.   And who best to tell it than us.

All of that seems simple enough to understand, yet all too often we opt to go through life and die, and the only story we leave behind is our epitaph. Or if we have family, they may provide some information for our obituary. And that's it.  What a waste of a good story.

Fearing my stories would never be published, I set out long ago to write a book about them - about me.  And here I am getting closer to 'The End' and I haven't written the book I was going to write.  Shame on me.

But less than a month ago I received an unusual request from an old high school friend - could I write some stories about when I was growing up in Catahoula Parish, Louisiana.  

I first said no: that I was writing my own book about that very subject.  Actually, I was writing the book one story at a time, but I realized I would be long dead before I finished it.  Meaning, of course, my stories wouldn't get told.

So I called my friend and accepted the offer.  A week ago today Part 1 on my book's Prolog was published in the Catahoula News Booster, the same newspaper my maternal grandfather. Edward Joseph Sargent, owned and published during the 1920s up until he died in 1931.  

I think my grandfather would be proud.

Here are links to the first story (2 parts).

About That Story I Was Going To Write Part 1

About That Story I was Going To Write Part 2

I've already submitted 12 other stories and have quite a few more that I can write.  

It actually feels good to have my stories read.  I think I will enjoy finally being a writer.