| By Gaylen Duskey
Duskey can be reached at realfang@citlink.net
When last anyone read this column I was working at the Parkersburg News and
Sentinel and spring had
barely sprung. A lot has happened since then.
For one, and I guess the biggest, is that I am no longer working for the Parkersburg
newspapers.
As a matter of fact the Parkersburg newspapers did something to me that I did not
think was possible –
they made me lose my desire to be a journalist.
I started out writing two weekly columns – on Sunday and Wednesday. First the
Sunday column was
canceled. Then the Wednesday column was canceled. Then me.
And as amazing as it may seem, the day I left the employ of the Parkersburg
newspapers I felt as if I had
been paroled.
I did no writing for a long period of time. I didn’t want to write. I didn’t want to do
anything that
reminded me of the last year or so of my life.
I only started writing again when Calhoun County coaches Bucky Stewart and Tim
Davis asked me to
make sure the game reports got in The Hur Herald.
At that time Bob Weaver, the Hur Herald editor, was looking for a sports reporter. I
told him I’d do it and
jokingly added that I had to be the Sports Editor and the salary was a Coke – Diet
Coke – a week.
I, sadly, am still waiting on the Diet Cokes.
I found the “sports” job at the Hur Herald a nice release. I was able to write about
things I enjoyed –
Calhoun High School sports – without being attached in any way to my recent
personal hell.
It was my first step back into the world of journalism.
Today I am trying to resurrect the Calhoun Clarion, the school’s defunct
newspaper, through the Lights
On! program. It is a challenge I am really looking forward to.
I am also seeking to get the Hur Herald and the Calhoun Chronicle to run some of
the articles the
students will write.
There is nothing quite as exhilarating as those first early bylines and I hope the
students have the same feeling that I had when I first got in the business – it was
very enjoyable then.
Those two things – the sports reporting and starting up the student newspaper –
have kindled my spirits
enough to try writing this column once more … and boy do I have a lot of things to
tell you.
Why we
even got a red refrigerator and a turquoise stove … but that is for some later
date.
One thing about writing this column is that Bob said I could ask for sponsors, which
is important to me
as one of the vast unemployed – save for substitute teaching, teaching Lights On!
and selling on E-Bay.
So, if you know anybody willing to shell out a couple of bucks, or if you are willing
to shell out a couple of
bucks, to get your ad placed with this column contact Bob or I.
I hope that you remember the columns I wrote for the Parkersburg newspapers and
like that style
writing – writing about things that happened in everyday life.
Writing, I like to think, by the common
man for the common man. That’s what I intend to do here.
I have to thank some people who did the most to get me going again.
I have to thank Pam and Dave Barrows of Camp Hill, Pa. Both encouraged me when
I was very much in
need of encouragement.
I have to thank my mother who kept telling me “if you want to write a column, write
a column.”
And I have to thank Bob who kept telling me “a writer writes and you are a
writer.”
I’m going to try it again. I do hope you like it. | 
