I’ll be turning 80 in a few months. Seems like a good time to let my laptop sleep a little longer during the day while I go take a walk.
I’ve been sitting behind a typewriter or computer for 52 years writing newspaper stories and more than 6,500 columns. I need to stretch my legs a little.
So, I’ll be cutting back to one column a month from now on, with an occasional two, depending on the story.
It was either that or retiring, which I failed at miserably when I turned 67. I wanted to learn to play the piano and get a part-time job at one of those hotel lounges down by the airport, tinkling the ivories while people had a great time singing off-key.
After six months of lessons I asked my instructor how was I doing? She assured me if I stuck with it I could probably get a job in five years playing for children’s birthday parties at Chuck E. Cheese.
So, I came crawling back because there weren’t enough waves crashing on the beach at Malibu, crossword puzzles to solve, or books to be read that filled my life like writing one good column about a combat veteran or a person with disabilities overcoming the odds.
That’s where you, the reader, came in. You knew the kinds of stories I was looking for and you found them for me. Your tips kept me going.
I was doing five columns a week back in the 1980s. There was no room for having a bad day. The paper was holding a space open just for me, and I better fill it with something good, or somebody else would.
That’s when I started taping that dime to the back of my business cards and handing them out to cops, doormen, courtroom bailiffs, bartenders, waitresses, and anyone else who had eyes and ears on the street.
Here’s the dime, give me the call if you see something. And you called.
You tipped me off to Tommy Noonan, a special needs young man who was being honored as Employee of the Month at Valley Presbyterian Hospital. Tommy’s job was emptying the trash cans in patients’ rooms, and leaving behind a smile.
You knew…
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