10 years and running writing history

We’re approaching an anniversary of sorts and I’m going to indulge myself by writing about it. Ten years ago I was making plans to abandon all pretense of actually working,and instead grow wealthy typing words. 

The late Carolyn Cole Gage, a witty and wonderful editor and then owner of The Villisca Review, gave me a chance. She also gave me a warning: If you do newspapers, she said, you’ll be a freelancer and in the hierarchy of the newspaper business freelancers are bottom feeders. She made it clear that freelancers were seen as a cheap and dispensable way to fill space, were not eligible for awards, did not get longevity certificates, and were not invited to the company picnic. This sounded perfect and a column was born. 

For a couple of years I wrote for both the Review and the Express.   Jan Castle Renander, a creative editor and a joy to work for, took things a step further. She let me do features on local people who were—or had done something—unusual. I did the old-timer who had known Seabiscuit, the blind man who used a table saw to make furniture, the Red Oaker who raised grand champion racing pigeons. I wrote about the Music Man and the Cinnamon Roll Lady and a fellow whose car was hijacked by Bonnie and Clyde. Renander left and editors began to come and not stay long and most of them, good and capable people I’m sure, I never met. The first one cut me back to just the column. While this was no doubt the right decision, I was concerned that readers might tire of my steady diet of old news and local history. 

For that reason I offered a couple of suggestions. One was to alternate the Time Capsule column with one on food. The idea was to feature every-day eateries; good food at a bargain price. We’d do the Villisca Food Store’s deli lunch one week, the Hy-Vee breakfast special another. We’d critique French toast in Emerson, Swedish pancakes in Stanton, and fried chicken at the Rainbow. We’d do burgers and pizza and Chinese, visit with other customers and pass along the local lowdown. We’d have printed a few of Montgomery County’s Greatest Recipes—classics like Florence Larson’s scalloped potatoes, Effie Zickafoose’s feather-light baking powder biscuits,and Max Marsh’s burgundy roasted venison.       

The food column idea was a dud so I floated one on travel. The Time Capsule in the winter, Destinations through the summer. Our destinations would have been close to home; events and places that could be enjoyed within a day, or at most a weekend. We’d have gone to a wine-tasting, covered our local celebrations and parks and campgrounds and trails and visited places like the Iowa Aviation Museum and Hall of Fame in Greenfield. These ideas prompted a revealing response. “Stick to history,” read the e-mail, “we have a reader who likes it.” 

And so we have. I stray from history now and then, but never far, and if our reader stays with me there’s plenty of material for another 10 years.                      

Roy Marshall is a local historian. E-mail him at news@redoakexpress.com.