FOUR MORE YEARS?

On October 13, 2015, I posted my first blog: “We’ve been married 18 years. Together our ages total 151. We play golf, watch ‘Morning Joe,’ sip dirty martinis, dig classical guitar stations on Pandora and stroll Kennebunk Beach. Consistent in our daily dialog: ‘Where are my reading glasses?’ and ‘Can you pump the volume on the remote? I repeat: CAN YOU TURN UP….’” That blog was titled WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?

Four years later, those people’s ages total 159. He’s a FoxAholic, so no more “MJ.” We still drink dirties but our Kennebunk Beach strolls are more like limp-athons as we battle the invasive arthritis creeping into every stiffening joint. He still loses his reading glasses hourly and the remote volume is permanently set at 45. But otherwise, THESE PEOPLE have done okay over the past four years. Mr. Wonderful has written two books and I’ve posted more than 200 blogs.

When I decided to write a blog (a personal online journal that’s short for “weblog”), I tapped my DNA. Mom had written a newspaper column in upstate New York for several years back in the ‘50s when her four kids were rampaging house and hayloft. Later, as a young New Jersey housewife, I devoured the yellowed copies of “The Trading Post” in her scrapbook, wondering if I could do that. 

One day I marched into the newsroom of THE RIDGEWOOD (NJ) NEWS with three columns. “I’ll call you in a week or so,” an editor said. He did, offering me $3 per column and suggesting we name it “Wandering” so that I could write about anything. “$3?” I choked. “Erma Bombeck gets $5,” he said. “Deal.”

When I moved to Maine full-time in the early 1990s, the New Jersey column went defunct. But over the next 15 years, column ideas kept popping up. I wanted to write. With encouragement from several friends (thank you Pete Carlson and journalist Paula Moulton), I decided to try blogging. (I was also bolstered by Kennebunkport pals who had dubbed me Jessica from “Murder, She Wrote.”  I didn’t look like Angela Lansbury but I had a typewriter.)

So how do you write a blog? I started by writing 500 words about THESE PEOPLE. Then, it got tricky. Suffice it to say, without the help of web designer Matt Janes (talented son of uber-talented Ken), I’d still be sitting here at my blue kitchen island with a 500 word rough draft. Somehow, over the next month or so, we got it up and running, thanks to enrolling in SquareSpace, GoDaddy and MailChimp, whoever they are.

“You might want to add a photo,” Matt suggested. His dad Ken took them all — me at the kitchen island in a red turtleneck sweater, me at the white fence, me sitting on rocks in a striped shirt. One photo was short-lived. The photo showed me holding an axe and standing next to a huge woodpile. It was supposed to indicate “cold weather’s coming,” and that I was a gritty Mainer. It also triggered 30 emails telling me I was holding the axe upside down. 

On a personal note, thank YOU for the positive comments over the past four years. Not all my blogs have been beauties. They served as a weekly writing lesson for me, plus a way to keep in touch with distant friends. I do know that it’s easier inking a tea date with Queen Elizabeth II than breaking through the barrier to post a comment. Sorry about that.

Recently, a few members of our family were together in Las Cruces, New Mexico and we posed for a photo. I sent it to my son Chris who immediately suggested I post it on my blog as a “metaphor for how people close to me react to my writing.” It’s shown below.

(Left to right: Brother Ross: “Be more careful in what you write!” Niece Eileen: “Bleh!” Niece Katie: “Oh, Eileen, you’re so funny!”  Sister Robin could care less; she’s trying to make a phone call.  Sister-in-Law Lizzie: “I actually like Val’s blog.” Brother Robert: “I agree with Ross!”) 

And my reaction says it all:  Family be damned! I’m gonna keep on blogging and hope you’ll keep on reading!