An Interview That Holds Up Well

This interview was done 10 years ago at the Public Broadcasting studios in Roanoke. Julie Newman is the interviewer and she was simply superb. It still holds up well. 

(Copy the URL and put it at the top of the page. It will come up as a video.)

https://vimeo.com/13033098/2b38734350?fbclid=IwAR3i0OiZ2DikAIg1BJ_X-cveg6159gCKGfm_K_iMZI1lsJaIrAUPFB9IB8o

 

A Pandemic Keepsake for a Beloved Grandgirl

A lot of people know Carilion wellness director Bud Grey because he helps keep them healthy. Fewer know the grandfather, who has a 2.5-year-old granddaughter, Cece, who lives in San Diego. Keeping up with the grands has been one of the most severe challenges of the pandemic.

Cece reads her own book. 

Bud figured that since he couldn’t visit Cece, he’d write a book for her—his first—and call it The Buddy Bridge, depicting Cece as a princess who goes on an adventure to visit her grandparents with the help of her animal friends.

Bud says his wife was a librarian and Cece's mother, his daughter, loves to read. "With so much out of my control with the pandemic and the distance between us, this at least was something I could control, and frankly convey my love for her.

My hope is she holds on to it as she grows up, and thinks of her grandfather."

"My hope is she holds onto it as she grows up, and thinks of her grandfather.”

The book is lavishly illustrated by Tom Arvis, who worked with Gran on "Mert the Mortician," a college newspaper comic strip many years ago. They are life-long friends. The book is an 8.5X11-inch softback.

As a grandfather who wrote a book for his first grandchild, I can certainly identify with Bud wanting to do something important. Giving kids something of yourself, something intimate, is enormously valuable to both you and the child and Bud got this one right. 

Bud Gray gets a kids from Cece.

 A Perfect Spring Day to Begin the Kayak Season

LindaK jumped right into the swing of Carvins Cove and starred in a black and white shot.

I'm not sure exactly what constitutes a perfect day to kayak, but today certainly fit most of the criteria: clear, 82 degrees, breezy and uncrowded at Carvins Cove. It was my first time out for the spring season and my first time out at all with LyndaK. She loved it. I loved it. It loved us.

It was a day to count blessings, a day to remember that we live in one of the most beautiful spots in the entire world, a day to be grateful. And I think we both were, are, will be.

Here's some of what it looked like on the water. 

This female Canada goose was nesting on the island at the Cove
and a bunch of ganders were squawking as we got close to her. 

 A Lovely Evening Under the Full Taurus Moon

Rick Teague, Lindsay McKinnon, and me mugging before the games begin.

It is a treat of considerable magnitude these days to get outside on a pretty day and mingle closely with old friends and family. Last night Lee Hunsaker gave a few hundred of us that opportunity. The occasion was the periodic Hoot 'n' Holler. This one was in Wasena Park, properly distanced, masks worn (most of the time), and performers at the ready.

Susan and Becky chat.

This was Linda's and my first real date/date, the kind where you ask somebody out, buy tickets, show up, and are entertained. We've done a lot of the non-date/dates of late, but these are strange times and you take the real thing when you can get it.

Hoot 'n' Holler has been around for several years, but this was my first time, even though I wrote the first story in the region about it when Lee decided this would be the next step in her creative life. 

The premise is to give local writers a shot at stardom by giving them the stage to read or recite their works. Often that means funny. Last night, not so much. There was a serious tinge to the stories that bordered on depressing occasionally (and looooong at other times).

Most of us were duly impressed with the amount of creative work that went into staging this event outside with proper social distancing. It wasn't simply a matter of putting up a stage and getting it properly lighted, but the sound system had to be right for the different voices that would be entertaining us and each of the "boxes" holding the audience had to be lined off, stakes driven and lights strung. 

All of this on a night when we were looking at Taurus full moon. A little spooky, that last part, because it tends to make Tauruses more passionate than usual and in LindaK's case, that's guilding the lilly.

Still, despite some of the shortcomings (the cold among them; we left early, freezing), I got to see my friends Lindsay McKinnon,  Rick Teague and Becky Hepler, Susan K, Lee, and several others and hang out in a truly pleasant setting. I recommend. 'Twas a night to remember.

LindaK and Rick share a laugh.

LindaK, Rick, Becky and Susan post for the Nikon.

LindaK, Rick, Becky and moi. Buddies, all. What's that behind Pampa's head?

A pretty good band warmed up the crowd, this time with "Baker Street," one of my favorite songs.

The full Taurus moon shone on us.

Lee Hunsaker takes a moment with Pampa.

Sometimes Lindsay is
simply traffic-stopping.

Julie warms up the crowd as the festivities begin. 

David Rakes tells a funny story. Who knew?

Me and the girls in the band: Lindsay, LindaK and Susan. 

We're talking first date here. First real date.

 Remembering a Profession of Nobility from a Vantage Point of Experience

This is the editor in 1988, seeing the humor in it all.

There are days when I feel like a Pony Express rider galloping past the men stringing telegraph wires on the Western plains, even as a train passes on the way to the west coast on the new rail connection.

I still write for newspapers and magazines, 57 years after I began in 1964 and the profession continues to bring me great pleasure on an almost daily basis. The stories I write range from the totally inconsequential (best snow sledding hills, pickleball, cat people vs. dog people), to the informative (board of directors diversity, the business of the economy), to the important (rape, domestic violence, human trafficking). 

With all of that, I'm trying to finish my second novel. This one's titled NEWS! and it goes back to the early days of my newspaper experience, though it is mostly made up. It is, however, based on events I took part in or saw.

In the late 1960s, newspapers were not just relevant, people actually depended on them, trusted them, respected those gathering and reporting the news. People didn't spit on us or call us "enemies of the people." We weren't then and we aren't now. We are enemies of the enemies of the state.

In 1969, when the novel begins, technology hadn't changed much since Gutenburg perfected the printing press in about 1450 and since the invention of movable type (1040) and the Line-o-Type machines in 1892. The composing room was heavy metal, mostly lead. 

Reporting was reporting, which is one of the points I'm trying hard to make in the book. Reporting will be reporting when the paper representations of the news are brown, crumbly history. Increasingly, of course, they are becoming a series of 0s and 1s, computer images for the consumer of news. "Content" for websites. Not quite so reliable on the whole as newspapers used to be because most are not created and run by journalists, but by marketing people and lawyers.

Still, there are and will continue to be reliable "newspapers" even when the term is a quaint reference to something long gone. Journalists are not newspapers and never have been. They are the core of journalism, and the paper is simply the delivery system, one that has been changing for all the years I've been involved.

Journalism has been a noble profession, one I've been proud to be part of, even though I'm not and never have been an especially good reporter. I've done some good work, but mostly I've just done some work, fast and in considerable volume, plying my trade among people who are often my heroes.

I am fortunate to have spent all these years loving what I do and now, at nearly 75, being able to take a look back at what it meant and continues to mean. A lucky guy, I am.

 

Gordon Ewald with his 1965 S1800 Volvo.

The Only Good-looking Volvo Ever

My old buddy Gordon Ewald, retired co-owner of Ewald-Clark, a photography store downtown in Roanoke, has taken to driving around town in what he calls his "toys."

This seat belt is the first of its kind. Note the ring
at the bottom right that it hooks into. Stable as expected. 

The toys are four antique cars like the Volvo S1800 he was driving or the light blue Sunbeam Alpine (the original James Bond car) he was driving the last time I saw him. 

He always draws a crowd, which, I guess, is the point in owning cars that run into six figures at auction.

This gorgeous little Volvo, daughter of that boxy prototype of the famous family car, is likely the only Volvo anybody ever called "pretty" or "sporty." 

Gordon found it a few years ago on a farm at the bottom of Linville Mountain in Franklin County and bought it for restoration. 

This baby is flawless and Gordon will show it at an international Volvo show this summer. He expects about six S1800s to be in competition and, frankly, he expects to win. He says not many of these 1950s-1960s sporty cars survive because "they were really prone to rust."

Who can argue? 

Gordon's buddy is having a little V fun at his expense.

Woodsy Days and Festivals in Franklin County

Linda found the first dandelion seed-pod ... 

Linda Kay had a book signing Saturday at the Smith Mountain Lake Moonshine Festival and after work I ran out and shot some photos of her and her fans. Today was a treat for both of us as we hiked around the Booker T. Washington Memorial.

It is fully spring now and the flowers and trees are blooming wonderfully. The streams are full and the birds are in quite a form with their songs.

Can't ask for more than great company and a simply lovely setting for our day. Here is some of what it looked like.

... and I found the second.

These little guys are out in full force. 

Pampa with the fallen woman.

OK, yes, it looks like the bottom
half of a tree woman.

Which is prettier, Linda or nature? Tossup.

Linda loves the streams and tiny falls.

Spring coming alive. 

No idea what kind of tree this is/was, but the stump is gorgeous.

A contented pair.

Seriously?

Coy.

Irresistible.

OK, so a man's gotta go
when a man's gotta go.

Pampa feeling frisky.

Where do they keep the horses, Linda?

Pampa with a buckboard.

Linda in front of the carriage house.

Buildings at the Booker T. Washington Memorial.

Linda inspects the herb garden.

This looks like the march of the flowers. 

The dogwoods are on full display. 

A smile for the photographer. 

Portrait of a lovely lady. 

Linda on the fence at the Booker T Memorial. 

Looking fetching as the wind blows.

Linda with a fan who won a book. 

Linda dressed as one of her characters.

Who is that gorgeous woman signing books?

This was the crowd about 3 p.m. Saturday. 

The marina was busy at the Festival.

Linda contemplates her fries.

This gang of church people can flat cook. Love the barbecue and chili.

Linda loves the long french fries.

Sam McCormick offered roadkill and lots of parts of
dead animals at his Moonshine Festival display.