Behind the Scenes: When in doubt …

My daughter, Johanna, and I took a detour to my parents’ house as we were finishing Saturday’s CROP Walk — they are conveniently located on the route — to rest up a bit before continuing on to Valley Christian, where our car was parked. While sitting on the patio in the shade and catching my breath, I asked Mom if there was anything she’d like to know about the inner workings of the newspaper because I had another column coming due.

In response, she brought out a scrapbook that she’s been keeping of all of my written works.

And I mean all. She’s got my articles in there from my time as a reporter for The Eagle Express in high school, as well as articles from The Trident, my college newspaper. She’s even kept my annual Christmas form letters, just so you understand her level of dedication.

She started flipping through the book, taking particular delight in showing me something I’d written my senior year at HRVHS about ditching Hood River and only coming back to visit family. Johanna gave me a glance. “That was before I met your father,” I admitted.

We eventually made it through my Odell community columns — Mom cut out parts where I’d mentioned the girls, and wow, I mentioned them a lot — and on to my work at the Hood River News as a staff reporter. She read her favorite stories out loud: That time Johanna and I went to the fair when she was 7 and procured a fedora; a story for a holiday edition on Mom’s penchant for games at Christmas gatherings (“I really like that one,” she told me); and when I wrote about Eric’s proposal on the grounds of the Columbia Gorge Hotel for a Kaleidoscope on staff member’s favorite places in the Gorge.

She also had cut out Saturday Spotlight articles that I’d written about people we know, such as Celia Smith, a dear friend of ours who passed away Sept. 4. “I’m glad you wrote that one,” Mom said.

Anyway, we’re now over an hour into our visit and I’m no closer to having a column idea. Mom looks up from the scrapbook and says, “So what ARE you going to write about?”

“This,” I told her.

I am a woman of my word.

But hey, if there’s anything in particular that you have been wondering about in regards to the News, pop me an email — twalker@hoodrivernews.com — and I’ll try to shed some light on it in my October column. (Hopefully just one next month.)