When I tell people what I do I get mixed reactions. Some suddenly become very conscious of what they are saying, like I’m a psychiatrist analyzing their words so I can put them in the paper. Some ask a lot of questions and seem eager to pick my brain on politics and quiz me like they expect to gain some inside knowledge on the situation. Sorry, I rarely know more than what goes in the paper. And even when I do I don’t often tell. It’s like showing a poker hand before the final wager. Some are enthusiastic and ask all about my camera and what kinds of things I cover.
I do run across all sorts of interesting assignments in my job. I’ve been on farms, in taverns, in schools and many local businesses all in the name of work. I’ve ducked line drives at softball games and dodged running backs at football games. I’m an annual attendee of about a dozen Christmas programs and all the local festivals. My favorite assignments, however, is ones where I really get to sit down and pick people’s brains and find out how they live.
Our Rural Living section is a perfect example of stories I like to do. For this Rural Living I had planned to do a story about a pheasant farm, which seemed to be a perfect Rural Living story. I called and spoke to the farmer’s wife and found out he’s a little camera-shy, so he declined. As I was about the hang up, the woman, whose name is Helen said, “But I have a perennial garden.” Facing a deadline and with no story, I replied, “That will work just fine,” and made an appointment with her. After I hung up I got a little nervous and realized I didn’t ask much about it. Lots of people have perennial gardens. Was this one anything special? What if I got out there and there was no story?
Luckily, I visited Helen’s garden which was chuck full of beautiful flowers of every kind. I especially like the irises because they reminded me of the purple ones surrounding our house when I was growing up. Despite her impressive garden the best time I had was sitting at her kitchen table with a cup of tea and a kolache (a type of Czech pastry). Some times people get nervous when I interview them and don’t say a whole lot, but Helen was exceptionally talkative. When we’d wrapped up my portion of the interview she began to ask questions about me. It turns out she reads my column every week. As we talked we realized our husbands are actually a lot alike. Both are a little on the quiet side but very motivated, intelligent workers and business men. It was fun to trade stories about being a farm wife.
Before I left Helen showed me her paintings, which could have been a whole other story in itself. She loves to capture rural scenes, and her image of a Hereford at a water tank staring at a little boy, tongues both hanging out, reminded me of Jacob. I’ve always had an artistic drive, which for the past few years I’ve channeled to my photography. Lately snapping pictures doesn’t seem to ease it. After seeing Helen’s country scenes I wondered if painting could be my outlet? If I can find the time between work and family I’d like to try.
Update: Still no time to paint, but I'm working on it :)
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