an outside view

(Terry Smith is continuing his vacation through the end of July. Terry will be back in this space next week with a new An Outside View column. This particular An Outside View was written in January of 2008.)

Six years ago this week, the Seymour Herald first appeared on local newsstands. Our little community had arrived. It had its very own newspaper. A column by this writer appeared in the very first edition. An award winning piece it wasn’t. Baptists, please refrain from saying “Amen.” 

Raise your hand if you remember that first column. Put your hand down. You’re scaring me. My wife doesn’t even remember that first column. Maybe that tells you something. I told you it wasn’t an award winning piece of journalism.

Really, that first column was little more than an introduction. I had to start by explaining why in the world I was calling it “An Outside View.” Why not “The Inside View?” Admittedly, many writers pretend they are giving you the inside scoop. No such pretense here. The fact is I was and am anything but an insider and I like it that way. Heck, my readers don’t expect hard hitting news when they read my stuff. The newspaper has other writers who can deliver that. My promise was to give you a perspective on the world of sports as an outsider looking in. I look around at what’s happening and give you my take on things which translated means you get a little bit of sports and a whole lot of personal opinion.

Apparently, some of those opinions make you think and say, “Hmmm!” while others make you wonder why I’m not locked up somewhere. Some entertain you while others leave you scratching your head. Some are profound while others are….well….not so profound.

Six years and 300 plus columns later, I still enjoy sharing my thoughts and feelings with you. It’s more effective and a whole lot cheaper than therapy. Writing this column has helped me figure out that I’m not crazy. It’s the world of sports that is loony.

I can’t help but laugh when I think back to how this craziness got started. Joe Karl, the publisher, was looking for a sports guy. He heard that I was a sports fanatic and enjoyed writing and he approached me. After I quit laughing, I realized this guy is serious. I told him I had one full-time job and wasn’t looking for another one. I told him I would be interested in writing a weekly column. He wasn’t so sure so I said let’s try it for the first month. If you don’t like the stuff I write, we can part company with no hard feelings. He never told me he liked my stuff or wanted me to become a permanent part of the paper. I just kept submitting pieces and he kept printing them. And now it’s been six years. A grind in many ways but a blast in many others.  And he found a real sports guy in Chris Silcox who is responsible for bringing you one of the best sports pages in any weekly newspapers in the state. And I get to be just a tiny part of that.

As Year #7 gets underway, I am still plugging away. I hope to continue to share with you my unique perspective on the world. Who knows? The Herald and I may prove to be like the Energizer Bunny and just keep on going and going and going and going.