Well Diane, you can take ….

Well Diane, you can take life a lot easier now. You said once you hoped you died before I did. Naturally it was a bit of a shock. Once I recovered, I asked why. You said you never wanted to miss one of my columns. So with this issue, I’m calling it quits and your weekly looking will be over.

I guess after 56 years and 2,900 columns, it is time to say quits. It has been fun, but lately it has turned into work. Something the doctors the other day at the clinic called congestive heart failure.

It wasn’t something that just came on, as I think back now. How I used a cane for a long time, just to give me some stability. Then a walker and now I’m afraid that might not hold me up.

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I call it a gifted journey through life. Recalling all the things I did. I can thank so many of you for including me in activities, or making me aware of them. Just by using our pages for advertising made it possible to do others.

Looking for something else, I ran across my 1980 Guinness Book of World Records. In there was my picture I took of Steady Eddie Wolf down by Wolf’s Sawmill on his 30-foot, 3-inch stilts.

On my windowsill is a framed picture of me shaking hands with President Ronald Reagan. I didn’t take the picture, but was able to go and attend a White House visit.

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Then there are the employees. Too numerous to remember. One that comes to mind is Doug Zaleski. Back from working in North Dakota, he covered the first ever State Softball Tournament. It was a classic. The News Herald ran a wire service story, I think.

Then this note that came following Florence’s death in 2018. It was written on the sympathy card he sent – “Bob, I was sorry to learn of Florence’s death. Please know of my sympathy and prayer for you and your family. I am forever grateful to you and Florence for helping me to get started in the news business. I was reminded of those beginnings recently when I was fortunate to have a long conversation with Dave Obey, who I first interviewed for the TRG in the old Loyal Public Library. I am in Wausau, as of July, after 22 years in Stevens Point.

May Florence rest in peace. Tom Lindner”