By Jim Studer
I have often repeated the advice my grandma gave me, “Don’t get old.” At 79 I understand what she meant: arthritis, 24 years of cardiac issues, knee surgeries, a fight with cancer and personally meeting well over a dozen medical people whom I see in any given two year period. Oh yes, it takes me longer to do most anything.
On the other hand, old age has rewarded me in so many ways. I am still coaching speech. 52 years of this has me looking forward to 53, knees and heart willing. Being able to climb those high steps to get on the bus and a continued positive response from the teenagers I coach.
One thing in particular keeps me on this road. It is important for me to feel useful, contributing something positive to those around me. I fear being an old man who is merely tolerated and needs to be looked after. I know I have made a contribution when I see kids grow in self confidence, when I see leaps in improved speech skills, when I see the sparkle in their eyes when they know they have achieved, when they grow from doubtful to a belief in themselves and their skills. I know when I am being useful when they stop in just to visit and ask how I am doing.
Old age has given me time and most of all the support to write. In high school and college I wrote because I had to. As a teacher I wrote reports and letters of recommendation because I had to or was asked to. After having taught writing for 37 years, I learned a little about it. I never really knew the joy of writing. I had to be pushed into it after I retired from the classroom. My mom made me, I do mean made me, write many stories about my maternal grandma and grandpa. I did it. I really enjoyed it.
After handing copies to my relatives I submitted it to the Stearns History Museum. They published it in their magazine, Crossings. They requested more Central Minnesota stories. I complied. It gave me a joyful new hobby.
My brother-in-law, Gary Stroeing, repeatedly urged me to turn these articles and to write more to create a book, ergo, The Road Taken. Gary further cajoled me into writing fiction. This resulted in The Mystery of Tony the Goat and Other Tales and Leah on a Leash and Other Stories.