Begging Your Patience
It’s snowing out, and this blog is now ready for your reader’s comment. I won’t presume to tell you how to use it; rather I shall beat a retreat into cover and hope that your comments will not be as harsh as doubtless I deserve, Look at it if you will.And bear with me as I try to get my bearings in this mode of publication. I scarcely know what to do with it. I would really like to maintain something of the four-times-a year quarterly publication of paper Bouldercreek Angler. But that may be hard to do. Still, I do not want and will not let it become a chatty, every day sort of account of what I presume to be of interest to you.
I want to show you pieces of writing that I have worked over, revising and rewriting them, until nothing casual or too heated is left. Just like the old paper gazette.
Being expert at being old, as I claim to be, probably ought to include knowing when it’s time to shut up….
In any case, let me work on it a while. It must have a discipline.
I’m told that if you subscribe to the blog, you will somehow be notified when something new is posted. ~~~
As the snow keeps coming on, let me tell you that a few days ago an old friend sent me an old copy of an old issue of Gray’s Sporting Journal for April/May,1976-- an issue in which I had an essay on catch and release. That was thirty-one years ago. I thought that anglers were not looking hard enough at the ideology of no-kill, and so I should do it for them. As I re-read the essay now, it sounds all right, but the penultimate sentence caught me: pretty much what I believe today, and it’s in connection with my proposal of a sixth, The New Period, in American fly fishing.
Here’s that sentence: “Now let us go a-stream more like our fathers-- individual, unself-conscious, unreconstructed, and quiet with our streamcraft and our love more important than our equipage and image.” But how, I wonder, can I both blog and, at the same time, in Walton’s use of Scripture, study to be quiet….?
It’s snowing now, those great, beautiful, sloppy spring flakes. For us Westerners they fill the air with promise-- and are superbly quiet.
4 comments:
Gordon – I am going to enjoy learning how blogs work along side you. So far I like what you are doing with this new media or whatever it is – Jim
I have never really learned how to subscribe to blogs. When I hit "subscribe," it seems only to want to bookmark the blog, which I already have. So you will have to be patient with me as I check back...
Am totally enjoying this, of course.
Dear Mr. Wickstrom,
I can't help but think how my father, DeVere, would have loved being able to do this. He wrote eveything out long-hand on yellow legal pads and then rewrote it on an old typewriter. Both the yellow pads and the typewritten work were scribbled on and crossed-out and changed in a thousand ways before he got what he wanted.
When he finally got a typewriter that had an "eraser function," he thought he'd reached the apex of creativity. Oh, my! I can only speculate as to how he would have felt with a computer and a blogspot!
I love your "paper." You have made me laugh and you have made me cry. I have to admit that I will miss a real piece of paper to hold in my hands, but this is better than not getting it at all. In fact, this is fantastic!
Bless your head---in the words of the inimitable John T. Hinckley.
Maurine de DeVere
Welcome to the blogosphere, Gordon. You are a natural. I consider myself lucky to be a part of your transition. I was only recenlty introduced to the Boulder Creek Angler, and it happened to be your last issue. Robin at the Rocky Mountain Angler refused to sell it to me, so I transcribed the six periods of American fly fishing by hand (which is a feat for anyone from my generation). For the record, I was born during the dates of the Grey's article referenced above.
I look forward to reading your words and further defining The New Period of fly fishing.
-Brandon Simmmons
Post Script- The beauty of the blog is this penchant for (virtual) communication, this reply thread as a case in point.
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