Reminiscing on columns

Sweet Talk

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February 2, 2013

Reminiscing on columns

Anonymous Mineral Wells Index The Mineral Wells Index Sat Feb 02, 2013, 03:11 PM CST

By GUINN SWEET

The older I get, the more reminiscent I become … and I think that is the normal process of memory when we pile it up behind us. This is the nineteenth year of my writing a series of weekly columns, articles and travelogues for the Mineral Wells Index. I have observed the changing complex of reporting, beginning with my old original typewriter and continuing through the electric typewriter, the word processor and, now, I have worn out three or four computers. Since the latest one is nearly eight years old, I can see ahead to being forced to advance to a new one, an iPod or even becoming a “texter” on a little bitty hand-held thingy.

I have thought over the problem before me and I think I might just finish this year and call it quits! Then I think … what would I do with my time left? How would I fill my need to continue to express my opinions (remember my column entitled, “In My Opinion”?) and rid me of my frustrations with family, friends, politics and prices?

As a trial run, I decided to re-run some of my earliest columns. This one is my February 23, 1994, offering. Interestingly, I find that it’s not too different in theme and questions than one I wrote just a bit ago. Let me know what you think.

Here it is:

“This week my mind exploded like a seed pod and everything spilled out in an ugly pile. As I raked my thoughts into an orderly arrangement, some disjointed ideas made themselves noticeable. The problem is, there is likely a second page for each of them, but I have never located them, hence the short shrift I have given to each. There may be full columns of some, or all, of them later, after I have sifted through the debris.

“I’ve been thinking lately that I may have too much time on my hands. I have been compelled to comment on some of our current social ills without proposing any solutions. I am only into the questions, and not the answers, at this point.

“One news report stirred my compulsion this week. In Houston, ‘an admitted thief caught last year when a 200 pound pig grabbed hold of his leg’, according to a report in the Fort Worth Star Telegram and ‘was sentenced to a ten-year term in the state penitentiary on charges of burglary, car theft, drug possession’ and invading the privacy of a pig.”

The story relates that the offender was trying to evade the police when he ran into the back yard pig sty where the animal grabbed him while his mate oinked 911. If I were pressed to comment on the moral of such a story, I would simply say, “Don’t take a walk in a pigpen.” However, I don’t know if every pig would be so inhospitable. Perhaps we have a renegade pig here. Do they destroy vicious pigs, and if so do we plan a luau? So many questions, so few answers. Please Bare with me, unless you feel that would be too revealing.

Please don’t think that I have a nudity obsession, but with Easter approaching, I am feeling sorry for those of the naked persuasion who might want a new spring outfit. Would that include shoes, hat and bag? And surely, a problem of where to pin the corsage is a serious and possible a painful decision.

An additional problem, recently I was misled by the word “Euthanasia”. I supported the cause for several years, until I understood that it had nothing to do with a program for the benefit of young people in China!

There is more, my mind was younger, more fertilized by innocence, wonderment, humor and stupidity in those days. What else would inspire a nineteen-year-plus odyssey of silliness into the print world? Can you see another year of this?

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Sweet Talk

Word from the Sweet Talker
I understand that my most avid followers have been contacting the Index regarding my present whereabouts, my reason for dropping out of literary presence, temporarily, and when I might reappear.

May 20, 2013
Reminiscing on columns
The older I get, the more reminiscent I become … and I think that is the normal process of memory when we pile it up behind us. This is the nineteenth year of my writing a series of weekly columns, articles and travelogues for the Mineral Wells Index. I have observed the changing complex of reporting, beginning with my old original typewriter and continuing through the electric typewriter, the word processor and, now, I have worn out three or four computers. Since the latest one is nearly eight years old, I can see ahead to being forced to advance to a new one, an iPod or even becoming a “texter” on a little bitty hand-held thingy.

February 2, 2013
Longing to Quench a Spiritual Thirst
“Blessed is the (wo)man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are thy ways, who going through the vale of misery use it for a well … they will go from strength to strength”

January 28, 2013
Sweet Talk: Guinn’s Guns
“A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed,” states the Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights in the United States Constitution. The Supreme Court has ruled that this right is not limited to a connection with an organized state militia.

January 19, 2013
Between ‘prissy clean’ and ‘post-tornado’
“It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop, than with a brawling woman in a wide house,” Proverbs:21:9, KJV

January 14, 2013
Sweet Talk
When I was a great deal younger, the only things that talked back to you were your children. Nowadays, every toy, stranger, automobile and kitchen utensil has something to convey to anyone who listens and others who would rather have quiet. The world is seething with idle conversation, insults and instructions, be it desired or not. Some of these things I invite into my life; some are intrusive and unwanted. Some are complete surprises, yet are talking to me as if I were an idiot cousin, come for an extended visit.

January 6, 2013
SWEET TALK: What would you title this?
A long time ago, English poet, Thomas Moore wrote, “Oft in the stilly night, ere slumber’s chain has bound me, fond memory brings the light of other days around me.”

December 23, 2012
Of Payback and Coast Fishin’
“Break forth into joy, sing together…for the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem” (Isaiah 52:8, kjv)
Colon fell this morning.

December 17, 2012
The Lord provides words, strength when needed most
“Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed; for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.” Joshua 1:9, Holy Bible, KJV.

December 10, 2012
Stan Musial was truly a hit with my father
“But he ‘his musical finesse was such, so good his{eye} ear, so delicate his {swing}touch made poetry a mere mechanic art; and every warbler has his tune by heart.” – William Cowper.

November 26, 2012
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