Open Letter to Readers
Dear Loyal Readers,
Recently I got an email from a friend of mine who voiced disappointment about the Toledo Column missing from the Town Crier weekly paper. Here I share my reasons for starting up an online vehicle in the form of The Other Toledo:
There will be those outside the Interwebs, it's true. I'm certainly glad you're not one of them.
That a 100-year-old woman undertakes to learn modern technology is remarkable and not the norm. It's a cinch she didn't do it just because I began posting online, but I bet she did do it to stay in contact with grandchildren and great grandchildren who don't have the time or means to visit her in person - they have their busy lives.
Only recently did a close friend of mine lose her husband of many years to a terminal illness, before which she never touched a computer. Suddenly she was thrust into the Director's chair, in charge of his small business and she knew absolutely nothing about technology. She did have a dumb phone but never used it. A new tablet and FB account gifted by her adult children provided a reasonably safe environment to venture into that realm. She, too, is on a fixed income, but the 501(c)3 biz she now operates deals with people who rely on her for a roof over their heads. She stepped up with help from her grandchildren. That IS the help they can provide her.
Most folks don't change unless there's a compelling need. I know I don't. Why mess with it if it's working?
Years back I picked up a load of quarried slabs from a dirt track that lead to a small camp trailer in the desert of Nevada. No amenities whatsoever. The proprietor lived on-site. I didn't even see a dog. The nearest contact was a pay phone half an hour away that served as the business phone for the all-in-one post office, store, gas station and towing service that had no number listed on it save for a sticker that labeled it "Coaldale Junction." It was the only “number” listed for the entire area in the Nevada phone book. Yep, the state was so sparsely populated at that time that the phone book covered the entire state.
When I asked how he conducted business, having asked at the junction his whereabouts (the lone person there directing me to drive about 30 minutes South until I saw wheel tracks heading off into the sands South by East), he replied I could tell the broker another load would be ready in 2 weeks, as usual.
He didn't need more.
As for my move to online media, the responses have been overwhelmingly supportive even though few know the underlying reason for my shift. That folks missed the column speaks to readership, though there are those also who do not rely on the Toledo column, indeed never read the Town Crier. One woman referred to it as a "fish wrapper," suitable for handling the day's catch and nothing further. She's entitled to her view.
Many rely on flyers posted on local bulletin boards, a time-honored tradition available to a mobile population that excludes those without transportation and those otherwise house-bound.
Word of mouth is likewise a conventional means, whether by phone or in person. This bridges the gap for those not too hard of hearing or otherwise incapable of verbal exchange.
Count me among those on a fixed income, increasingly housebound by my growing reliance upon a medical device requiring household current, and decreasingly capable of a lengthy verbal exchange due to being so short-winded. My hearing remains acute enough to pick up the dogs snoring through two closed doors, but I cannot chat long at any volume with anyone having significant hearing loss.
Notice Thurston County in February 2016 became one of several counties that will accommodate 9-1-1 text messaging for those who feel threatened by circumstances and for hearing-impaired. This mode popped into my head a couple years ago during a particularly frightening throat-closing episode where The Otter* was seated right next to me in a hospital, unable to summon up any more Yes or No questions for a head nod or shake. Not only could we communicate by texting, but the medics could access a record of what and when and how the situation evolved, and pose questions of their own. Some time later I used this same means to shove my way to the front of a line and “ask” for help. It worked, while I gasped and heaved for breath. I sincerely pray Lewis County follows suit on the 9-1-1 text access.
I'm remaining true to my mission - to connect the events and people in my new home. Conveniently I live in a high-speed connected community in which the local communications entity provided 2 years free Internet including classes and a laptop when I arrived with zero measurable income. Now I save more than enough to cover the current cost of access with a ROKU streaming TV unit to replace the $100+/monthly TV contract with spotty reception.
I credit my earlier experience with 2 incidents of ID theft with triggering my move to paperless-ness over 10 years ago. That matter cost me my home, business and health, covered here.
My original reliance upon Internet access in Toledo was free WiFi at the local restaurant and coffee shop. Coincidentally a consignment shop opened downtown, allowing me to subsist by selling my household goods. Town Crier was my sole means of neighborhood news, and when the Toledo column evaporated, I sent in a column just to see if they would print it. That modest contract became my income for the next 2 years, later supplemented by reporting on local news and town hall meetings, trained by the new editor. Budget cuts knocked out reporting fees, though my ebbing health probably spelled my retreat from in-person coverage anyway.
Toledo stepped up to the plate when a new sponsor was needed by sharing the cost of the column among several small businesses until Gee Cee’s Truck Stop offered long-term sponsorship.
Developing and maintaining communication with local movers and shakers has allowed me to remain connected to my new home, a generous capitulation and enormously supportive of an interloper from Metropolis. As the saying goes, I arrived with nothing and still have most of it left.
So filling a column has been my sole contribution to Toledo. Since joining Town Crier, I’ve seen an editor replaced, then discarded, photographer and sports writer bid farewell, other columns and columnists fade into history. Most other publications have seen the same. Decline in print mirrors the rise in online media popularity. Local newspapers are no longer daily. Most information is available by several avenues, print only one of them. In my view, print is unsustainable in the conventional sense. It’s expensive, involves manufacturing and transport, recycling and waste removal, uses dwindling resources to produce disposable goods.
Anyone interested is welcome to fill the need for a Toledo column in print, though I haven’t noticed a plea for a replacement in their classified section.
*Update: Town Crier seeking Toledo columnist as of March 16 edition.
*Update: Town Crier once more has a Toledo columnist as of May 2016.
As for me, I’m still awaiting January’s meager check. *Update: Picked up that check today, March 23.
*The Otter is a euphemism for my significant other, a typo that originally escaped my notice and Google’s as well, otter being a legitimate noun. The reference remains our household joke, a laughable mistake.
Dear Loyal Readers,
Recently I got an email from a friend of mine who voiced disappointment about the Toledo Column missing from the Town Crier weekly paper. Here I share my reasons for starting up an online vehicle in the form of The Other Toledo:
There will be those outside the Interwebs, it's true. I'm certainly glad you're not one of them.
That a 100-year-old woman undertakes to learn modern technology is remarkable and not the norm. It's a cinch she didn't do it just because I began posting online, but I bet she did do it to stay in contact with grandchildren and great grandchildren who don't have the time or means to visit her in person - they have their busy lives.
Only recently did a close friend of mine lose her husband of many years to a terminal illness, before which she never touched a computer. Suddenly she was thrust into the Director's chair, in charge of his small business and she knew absolutely nothing about technology. She did have a dumb phone but never used it. A new tablet and FB account gifted by her adult children provided a reasonably safe environment to venture into that realm. She, too, is on a fixed income, but the 501(c)3 biz she now operates deals with people who rely on her for a roof over their heads. She stepped up with help from her grandchildren. That IS the help they can provide her.
Most folks don't change unless there's a compelling need. I know I don't. Why mess with it if it's working?
Years back I picked up a load of quarried slabs from a dirt track that lead to a small camp trailer in the desert of Nevada. No amenities whatsoever. The proprietor lived on-site. I didn't even see a dog. The nearest contact was a pay phone half an hour away that served as the business phone for the all-in-one post office, store, gas station and towing service that had no number listed on it save for a sticker that labeled it "Coaldale Junction." It was the only “number” listed for the entire area in the Nevada phone book. Yep, the state was so sparsely populated at that time that the phone book covered the entire state.
When I asked how he conducted business, having asked at the junction his whereabouts (the lone person there directing me to drive about 30 minutes South until I saw wheel tracks heading off into the sands South by East), he replied I could tell the broker another load would be ready in 2 weeks, as usual.
He didn't need more.
As for my move to online media, the responses have been overwhelmingly supportive even though few know the underlying reason for my shift. That folks missed the column speaks to readership, though there are those also who do not rely on the Toledo column, indeed never read the Town Crier. One woman referred to it as a "fish wrapper," suitable for handling the day's catch and nothing further. She's entitled to her view.
Many rely on flyers posted on local bulletin boards, a time-honored tradition available to a mobile population that excludes those without transportation and those otherwise house-bound.
Word of mouth is likewise a conventional means, whether by phone or in person. This bridges the gap for those not too hard of hearing or otherwise incapable of verbal exchange.
Count me among those on a fixed income, increasingly housebound by my growing reliance upon a medical device requiring household current, and decreasingly capable of a lengthy verbal exchange due to being so short-winded. My hearing remains acute enough to pick up the dogs snoring through two closed doors, but I cannot chat long at any volume with anyone having significant hearing loss.
Notice Thurston County in February 2016 became one of several counties that will accommodate 9-1-1 text messaging for those who feel threatened by circumstances and for hearing-impaired. This mode popped into my head a couple years ago during a particularly frightening throat-closing episode where The Otter* was seated right next to me in a hospital, unable to summon up any more Yes or No questions for a head nod or shake. Not only could we communicate by texting, but the medics could access a record of what and when and how the situation evolved, and pose questions of their own. Some time later I used this same means to shove my way to the front of a line and “ask” for help. It worked, while I gasped and heaved for breath. I sincerely pray Lewis County follows suit on the 9-1-1 text access.
I'm remaining true to my mission - to connect the events and people in my new home. Conveniently I live in a high-speed connected community in which the local communications entity provided 2 years free Internet including classes and a laptop when I arrived with zero measurable income. Now I save more than enough to cover the current cost of access with a ROKU streaming TV unit to replace the $100+/monthly TV contract with spotty reception.
I credit my earlier experience with 2 incidents of ID theft with triggering my move to paperless-ness over 10 years ago. That matter cost me my home, business and health, covered here.
My original reliance upon Internet access in Toledo was free WiFi at the local restaurant and coffee shop. Coincidentally a consignment shop opened downtown, allowing me to subsist by selling my household goods. Town Crier was my sole means of neighborhood news, and when the Toledo column evaporated, I sent in a column just to see if they would print it. That modest contract became my income for the next 2 years, later supplemented by reporting on local news and town hall meetings, trained by the new editor. Budget cuts knocked out reporting fees, though my ebbing health probably spelled my retreat from in-person coverage anyway.
Toledo stepped up to the plate when a new sponsor was needed by sharing the cost of the column among several small businesses until Gee Cee’s Truck Stop offered long-term sponsorship.
Developing and maintaining communication with local movers and shakers has allowed me to remain connected to my new home, a generous capitulation and enormously supportive of an interloper from Metropolis. As the saying goes, I arrived with nothing and still have most of it left.
So filling a column has been my sole contribution to Toledo. Since joining Town Crier, I’ve seen an editor replaced, then discarded, photographer and sports writer bid farewell, other columns and columnists fade into history. Most other publications have seen the same. Decline in print mirrors the rise in online media popularity. Local newspapers are no longer daily. Most information is available by several avenues, print only one of them. In my view, print is unsustainable in the conventional sense. It’s expensive, involves manufacturing and transport, recycling and waste removal, uses dwindling resources to produce disposable goods.
Anyone interested is welcome to fill the need for a Toledo column in print, though I haven’t noticed a plea for a replacement in their classified section.
*Update: Town Crier seeking Toledo columnist as of March 16 edition.
*Update: Town Crier once more has a Toledo columnist as of May 2016.
As for me, I’m still awaiting January’s meager check. *Update: Picked up that check today, March 23.
*The Otter is a euphemism for my significant other, a typo that originally escaped my notice and Google’s as well, otter being a legitimate noun. The reference remains our household joke, a laughable mistake.
