Dear Group, A number of you have let me know that you enjoy the stories that I post and I know that a number of you have wondered if my talent for writing is a gift or something that I've studied for years. No, I've ever studied the art of writing but maybe the following will give you an inkling about how I viewed the stories I wrote when I was a kid and how discouraged I was back then when the teacher criticized a particular word I had used in a simple story. Back then I never knew that I was a writer. * * * This is something that has been rankling me ever since I was in the sixth grade. It has to do with a story I wrote for sixth grade English class on October 1, 1942, and this evening I made a determined effort to dig up that story just so that I could tell you about it. This evening I went upstairs and after rummaging around in my old Navy foot locker where I store such treasures, I finally found it in a scrap book that I had labled "School Daze." I eventually found it in a folder made out of green construction paper with the title of "Stories--Grade 6, Vee Housman." This is the simple story I wrote: The Old and the New "Tell us a story, Grandfather," cried Sue and Jimmy, "about your experiences at sea." "I've told you about all I know, but I guess there's a few I haven't told you." "One bright October day a young friend of mine came to visit me in my workshop. He wanted to show me a model airplane he had built. I could see he spent a lot of time on it. He wanted to ask my advice. He said, 'Do you think that my model airplane could win a prize at the hobby show?' I answered, 'Yes.' The next day was the hobby show. Guess what! He won first prize!" "Even if [the story] wasn't about the sea, it was still a nice story," Sue said. "I think it was swell," Jimmy exclaimed. Now that was the end of the story. Of course I know that it didn't make much sense and it didn't keep you spellbound! But what I've always remembered about that story is what my sixth grade English teacher wrote in red pencil when she corrected it. She had crossed out the word "swell" that Jimmy had said and replaced it with "great." And that's when I got upset--and I'm still upset!. As as an 11-year-old(?) kid I certainly knew that it wasn't proper to use slang words. But I also knew that they were commonly used. And when I wrote that little story . . . well that's the word that I felt Jimmy would use. Hey, *I* didn't say it, JIMMY did! It was part of the story. So if there are any English teachers out there who correct such simple stories that your students write, be careful with your red pencils. You may be stifling a future writer with real talent. Jimmy can say whatever he damn well wants to. Don't shoot down the reporter with your red pencil! It COULD be permanent! WHOOSH! I feel so much better after saying that after all of these years! :-) vee