Time to retire the keyboard and fire up the boat engine
I guess we all have to retire sometime. My writing started in the third grade, and my teacher thought I should quit. She looked at my writing and said to stop pressing so hard.

Then, she took hold of my arm and shoved it along – creating a trench several inches deep and a hole the size of a BB. “See – I told you, you’re pressing too hard!” she said.

Now I can see what she meant. It’s time to stop writing “The Back Forty” column. Writing this has been part of my life for quite a few years.

I began as a vo-ag teacher in Ohio in 1966, and Cooperative Extension became my employer for three years after that. Then I went back to college for a Master’s degree and moved to Washington state extension in 1972. My wife is a teacher, and she’s been a great help.

After resigning from extension in 1983, I started writing commercially and freelancing for a man who contracted with agricultural companies. That took me through Washington, Idaho and Oregon for a number of years.

“The Back Forty” column began with a publicity mailer to about 40 newspapers in eastern Washington, and the column proved to be just as good in the East as it is in the West. The Goldendale Sentinel was my first customer, and they have been great.
Soon I was mailing advertising to about 4,000 newspapers every two years. The Delavan Times in Illinois began using “The Back Forty” in 1986 when the late Ruth Larimore was publisher.
“Twenty-five dollars a month is probably too steep for this little newspaper,” she wrote. “However, I’d like to take advantage of your offer and see what my readers think.”

Polly Thill of Iowa’s Carlisle Citizen wrote about the same time. “I am interested in trying the column for a month,” she said. (They’ve used the column for quite a few years.)

Some of my clients have been in the West, but Minnesota has been great, as has Indiana, Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Kansas. I’ve had customers in most of the states, but the northern half of the country has been the best.

Most of my customers are small weeklies, but several are large agricultural papers with good circulation.

If anyone wants to sell a newspaper column, don’t talk to me. Do it your own way, and you’ve got a chance. In my spare time I’ve published some books and sell them through gift shops, restaurants, pharmacies; or, wherever I can.

Four of the books are collections of “Back Forty” columns. The first was published in 1989, and is called It’s Hard To Look Cool When Your Car’s Full Of Sheep. More than 50,000 of those have gone out the door.

The second is Things that go “Baa!” in the Night and the third is My Dog Was A Redneck, But We Got Him Fixed.

Finally, I published Take The Kids Fishing, They’re Better Than Worms.

I’ve sold “The Back Forty” since 1983, and maybe should keep going. But I’m slowing down – and I need to go fishing.

Readers with questions or comments for Roger Pond may write to him in care of this publication. For the editor’s tribute to Roger, see pages 4-5A in this week’s issue.