Life Outdoors: Four hundredth column
David Mark
My first column was submitted Nov. 2, 2009, published in the Beacon-Villager on Nov. 12, 2009. As of May 2021, the count is 400 columns. That’s not including some 40 somewhat revised repeats. The running total is roughly 300,000 words and 350 photographs. The first four columns, all published in 2009, were titled "Stone Walls, Winter Bicycling, A River Runs Through it" and "Robins in Winter." Those were what had been submitted as examples for a column proposed to the editor of the paper, at that time Brian Nanos, to wit, a column to be named "Life Outdoors," with a scope that included Maynard and Stow history, observations on nature and descriptions of outdoor recreational opportunities. The default byline at the end of each column was "Mark has an indoor job, but prefers to be outdoors." Brian's reply to the proposal was "Yes, but we can't pay you."