Last Monday (March 8th), after I spotted mallard ducks on a partly iced river in town, I composed a rough letter to the editor concerning it and quickly submitted the letter online to the Barre - Montpelier Times Argus. Then, later the same evening, I completely rewrote the letter and resubmitted it via e-mail.
Was pleasantly surprised when I received a response from an editor from the newspaper in short order, confirming that they had gotten the letter and were intending on publishing it sometime, once their backlog of letters were published ahead of mine anyway.
Below is my letter to the editor as published in today's newspaper. They did some, mostly minor, editing and polishing of my letter for me, however it is much better and I am very pleased by it.
Monday, March 15, 2004
Barre - Montpelier Times Argus
Barre - Montpelier, Vermont
Opinion section
Letter to the Editor
Welcome signs of things to come
[6th letter down of seven published]
There are definitely some things in life that are simply worth stopping for, even if only for a few spare moments of our time, especially after such a long, hard, cold Vermont winter.
While walking across the Rose Lucia Bridge on School Street on my way to the Kellogg-Hubbard Library late one afternoon I happened upon one of these moments, a welcome sign of spring: three healthy-looking mallard ducks standing on a medium-sized slab of ice in the North Branch River. This was all it took to cause me to pause just long enough in my tracks for a gaze before continuing on to my destination.
Certainly a most welcome and hopeful sign of better things to come, indeed, one I will keep firmly in mind, at least until spring eventually arrives.
Morgan W. Brown
Montpelier
By the way: It is now a week later after I spotted the ducks, wrote the letter and blogged about it as well of course and, there is no more ice on the rivers, around here anyway.
<< Home