1990

Ovid Vickers signs a final '3 to 365th Second Time Aro..-.-. .. By OVID VICKERS

I wrote about tbJnas I knew, people, places, im– ages, and ideas. Some people liked what I wrote, and others would take issue with me from time to time. But that is as it should be. Life is made up of issues, and thinking people should .take a posi– tion on issues. A column, to be successful, I always felt, had to be personal and honest. I always thought it should be written the same way people talk to one another and about the same things people talk about and are concerned about, the mundane as weU as the extraordinary. Many readers reacted to what I wrote. Most peo– ple were kind. Some were even flattering. Everyone was polite. Over the years I have received a goodly number of letters. Some people wanted to save my soul; others wanted advice or to gjve advice. Still others wanted to teiJ me how mistaken and misled I was concerning some comment I had made. It Is ladeed gradfytaa to reflect over the past seven years and realize that not at any time during my association with The Union Appeal did the Editor or anyone who worked as Managing Editor ever suggest to me what I could or could not discuss in my column. I can therefore assume that they were confident I would not knowingly use material that would embarrass the staff or the readers of this newspaper. After seven years it is still strange to me to think of how much attention one can receive by having '·'Jmn primed in a newspaper each week. Now, mosl c f that will come to an end. I ne·" •r came to this JOb to Uly, and I have decided •h 1 it's time for mt' lo leave before I have what ., n-etimt'1

(EdJtor's note: Ovid VIckers Is dlscoatlauia& oa a weekly basis his column "The S«oad Time Around" . He has assured us be wUI from time to time submit other artJcles for publlcadoa. Our workJoa relationship wltb blm bas ~n an enlightening one and one we will forever cherish.) Over the past seven years I have enjoyed a chaiJenging activity. 1 have spent the past eighty– four months thinking out loud in a weekly column which has appeared 364 umes in The UaJoa Appeal. All of thls started oo July 30, 1983, when I wrote the flrst column that appeared in this space under the title "The Second Tune Around." The week before the first column appeared, Jane Tannehill, who was then the Appeal's Managing Editor, stop– ped by my fair cabin at the Neshoba County Fairgrounds and asked if I would be interested in writing a weekly column for Tbe UaJoo Appeal. Jane knew I did some writing, and I accepted her offer on a trial basis smce J had not written for a newspaper before. The columns 1 have written since that time have covered about as much ground as my life bas covered in the last stxty years. ln those 364 col– umns, my thoughts, ideas, and comments (some good, some bad, and some indifferent) have been spread out here each week. I still cannot believe that 364 weeks have gone by since this all began. Seven years worth of col– umns! Seven years that have pasc;ed very quickly. - -

APPEARED 1:-\ : CAR'I HAG I:\ lA \=--– ~!Oi' 10:\ TR I bU.• ~--- ~ ESIIOB:\ DE>: CR..-\ .___ i\E\nO~ RECORn·=---- CL\Rl O:\ - LEDGER___

~COTT COUi\TY TIMES_ _ _ u:-.:IOt\ APPEAL ~...--..,...,;:-;-;;;.- "'! i\STON COU~TY JOUR:\:\1 ___ ~IERID£AN ST:\R____