This Month's Story
One of the nice things of my going to Bookends Bookstore is to talk to Angela. She has all the latest on odd things related to books and besides, she's fun to talk to. A few months ago when I stopped by she asked me if I had been listening to Mississippi Public Broadcasting. I told her not regularly.
“Well, you should, Mr. Paul. They have a new segment called Commentaries. They are looking for people to contribute two-minute general commentaries on things of interest. You should try it!”
Well I did try. I e-mailed in four possible commentaries; really just general remarks on things much like I do in these columns. Nothing happened. After about a month, I e-mailed a query asking if they had received my submissions. I got a reply that they had received them and that my submissions “are being considered by the Commentary Committee. If one is chosen you will be contacted by our producer and asked to come to Jackson to record it in your own voice.”
Wow! I started singing the old Johnny Cash - Roseanne Carter song, “I’m Going To Jackson” around the house until Stella told me to stop. I began checking my e-mail messages five, sometimes six, seven times a day. Nothing.
Then I came home one day to find I had a telephone message from Kevin Farrell. Two of my commentaries had been chosen! When I told Stella, she said, “Jackson? All that way for a couple of minutes talk. Can’t you just call it in on the phone?”
Well, yes I could, but I decided to do it one better. I went to see a friend, Pete, who had produced my Audio Book, Other Views From The Porch (if you're not familiar with this, see the end of today’s column). I asked him if I could use his sound studio to make a CD of the two commentaries. He said sure and the next day I sat in a booth while Pete twirled knobs and made me sound nice. He worked on it a little bit more to make sure it was up to his exacting standards and I sent the finished CD off to Jackson.
About a week ago, I got an e-mail from Farrell saying that the first of my commentaries, Coming of age in Utopia — a few pithy remarks on my tomcat, Holly — would be on this week.
Let me explain the Commentaries broadcast procedure. Commentaries comes on the air five times each day with a different person’s talk each time. The commentaries of these five people are repeated each day of the week, but at a different time each day. Farrell’s e-mail gave me the different times my talk would be broadcast during the week.
Monday, my talk was to come on at 06:19. I barely got out of the shower at that time and rushing into the kitchen found I had missed it. Later at Hancock Bank, Patricia took my transaction and said, “Oh by the way, I heard you this morning on MPB. You sounded great!”
Tuesday, I was scheduled to be on at 07:49. Well, I wasn’t on. I listened to someone talk about taking his daughter camping. It was nice but it wasn’t my talk. As the day progressed, I listened to other talks at the remaining scheduled times; they were nice as well, but not a one was my commentary.
Wednesday, although I was scheduled to be on at 5:33 in the afternoon, I started from the top, 06:19, listening to each scheduled broadcast. This was my last day to hear it. Thursday and Friday, Stella and I were leaving on vacation. As the day progressed, I listened to each of the commentaries. As each came on they were still nice, but none was my commentary.
At 4:25,1 sat near the radio to hear the 4:33 commentary. Although, I was scheduled to air at 5:33, not 4:33,1 didn’t trust them. At 4:28, the doorbell rang and I went and answered it. It was Nathaniel, my neighbor, looking for Stella to brag about some fabulous redfish he had caught. Fishermen are strange people and it took several minutes to get him to understand that I didn’t want to hear about his fish. He followed me into the house still talking about his fish, as I ran back to the dining room where the radio was still playing.
“Say Paul, isn’t that you on the radio?”
It was. We heard the last two or three sentences of my commentary and then the announcer stating that, “Paul Estronza La Violette lives in Biloxi.”
“Biloxi?” this from my astonished neighbor as they went back to regular MPB broadcasting.
The fact that I was on the radio didn’t seem to faze him, he again started to tell me about the fantastic fish he had caught. He began from the very beginning in case I hadn’t heard him the first time.
After this I started writing regularly to Mississippi public radio and even made a CD of some of my stories. Write me if you want one send your request to me via my e-mail address and I’ll send you one with my complements.
