Although we have never met, Writer2 has been an inspiration to me. We met in a Writing Blog site on Eons. During the course of the blogging,  I learned that he had been the Editor of The Valdosta Daily Times in Valdosta, GA. My husband and I lived there for 28 years. We met a lot of interesting people. Due to this connection Writer2 and I have discussed some very interesting characteristics of an old southern town. Valdosta, many years ago, was owned by the State of Florida. How it come  about belonging to Georgia I don't know. Valdosta for the most part still has an invisible line between the white upper class and everyone else, regardless of what race you are. The Florida line separates  Georgia and Florida at the edge of Lowndes County which is Valdosta, GA.   Mollie 

This is his very interesting interview:

I live in a new development, known as the double L section of Palm Coast, Fla., which for the past two years has been the fastest growing county in all of the United States.

I am surrounded on three sides by forest, although the neighborhood is well populated. I am within 10 miles of Flagler Beach and the Atlantic Ocean, and a new Town Center retail development will be built within five miles of my home. I love it because it is warm all year, as compared to Manitowoc, Wisconsin., where the temperature was minus-31 three Christmases ago.

I have been a newspaper reporter and editor all of my life. I was the editor of three different daily newspapers and a newspaper consultant over the past 25 years. I retired three years ago due to declining eyesight as a result of retinitis pigmatosa. Now that I am retired, I spend much of my time writing memoirs, short stories and novels. Two months ago I became a freelance correspondent for the News-Journal in Daytona Beach, and I have written a couple dozen stories for their special sections – Seniors, Home improvement and Newcomers Guide. When not writing, I do a lot of things on the Internet, where I have made new friends and discuss a wide range of topics..

I am the second of three children born to high school sweethearts. My father was a WWII veteran and served aboard the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Saratoga. He was raised on the poor side of Detroit. His father was blinded by the RP that afflicts me now, even though they say it is genetically passed down by the female gene. My mother’s family was far better off financially. My maternal grandfather invented the liquid transmission for the Ford Motor Company. My parents eventually followed my mother’s parents to northeastern Ohio, where most of our family lives today in a place called Warren, Ohio.

We were raised in a rural setting. My older brother and I worked on farms in our youth to make money. I was the only athlete in the family and participated in football, baseball and track, and I wasn’t bad at any. I turned down several scholarship offers to join the Air Force and then was medically discharged because I could not see at night, a part of the RP.

I was married for nine years and had two children, Jason and Kelly, by the time I divorced in 1981. I have been married to my current wife, Joanne, for 26 years. She and I raised her son, Tom, as our own when her ex-husband abandoned them.

Our family did a lot of camping when the children were young. Now they are spread all over the country. We like it best when we all get together, which isn’t often. We have two wonderful grandchildren whom we try to see twice each year.

I’ve only owned a computer for about 10 years, although I operated them for years at work. I am a big fan of  EONS and belong to 20 groups there. I participate in auctions on occasion, and for the past five years have done almost all of my Christmas shopping via the computer. I like Amazon and Ebay. I do all of my banking online and send all my digital photos to Snapfish for printing. I take lots of photos and design and print all of my own special-occasion cards, even at Christmas time. I frequent Google, Ask, and a lot of newspaper sites.

I’ve always found writing to be so easy, and have been published in newspapers my whole life. My high school newspaper, of which I was the editor, even won a contest that ranked it fifth in the nation. Now, trying to get a novel published is much more difficult. I am working on my second, a murder mystery, and plan to go the self-publishing route if all else fails. My first novel, 160,000, words was historical fiction, WWII in honor of my father’s exploits on the Saratoga, and the hardest genre to crack. But I will one day.

If I could re-do one thing in my life,I would finish college. I never really got a good start at it because of the draft and my desire to service in the military during the Vietnam War. When I was released, I just never got back into the swing of it. I am pleased with my success in the newspaper industry, though. By the time I retired, I think I built a respectable resume and had won countless journalist awards.

I have been somewhat of a vagabond, compared to normal people. Florida is my tenth state of residence. After getting dumped by the military, I took off for Hawaii for a year with a friend. That was lots of fun. Since marrying Joanne in 1981, my job has taken us to homes in Ohio, Illinois, Missouri, Georgia, Wisconsin and now retirement in Florida. As a consultant, I visited newspapers in dozens of states.

I probably appreciate my wife now more than I ever have. She has made a lot of sacrifices for me. Now, she has gone back to work so she could secure health insurance, since I retired early. I’ve also learned that this is our time. I don’t chase after the kids anymore. They are grown and on their own, and we are proud of them. We have given enough. We moved to Florida so they could have a warm place to come visit us. Sure beats Manitowoc, Wis. (my last stop). We have a pending wedding to put on next year, with Tom, and Kelly somewhere in the future, I hope.

I love watching football in the fall and writing whatever comes to my mind, including an occasional poem. I watch a good bit of TV or a rented movie when my wife is home, and I spend three to four hours a day on the computer doing things.

I took up rollerblading at 57. My best friends are all female, including my wife. I am a househubby, which surprises everyone – cooking, cleaning, etc. Most of all, I find retired life terribly lonely because I was so much a public figure as an editor for most of my life. I miss communicating with the masses and being bugged by the public.

I take lots of photos, even those that are of me. My wife never takes photos anymore, so I find it easier if I take my own if I need one to send to someone or for a card. I really like shots of water and nature. Here is one of me and a couple of others: