|
This is Where it All Began
I am a musician. Well, let's just say I'm a guy who can
play music. Being a musician implies that you can make a living at it, and
I most definitely can not.
I was a trombone player. I played here and there, made a little money
(just enough to cover the cost of Christmas presents), but other than
that, I just wasn't good enough. It was hard to come to terms with that,
but I did. And when I did, I sold my trombones. No use in keeping
something around that just makes me feel bad about myself.
So I bought a
banjo.
A banjo makes people smile. Yes, they may make a few
people cringe as well, but most people bust out and say, "Wow! That's a
banjo, isn't it?" and then want to hear you play it. I'm still working on
the "playing it" bit, but I'm having a good time along the way.
If you have a banjo, then you've got to form you're own
Dixieland Band with a crazy sounding name. Mine's called The Stinky Creek
Jazz Band. Wherever we play, people ask if Stinky Creek is a real town. Of
course I always say it is, and then tell them a story about it.
I'm also a writer
I've always loved to write and take photographs.
Luckily, when I joined the Air Force in 1986, that's what I got to do. I
wrote a lot of stories, edited a base newspaper, and actually won quite a
few awards -- the big one being photojournalist of the year. Even after I
left the military, I kept on writing. And then this site came to be.
To make a long story short, I invented the town, developed the website,
put together a local newspaper called
The Daily Spittoon, and wrote fictional stories about fictional Stinky
Creekians in the hopes of being the next Garrison Keillor. But sometimes,
life throws you another curve.
Weekly humor columnist
My local paper,
The Mount Pleasant Daily Tribune, ran a notice one day asking people
to submit their stories or ideas or photographs for a new section in the
paper. Bucking up my nerve, I sent them several editorials I had written
and asked if they could use me as a weekly columnist. It didn't take long
to hear back from them, and they were very positive about the idea. So, I
became a columnist!
And then I discovered it was just too hard to churn out my weekly column
as well as keep up with my fictional Stinky Creek stories -- so I decided
to change the format of this website. I put in an occasional "news" story,
but focused more on adding my columns once they came out in the paper. And
then I eventually dropped the fictional stories.
Time for change again
Stinkycreektexas.com is my baby. I bought T-shirts
for it, I bought pencils for it, it's even part of my email address -- but
I have to let it go. Well, not entirely. Even though I'll be posting all
my essays at
www.tracyfarr.net, I'm still keeping this page because I enjoy telling
people to see my stuff at Stinky Creek, Texas.
Anyways, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. It was a beautiful day in
Stinky Creek, and I hope you thought so, too!
Tracy Farr
www.tracyfarr.net
www.busno6.com |
|
