Welcome to Thinking Out Loud, a blog that contains postings from The Tampa Tribune’s Editorial Board and from various Tribune Community Columnists. Unlike the unsigned editorials that represent the newspaper’s institutional voice, the blog postings offer personal perspectives on the issues, personalities and events of Tampa Bay.
We invite you to participate by posting your comments. We’ll do our best to respond.
Contributors:
Joe Guidry
Joe Guidry is the deputy editorial page editor of The Tampa Tribune. He is a Tampa native and a graduate of the University of South Florida. He is married and has an adult son.
Jeff Stidham
Jeff Stidham grew up and lives in Bartow. He has been with the Tribune for nearly 22 years, the last 10 on the editorial board.
William Yelverton
William Yelverton is a Tribune editorial writer who has worked for the paper nearly 22 years. He lives in the Dade City area.
Jim Beamguard
Jim Beamguard is a Tribune editorial writer. He is a native of North Carolina and a graduate of Davidson College. He and his family live in Brandon.
Jackie Papandrew:
Jackie Papandrew is a freelance writer and editor. Her syndicated humor column appears in publications in the United States, Canada and India. She lives in Largo with her husband and children. Visit her website at www.jackiepapandrew.com.
Camille Beredjick
Camille Beredjick is a senior at Chamberlain High School, an avid musician and a scribbler with a quirky sense of humor. In the fall, she will be attending Northwestern University to study journalism, political science and music, and she plans to pursue a career in journalism.
Jim Harnish
Jim Harnish is in his 17th year as Senior Pastor at Hyde Park United Methodist Church in Tampa. He and his wife, Marsha, have two daughters and two grandchildren. He is a graduate of Asbury Theological Seminary and received the honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Bethune-Cookman University. He is the author of six books and numerous articles and studies. He enjoys playing with his grandchildren and cheering for the Florida Gators.
Angela Hunt
Angela Hunt is a novelist living in Pinellas County with her husband and two 220-pound mastiffs.
Sheryl Young
Sheryl Young was a Tampa Tribune Community Columnist in 2005-2006. A freelance writer since 1997, including the Tampa Bay Business Journal, Tampa Style Magazines, St. Pete Times and nationally in Better Nutrition, Today’s Christian Woman and more. She’s received a First Place Amy Foundation national "Roaring Lambs" Writing Award, and has lived in Tampa Bay with her family for over 20 years.
Christie Gold
Christie Gold teaches English and journalism at Freedom High School in Tampa where she advises Revolution, the school newspaper. She has been both the Hillsborough County Teacher of the Year and Florida Journalism Teacher of the Year. She lives on a small farm in Wesley Chapel where she trains as a competitive equestrian.
Natalie D. Preston
Natalie D. Preston is a karaoke singing, only-child pouting, Seminole Tomahawk waving, newlywed bride blushing, 50-state traveling, girlie girl who loves to shop, read, run and jump up and down on her soapbox.
Fernando Figueroa
Fernando Figueroa is a researcher, educator and lives in Riverview.
Gary Beemer
Interests include humor, politics, economics, community and world affairs, finance, people, religion, music, sports, current events, the arts and education.
Nicole Yunger Halpern
Nicole Yunger Halpern is an undergraduate at Dartmouth College, where she studies everything she can get her nerdy little hands on. Desired major: life. No, not necessarily biology. Life.
Kris DiGiovanni
Kris DiGiovanni is a Tribune Community Columnist, Huffington Post contributor, Daily Kos diarist, and teacher, who recently moved from NW Hillsborough to another planet - a small beach community in Pinellas County. She also blogs at www.sandscript.wordpress.com
H. David Braswell Jr.
H. David Braswell Jr. is an Information Systems Professional. He is a native New Yorker and a lifelong NY Giants fan. He attended college in California (Cal State Northridge) and moved to Tampa in 1998.
Sean Marcus
Sean Marcus teaches creative writing, journalism and reading at Chamberlain High School. He has one son and is
expecting a daughter in early March. He can be reached at wuizabug@gmail.com
A couple of weeks ago I watched my oldest child cross a stage, mortarboard perched precariously on his head, and accept his high school diploma with a brilliant smile. I don’t see how this is possible as it was just yesterday he crossed a stage with another mortarboard on his head and flashed a gap-toothed grin at his kindergarten graduation.
I’m sure all the other parents were as stunned as I to suddenly be standing at the closing bookend of childhood. But it didn’t really hit me until a few days later when our family began its annual summer hike in the Rocky Mountains. We’ve been hiking the same stretch since my children were preschoolers, unable to keep up. In fact, I have pictures of both kids being carried on the shoulders of their dad and grandpa.
We’ve hiked that trail so many times now that certain trees, streams and boulders are infused with memories, and every family member remembers details the rest of us have forgotten.
One of us recalls stumbling into an ice-cold stream and then walking for hours in wet shoes. Another remembers eating lunch on the trunk of a fallen pine tree until an attack by ravenous ants. Grandpa remembers a pair of osprey that nested in a tree overlooking a beautiful mountain lake. We lay back on a large, sunny rock, watching the birds swoop down to catch fish for their hungry offspring.
My daughter remembers our yearly pilgrimage to the grave of a beloved dog who was buried just off the trail. The dog’s owner had erected a simple wooden marker on which he (or she) had painted a heartfelt epitaph: Sid – World’s Best Dog. We spent a couple of hours after we first found the grave amusing each other with stories about Sid’s imagined adventures on the trail. I can clearly hear my kids’ high, eager voices, talking over each other as they competed to give Sid’s life the juiciest details.
Grandma’s memories of the trail center on which boulders and tree trunks provided the most privacy for the inevitable call of nature. Grandma is an expert at picking out secluded spots. Sadly, though, I am not. My son’s favorite hiking story is about the time that I – not realizing my chosen spot could be seen from another part of the trail – exposed my backside to a group of college students. They’re probably still in therapy.
My husband and I share a favorite location – a log bridge over a rushing stream. The first time each of our kids clambered across that bridge unassisted was a momentous event, captured in pictures. The trail from the bridge leads off into dense woods, curving out of sight. This year, I stopped to take a picture of the bridge, as I always do. My son, all grown up, crossed ahead of me, then turned to look back, the trail with its unseen destination stretching ahead of him.
I snapped the shot, then had to sit down on a rock to compose myself. Someday, he’ll understand why.
