Changing with the Times – from walls of a cave to a computer screen
The Loudonville Times was my first link to Mohican Country.
I recall sitting in a restaurant on East Main Street — now an East of Chicago Pizza franchise — and reading a copy. It was the mid ’80s and I was passing through on my travels between Cleveland and Columbus.
I preferred to take the backroads. Always have. Especially roads that took me through my beloved Mohican Country. I fell in love with the area when I first came there in 1980 to canoe and camp with friends.
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Through the pages of the Loudonville Times I became better acquainted with the place I’d eventually call home. I’d pick up a copy every time I passed through. I entertained thoughts about what it would be like to be editor of a weekly paper in the Canoeing Capital of Ohio. At the time, I was the editor and publisher of Hoot, a biweekly humor tabloid in Columbus.
“Not a likely scenario,” the rational part of my brain responded. A part of my brain I had little use for then and less so now.
Fast forward to 2013. I was about to retire after working 16 years as a staff writer for the Ashland Times-Gazette, which was owned by the same folks who published the Loudonville paper.
Longtime Loudonville Times editor Jim Brewer had let management know he planned to retire the following year. Troy Dix, who was my boss at the time, asked me to reconsider my retirement plans and replace Brewer.
It was tempting. But not as tempting as the prospect of enjoying my retirement doing what I loved most — canoeing and camping along the Mohican and other rivers.
'Are you Irv Oslin, the one who writes the river stories?'
After retirement, my accounts of those river adventures continued to grace the pages of both papers. Add to that a series of columns on the seldom-traveled forks of the Mohican River.
It was the best of both worlds — canoeing and writing about it in the Times-Gazette and the Loudonville Times, which later became the Times-Shopper. It was particularly gratifying to see the columns on the pages of the paper that originally served as my link to Mohican Country.
Recently, I learned that the Loudonville Times introduced me to a whole new audience — the Amish. Seems I can’t walk into an Amish business these days without a customer or clerk asking, “Are you Irv Oslin, the one who writes the river stories?”
Unlike their English counterparts, the Amish always pronounce my name correctly. The English tend to pronounce it “Olsen.” Which I find offensive. That sounds more like Superman’s nebbishy sidekick Jimmy Olsen. Hardly consistent with the macho image I strive to project. (Except for the time I wrote about wearing pink high heels on a canoe trip.)
I’m afraid that, after the Times-Shopper ceases publication, I might lose some of my Amish readership, those used to receiving copies in the mail or picking them up at local shops.
However, my column and Mohican/Loudonville area news can still be accessed online and in print via the Ashland Times-Gazette. My Amish friends who shun technology can still get the Times-Gazette by mail.
Support local journalism and continue to read Irv's column and other news from Loudonville by subscribing to the Ashland Times-Gazette print product or Times-Gazette.com online.
Like a lot of my readers, especially the older ones, I’m not thrilled about electronic newspapers. I love having a tangible link to the community — one I can hold in my hands and smell the newsprint. It’s just not the same. But what is these days?
Times change. Regardless of what town they’re published in. The question is, how much are we willing to change?
Look at the bright side. There was a time when the only place we could catch up on local news was on the wall of a cave. Typos were much harder to correct. And, instead of retiring, writers were eaten by ferocious carnivores.
This article originally appeared on Ashland Times Gazette: Changing with the Times – from walls of a cave to a computer screen
