Every writer has a path. Some are “crookeder” than others. For myself the path happened in 8^th grade in teacher George Toutain’s homeroom. He was also the English teacher and junior high  baseball coach.

The classroom looked mostly like every other classroom with desks, a full-length chalkboard, rows of student desks and in the corner an American flag. The difference with this room were large placards displaying the various figures with illustrations  such as personification, simile, irony, hyperbole, etc. etc. I can still picture them in my minds eye.

His persona was a mix of John Wayne machismo and Jim Carrey goofiness. I’d guess he was about 40 at that time and wore every day at practice, a blue windbreaker, a pair of funky red sweatpants with blue stripes and white stars on each leg, and a pair of ancient black spikes.

He coached third base during the games and had his keys in his pocket. How do I know that? Because the signal for the suicide squeeze was his taking the keys out of his pocket and jangling them. Supposedly, he had played minor league baseball and I could believe it based on way he blasted fungoes into oblivion and especially the laser show he displayed the one time he took BP (batting practice). It was the most powerful and sweetest left-handed swing I ever saw.

George Toutain led our team to an undefeated season. The pinnacle being the day we played the high school JV team who for the heck of it pitched a little fireballer who had thrown a varsity no-hitter a week prior. We won the game and afterwards he praised the team and randomly predicted that I’d be starting for the varsity soon. High praise for a kid who once school let out that summer played little league on the small field. In that regard he was right.

As far as taking off as a writer then, not even close. But the cue cards somehow became stored for what turned out to be a much later date. Flash forward about 30 years later when taking a creative non-fiction course while finishing my bachelor’s degree at Quinnipiac University. I regretfully forgot the she- professor’s name but I will tell you that she taught me some serious writing tools and I rattled off some quality stories that were, subliminally or not, embedded with the devices on the  Toutain cue cards. She was impressed enough to write me a recommendation for graduate school. Not bad for a business major working for a living making helicopter blades at Sikorsky Aircraft. Then all I had to do was write an essay and pass an interview by the School of Communications dean Rich Hanley.

INTRODUCING THE ORACLE

This is where the Oracle stuff happened. It was more like a conversation than an interview. After telling me that it didn’t matter that I was “older’ and took only a handful of English classes I still had a shot. But he needed to tell me three things- bear in mind that this was about 25 years ago. Then, blogs were just becoming “a thing” and I-phones had not invented yet. Basically, the information highway was running on one lane compared to today’s craziness. If you want to become a full-time writer.

1. you won’t make much money for a long time
2. you will have to be mobile and move all over the country or world
3. you will have to adapt to be computer adept and more

And lastly, the bomb.

• Print media is dying. Newspapers and periodicals will get smaller in size until they just disappear. Soon will be an era of people will pick and choose “rolling their own” news from the internet. Dangerous times are ahead

Hanley proceeded to tell me about the Journalism track program and asked me if I was still interested. I said simply that I was here as a lark and A. I have no intention of changing careers and B. I just want to learn how to write, get published and, some day, maybe write a book. He leaned back in his plush leather chair, arms crossed, smiled, extended his hand and said welcome to the program.

It took a couple of years, but I slogged through the program and learned about various styles of writing, learned about filming and editing and wrote my Capstone project The Best Seat in the House about the trials and tribulations of being a professional umpire. The legwork included tracking down and interviewing umpires in the minor leagues (in Portland, Maine) and the big leagues (in Palm Beach, Florida). Special thanks to the Portland Sea Dogs for extending me an invitation to attend a game and a peek behind the curtain of AA baseball and esteemed MLB umpire, fellow Connecticut product, Eddie Rapuano for some great material. His life in baseball is the book I need to write. Now, back to Hanley the Oracle.

ORACLE REPORT CARD- GRADE A+

1. In the real-world most writers continue to struggle financially
2. Writers and reporters continue to seek the news. If it means going to Peoria, Melbourne or Kabul , so be it
3. The electronic age is here in full force making “news” instant. Blogs gave way to multimedia stuff like podcasts and YouTube. What’s next?

• As far the death of newspapers and magazines it is staggering. In the last twenty years alone over 3,200 periodicals and over 2,000 newspapers have vanished. It makes me sick to read the Wilmington Star-News (around since 1935) for several reasons. The paper itself is slim, the content slimmer and the price is ridiculous ($1.30). I’m dating myself but as a twelve-year-old paperboy for the New Haven Register I  collected $1.85 a week from customers. And the paper was robust with local and national news then, now it’s downright pitiful (but so far alive)

As far as the dangerous times, They’re here in America and abroad.  As my dear mother Connie often said pray for us.

Without Wax

J F Gozzi

P.S Flashing to my “progress” I never left my day job but do write articles, an entertaining Holiday letter and make some unfiltered YouTube videos (search Johnny Gazoo). I still haven’t started that novel yet.