{"id":1246,"date":"2019-01-27T16:37:35","date_gmt":"2019-01-27T22:37:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jimschwab.com\/Hablarbooks\/staging\/1734\/?p=1246"},"modified":"2019-01-27T16:37:35","modified_gmt":"2019-01-27T22:37:35","slug":"gratitude-on-parade-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jimschwab.com\/Hablarbooks\/gratitude-on-parade-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Gratitude on Parade #4"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

GRATITUDE ON PARADE
#gratitudeonparade<\/a>
I am devoting much of this week to people who contributed in significant ways to my early publishing career. For the last 35 years or more, I have mixed journalism and writing skills with technical and professional knowledge to fulfill my aspirations. Many people helped make that possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of them was my advisor for the master’s program in journalism\nat the University of Iowa, John Erickson. I have no photo to offer from way\nback then or more recently. He is now emeritus\nprofessor, and I hope enjoying a well-earned retirement, but I have not heard\nfrom him in a long while. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nonetheless,\nway back in early 1984, when I needed to decide on a master’s project to\ncomplete my degree requirements, I met with him to state that I wanted to turn\nmy project into a published book when I was through. We had the choice of a\npractical journalistic project or an academic investigation on some subject\nrelated to mass communications. I chose the former, in the form of an oral\nhistory project concerning a major issue in Iowa at the time–the growing farm\ncredit crisis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Completely unfazed by my audacity, John quickly wrote out two\ntitles of books he thought would help me think through my strategy. Both\nconcerned oral history and interviewing techniques. I ordered the books, went\nto work, and began networking across the Midwest to find farmers to interview\non the subject, eventually taping interviews with more than 70. When I had\nabout 140 pages of a book completed, John insisted that was enough for the\nproject and I should turn them in–and complete the book later. Three years\nafter earning my degree, Raising Less Corn and More Hell was released by\nUniversity of Illinois Press. Only after that, for fear of jinxing success, did\nhe tell me it was the first master’s project in the school’s history, at least\nto his knowledge, to achieve commercial publication. But he provided steady\nencouragement all along the way and always seemed to know I could pull it off.\nCall him my chief enabler. I never gave him nearly enough credit, so this is my\nfeeble partial payment. Thanks, John, wherever you are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Posted\non Facebook 1\/22\/19<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GRATITUDE ON PARADE
#gratitudeonparade<\/a>
Two days ago, I noted the important role played by Professor John Erickson in the development of my first book. As i roamed the Midwest collecting the interviews that were at the core of Raising Less Corn and More Hell, there were many people who were helpful, but some were especially supportive of my project from the moment we first met. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among\nthose people were Gary and Mary Beth Janssen. Gary went through tough times as\na farmer in northern Iowa, and he and Mary Beth eventually moved to Emporia,\nKansas, after she studied to become a teacher. In Kansas, Gary began to grow\norganic vegetables and provided fresh produce to local schools for school\nlunches. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in the 1980s, while I was researching and\nwriting my book, Gary provided numerous contacts and referrals within the\nfarming community to make my work possible. We grew close enough that he and\nMary Beth drove to Omaha for our wedding in June 1985. After the book was\npublished, Gary was an enthusiastic grass roots promoter. Without him, much of\nit might never have happened. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately,\nGary died of complications from colon and liver cancer in September 2013. Mary\nBeth has survived him, and I am still grateful to both of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Posted on Facebook 1\/24\/2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GRATITUDE ON PARADE
#gratitudeonparade<\/a>
I have discovered that my biggest obstacle to completing one of these tributes every day is not writing; that part is very easy for me. I barely know what writer’s block is. It is the fact that, Facebook being what it is, I prefer to find photos of the people for whom I am expressing thanks, and when, as I did this week, I reach into the more distant past, sometimes finding those photos is a challenge. For many people involved in helping me see my first book to completion, it just takes a while. Many photos I had in the 1980s preceded my ownership of a computer and have never been digitized, if I even had a photo in the first place. It is turning out to be a major undertaking with major competition for my time. I have had to compromise. Some photos are still on their way from sources I had to track down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While I figure that out, I want to honor someone else of more recent vintage. At the end of 2013, a year in which I took 23 trips on APA business, five more teaching at the University of Iowa, and some personal trips, I realized I needed to do something serious to stay resilient. I enrolled in a new health club (X Sport Fitness) and arranged for a trainer just before New Years’ Day. I was about to undertake the new routine when I had to delay it because of a pinched nerve in my shoulder that occurred on that holiday. A few weeks later, I began my new routine with a good trainer, but he left abruptly a year later. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then\ncame Mike Caldwell, one of the most talented, thoughtful, creative, and\ndedicated personal trainers I am likely to encounter in that business. He pays\nvery close attention to my development and ensures the routines are well\nattuned to my current situation. I have learned a great deal about fitness\ntechniques and achieved things, now at 69, that I never did when I was much\nyounger. I could not ask for more and have no regrets. Particularly at my age,\nfitness matters, and good advice in that arena matters even more. So here’s to\nMike, a true pro at what he does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Posted on Facebook 1\/26\/2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jim\u00a0Schwab<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GRATITUDE ON PARADE#gratitudeonparadeI am devoting much of this week to people who contributed in significant ways to my early publishing career. For the last 35 years or more, I have mixed journalism and writing skills with technical and professional knowledge to fulfill my aspirations. Many people helped make that possible. One of them was my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1247,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[76,549,13,441,1197,189,223,368,222,130],"tags":[550,1241,1239,1235,1236,193,1237,1240,1242,804,1238],"class_list":["post-1246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-activism","category-agriculture","category-book-reviews","category-careers","category-gratitude","category-journalism","category-personal-health","category-personal-history","category-resilience-2","category-writing-2","tag-agriculture","tag-farm-credit-crisis","tag-fitness","tag-gary-janssen","tag-john-erickson","tag-journalism-2","tag-mike-caldwell","tag-oral-history","tag-raising-less-corn","tag-university-of-iowa","tag-x-sport-fitness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jimschwab.com\/Hablarbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jimschwab.com\/Hablarbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jimschwab.com\/Hablarbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jimschwab.com\/Hablarbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jimschwab.com\/Hablarbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1246"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jimschwab.com\/Hablarbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1249,"href":"https:\/\/www.jimschwab.com\/Hablarbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1246\/revisions\/1249"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jimschwab.com\/Hablarbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jimschwab.com\/Hablarbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jimschwab.com\/Hablarbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jimschwab.com\/Hablarbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}