Exercising my new-found freedom.

I suppose I have as much right to spout off as anyone. Maybe that's why I started by publishing a neighborhood newspaper when I was in the 6th grade. The Riverlawn Gazette. In Watertown. In Wisconsin. Where I grew up. I printed the paper. Weekly. On a hektograph. And later on a mimeograph. Long before the computer age. I sold the paper for a single penny. But sometimes neighbors enriched me with tips. Like a quarter. That was big bucks for a 12-year-old kid in 1947. Anyway, I reported news of the neighborhood. And I wasn't hesitant to write opinion pieces. Even satirical ones. It came natural. I never stopped writing. Exercising my new-found freedom. --Jim Broede