RIGHT OF CENTER: VACATION IS TOUGH FOR NEWS JUNKIE

As a news junky, it was with some trepidation that I entered into a week-long vacation late last week. Whenever I take a few days off from work, I find myself separated from news -- broadcast and print.

Vacations typically are a time of sharing pleasant experiences with some of my closest friends -- rugby tournaments -- or a time for familial fellowship in the land of cheese. With either scenario, there is little time to watch or read the news, let alone to help put together a newspaper.

In the past, I've gone through withdrawal without my daily news fix. So when I'm playing rugby in Dallas, I'll pick up a local paper or tune in when the TV news comes on at the motel. Or when I'm in Wisconsin, I'll pick up a copy of the Wisconsin State Journal, the best of Madison's four dailies.

I always strikes me curious that TV news in faraway cities differs little from what we get here in Cape Girardeau. Of course the national, network feeds are the same, but so also is the local news similar in terms of the types of stories that are done and the quality of the broadcasts. It's the same with radio and print news. Believe it or not, typos and grammatical mistakes also creep into the copy of the Wisconsin State Journal and the Milwaukee Sentinel.

Most often, though, I finish reading the local newspaper in whatever city I happen to sit down for a morning pot of coffee only to be left thirsting for more -- news, that is. It must have something to do with missing out on the gathering and disseminating of what becomes the final product. I wonder if dairy farmers have the same problem when they are on vacation. Does simply drinking a glass of milk suffice? Or do their hands cup themselves in an habitual grip caused by washing hundreds of teats prior to positioning automatic milkers beneath a herd of cows each morning?

Is arm-chair ranting and raving during a vacation any substitute for a coach's hours of preparation for a game? Of course not. In the same way, a newspaperman isn't satisfied reading the daily paper in a given city. He has to be part of producing the product. Such is my perennial problem whenever I get a few days off work.

But I think on this trip -- home to Wisconsin for the holidays -- I discovered a remedy. I became what a good newspaperman ought always to be. That is, I became observant of the wonderful stories that are played out daily before my eyes.

Not that any of them would necessarily appear in print. But they could. There's the semi-retired Jack-of-all-trades who spends his free time tinkering and "piddlin'" around the shop. If you're looking for such things, you can see on his work bench an old plastic dust pan with a handle that gave out long ago.

But instead of spending the $1.79 to replace the worn utensil, Mr. Fixit cut a wood dowel to the appropriate length, drilled a hole through it and fastened the new handle to the plastic pan with a long stove bolt. And there among the neatly fashioned shelves and storage bins, is what is left of a 25-year-old roll of bailing twine.

It seems when he was doing some electrical work for a farmer years ago, the roll was set out with the farmer's trash. It had gotten wet and no longer would work in the bailer. But over the years, the tinkerer found myriad uses is his shop for the twine.

Then there's the teacher with multiple degrees explaining at "Jobies, Tobies and Hubbies" -- one bar, three owners -- various observations of post-modern America. For example, did you know this nation's moral decline and cultural morass can be linked directly to the emergence and growing popularity of soccer? Neither did I.

A writer could have a field day with the groups of men -- farmers, welders, duffers -- who huddle over cribbage boards trading incessant barbs and recounting unending yarns.

And what is the story with the young lady at the quick shop who can recall each play of the last Packer game? She actually understood every possible scenario in the convoluted playoff picture three weeks ago. Just don't get her started on why Brett Favre was left off this year's Pro Bowl in lieu of Warren Moon.

In all, it was an enjoyable week off. Next time I'll have to remember my notebook.

~Jay Eastlick is the news editor of the Southeast Missourian.