Our Town

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Ou-To Op-Ed

My Son is a Terrific Writer
by Katherine Mills, Our Town Staff

I've been in this crazy game we call journalism for a long time now. I've covered weddings and park dedications, bake sales and even preschooler fashion shows, but if there's one thing I've learned, it is this: my son Eric is a terrific writer. Yes, I know what you're thinking: That's just the crazy talk of a doting mother. But before you judge me as some loon, hear me out. I think you'll agree that Eric is doing a great job.

First, let me point out how difficult it is being a newbie (that's newspaper talk for someone who is new to the staff and has not been there very long) at a big paper like Our Town. While all the big stories go to the grizzled, hard-living paper veterans (such as Larry St. James' excellent piece on that stop sign installation a few weeks back), the newbies (newspaper talk for a "newbie") get the tough, gritty stories that no one dare cover. For example, my son Eric's piece on a local couple's argument in the park? The stuff of terrifying dreams, that. In order to cover this story, Eric had to put himself in harm's way and believe me when I tell you, he received more than his fair share of rude looks from the female arguer. Yowza!

And how about Eric's heart-warming story about little Mark Tedesco and his hardcourt triumph over big big brother Steve? That story was really neat because even though Eric is himself not a sports man (his father always called him "Mary" as a joke!), he still managed to effectively put the reader in the middle of a fierce sports battle. The article also got me thinking about those two boys and their deceased mother. For example, I know that if someone has no parents, that makes them an orphan, but what if they have just one parent? Does that make them half an orphan? Once again, my son Eric has made us think about something.

Then there is Eric's grammar. Without question, my son's syntax is without reproach. From a very early age we knew that Eric was not mentally disabled due to his canny ability to read and write at an average level. Well nearly thirty years later, Eric is still constructing perfectly adequate sentences. Observe this excerpt from a recently published piece:

He continued, "Yeah he may have been a little intense for some people, what with the hot air ballooning around the globe, and the parachuting his nephews and nieces to school, and the backyard safari and all that stuff. But when you get right down to it, Jack Habishaw was the rare individual who really attacks life with both hands. Not many people can say that. Also, he really loved soup."

Just look how well he quotes his source; the comma is in the exact right place, the period is inside the quotation marks...just priceless. And maybe he does let the quote go on a little long, but it was about a man dying! Why won't you allow the grieving to grieve?!

When Eric was a child, he would do this adorable thing where he would urinate himself and then go, "Uh-oh!" I swear to you he could have been in commercials. But everytime I brought it up to Eric's father, he would just comment on how acting was for girlies and that he had to go play basketball and couldn't talk about it now. Sigh.

When Eric was sixteen he was cast in the high school musical in a comic adaptation of Wozzeck as a principal lead. I have never been so proud of my little boy. Unless you count the time he wrote that article about that slut Sherry Lipton and how she lacks sass (a remarkable feat for a woman of the night).

So what can we expect from Eric Mills in the future? Maybe a Pulitzer like that Louis Lane girl in the Superman movie. Or perhaps a Nobel prize. One thing that is definite: Eric Mills has very strong writing skills for someone with his level of education. As I wrote in his high school yearbook: "Eric, from the day you were born, I knew you would perform slightly higher than your peers and grow to average height." Nothing is wrong with being 5'5".

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