I’ve hit my 200th mark. I’ve written my 200th “What’s a girl to do?” column for the Lake County Record-Bee.
Two hundred ideas. Some popped into my head, others had to be dragged from my brain. I’m not sure how it all happened.
The start of WGTD began about 35 years ago. I worked for a glossy magazine answering phones. I took the job just to get my foot in the door and perhaps get a writing gig. Several weeks into the job the editor made me the “fashion editor.” I still laugh about it; I was, and still am, in NO way fashionable.
If I had the money to be fashionable, I’d spend it on my garden, not clothes.
I’ve had great wardrobes over the past half century but now I’ve gone from getting my clothes at Walmart to tossing fashionable tops into my Costco cart.
My gig as fashion editor lasted one issue. The editor told me, “Lucy, you can’t write about Orange County women like that, they won’t get the humor. Pitch me something else.”
My single friends at the time would call me up on Fridays asking me, “What can we do? What’s there to do?”
That’s what started my column “What’s a Girl to Do?” I pitched it to my then editor. She loved it and the rest is history.
During the time I lived in Sri Lanka, I wrote articles for different magazines, mostly for Sri Lanka Airlines in-flight magazine. Until the publishing changed hands and wanted only Sri Lankan writers.
Skip ahead to my landing in Lake County when I happened to see an ad for journalists for the Record-Bee.
Freelancing for the Record-Bee was fun. I went all over the county to all sorts of events, met a lot of people and made good friends. It wasn’t until the late, great columnist Gene Paleno passed that I was offered a space for a weekly column. Yoo-hoo! “What’s a Girl to Do?” was back in print.
Now I write a column twice a week. Double the pleasure, double the fun!
I always thought I’d end up on the Oprah show for having written a best-selling novel. I even had the outfit for my appearance, down to the earrings I would wear. The outfit is long gone (and so is Oprah’s show). I still have the earrings but the holes in my ears have closed up. My best-selling novel is on disks in the garage.
One of these days I’ll dig it out.
Until then, I have columns to think about and to write, have to continue to dredge the corners of my mind and get writing while sitting out in the garden and trolling the internet for ways to grow better sugar snap peas.
I sometimes wish readers would suggest things a girl can do in Lake County. I’ve thought of places where I could ride my bike, but the last time I tried riding it, I fell before I got to the end of my block. I swear I’ll get in good enough shape to go on a hike with Kim Riley and her hiking gang – until I see where, how far and how high they hike. Maybe next year.
I’m going to go to Sacramento soon with my friend Mable. I bribed her that if she drove, we’d do something fun after my doctor’s appointment. The Sacramento I knew 40 years ago was fun and hip. Maybe there will be a protest happening that we could join. If not, we could have a protest of two on something about the government. We could pick a topic out of a hat – there’s always something to complain about.
What’s a girl to do?…get working on the next hundred or so columns and get this party started!
Lucy Llewellyn Byard welcomes comments and shares via lucywgtd@gmail.com
