Page 179 - She's One Crazy Lady!

Rushden and Corby closed.
Back to Jeremy. In the course of
time, he suggested that I start a
‘blog’ – blogs being something new
and the ‘in-thing’. He had to explain
what these meant and to help me,
said he would start one too – for us
both to talk about what was going on
in our worlds on a day-to-day basis
– nothing too heavy – just us being
honest with everyday ‘happenings’
that people could relate to, and were
interesting with some humour added.
We did a few, then he contacted me
to see if I would consider being one
of the paper’s columnists, writing
in a similar fashion but to a much wider audience. He liked my style of writing. Nervously, I accepted the challenge, agreeing to write 400 words on a fortnightly basis. The heading for my column was decided by the paper (Jeremy?) as was the photo to accompany it: “Glennis Hooper – she’s one crazy lady!” – with ‘the blue hat’ photo. I felt honoured to do this but had to wonder what readers must have thought about the title, for I really was exposing my credibility here. Is that how I was perceived? A Headteacher now known publicly as ‘A Crazy Lady’? Eleven years later, and with 300 columns under my belt, each being approximately 400 words long, I called it a day, admitting that I was getting a little stale and felt others should perhaps have an opportunity to write and contribute to the paper. I absolutely loved doing them, for there was always something to write about, friends often saying they didn’t have to ring me to see what I was up to – they’d read about it! I also received some lovely comments from members of the public saying how amusing they were (part of my brief) and was often recognised as, ‘that lady from the paper’ or ‘that’s the Crazy Lady isn’t it?’ I have kept all three hundred copies of my columns as they make fascinating reading and hold many, many special memories – certainly enough material for another book!
A few opening extracts...
No. 16: February 2007
‘Having a ball, but the gowns just don’t fit.’
“Sadly, it was only a dream. I awoke having dreamed I was thin, elegant and proud to be wearing a ball gown at a very posh event. After I’d wiped the sleep from my eyes, reality set in that this ‘posh’ event was, if fact, very real and only one week away. I wasn’t thin. I didn’t feel elegant and worse still, I didn’t have a ball gown to wear. Why, oh why, had I left it this late?”
“I awoke having dreamed I was thin, elegant and proud to be wearing a ball gown at a very posh event. ”
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