News-Times writer discusses career, new book
Reading a few short excerpts from her book, “20 Gallons of Milk: And other columns from the El Dorado News Times , ” newstimes writer and columnist, Joan Hershberger, spoke at the Kiwanis Club meeting on Wednesday. She opened the discussion by sharing how she came to write for the News-Times.
“I began working at the newspaper in 1993, and I never applied for the job,” Hershberger said. “I wrote a couple of letters to the editor and something struck George Arnold (then managing editor). He called me up one day out of the blue, and I had never talked to him before and we weren’t friends or anything like that, and he asked me to come in and talk about working for the newspaper.”
Arnold told her that he wanted to hire her to do various tasks and write a
weekly personal column. Hershberger said she gladly took the job, which started with her columns as well as entering horoscopes, Dear Abby and columns on editorial pages, as well as other projects.
“I worked for about a year, and we had a family crisis, so I decided that I should stay home,” she said.
After about two months, Arnold called again and offered her the job back — even telling her that he had received calls from readers asking where her columns were, she said.
“It was such a nice compliment, so I decided that this is where I’m supposed to be. A few things through the years have reinforced that this is where I am supposed to be,” she told Kiwanis Club members.
In January 2013, Hershberger keyed her 1,000th column for the News-Times. She subsequently decided that she would take past columns and compile them into a book, which became avail- able several months later, she explained.
“Some people want to know why I call this ‘20 Gallons of Milk.’ I didn’t know what I wanted to call it in the beginning. It is difficult for me to get a story started and finished, let alone headlines,” she said.
Originally collecting 400500 columns for publication, she narrowed the list to 160, and came across one that was published in 1995.
She explained that when her daughter, Sharon, was a teen, she took her grocery shopping. Armed with a deep freeze at her home, Hershberger said she would often purchase multiple gallons of milk and freeze them for later use. Embarrassed, as many teens are when seen in public with their parents, the teen hung back as Hershberger packed 20 gallons of milk in her shopping cart.
“The teenager followed me from a distance — but said, ‘I am not related to that woman.’ Then she moved up close, covering the biggest grin ever and said, ‘oh Mom, everyone that you walk by stares at that milk without watching where they are going. One lady almost ran into someone she was so busy looking at our cart’,” Hershberger said with a laugh.
She then went on to talk about the role that God has had in her life, telling club members that God has put them in their particular profession for a reason — to use their talents to better serve the Lord.
“This is where you are to be,” she said. “I wanted to say that one of the people who taught me about how much God is concerned about our business was my daughter’s mother-in-law.”
She explained that during a bit of an economic crisis, she was discouraged. One day, an unknown woman walked up to her at a park and told her that she was supposed to go to the park and pray for someone. The woman asked her if there was anything that she needed prayers about, and she told the woman that she would like prayers in regards to her business. The woman prayed for her and then left. Soon after- wards, her business began to pick back up.
“If God does not build the house, the work of the builders is useless,” Hershberger said.
She further illustrated God’s power working through others’ lives, saying that the aftermath of the situation continued when her daughters-in-law prayed for her friend and roommate, who was also in financial straits. After losing her job and scraping by, her landlady prayed for her, which led to a job interview within days. She ended up getting the job.
“It reminds us that God can do anything you ask in His name. The jobs that we have are because God places us there because we have something to do there. We are doing what we are doing because God has a purpose for us there. That’s where I come from on this,” she said.
For a look back at her memorable columns, Hershberger’s book can be purchased at local bookstores, La Bella Gourmet Foods, and the El Dorado News-Times for $22.95.