September marks the 20-year anniversary of the Outdoor Journal column.

When I first approached Dorma Tolson of the Morning Journal about a regular outdoor column neither of us knew if such a column could sustain itself. I guess that after writing approximately 960 columns with about 700 words each, I think you can say the Outdoor Journal column has held it own.

I’ll bet my teachers would be amazed that I even knew that many words; let alone arranging them in a coherent sentence.

You could say, however, that the column’s ancestry really began way back in East Palestine High School with an assignment from my junior English teacher, Miss Atkins.

Her assignment was to pick an imaginary career and use it for a 100-word essay. Of course I chose being a professional African hunter for my fantasy career. Miss Atkins gave me an A+, and even added a positive note about my descriptive writing.

Years later I remembered Miss Atkins while struggling to find an occupation better suited to me than the steel mill. Was my writing good enough to be published? To find out I submitted an article with photos to a national outdoor magazine and was surprised when it was accepted. That was the start of my career and the Outdoor Journal column.

One thing I have learned over the last 20 years is that finding new subjects is not easy, and I know I have repeated subjects more often that I have liked. I have also learned that some readers who read the column do not hunt or fish. Some of these are ladies who just find the subjects interesting, or former sportsmen who because of age or failing health are no longer able to participate in the sports they love. Sooner or later age slows all of us down and I can certainly relate to growing slower as the years pass.

As you can see, the Outdor Journal readers are a mixed audience, and over the years I have tried to keep my writing down to earth, and readers might note that sometimes the subject matter is targeted toward those who know much more than me.

Other times I get philosophical and might write about the beauty of the outdoors, and how just watching a squirrel scamper up and down a hickory tree, or how a flitting butterfly dodges hungry birds as it struggles to propagate its species.

How lovely and sometimes dangerous is the planet we call home. For those species that cohabit this amazing world it can many times seem cruel, but rest assured there is a plan to everything in this universe, even if we do not understand it.

I guess to could also say that there is a plan for the Outdoor Journal column, and I don’t understand what that might be either. In fact, I’m shocked that it has lasted 20 years, when so few newspapers recognize that those who love our outdoor heritage are important.

Not only has the Morning Journal published this column for 20 years, but it has also published archery scores, trap scores and even the winners of catfish tournaments. I’ve heard catfish called the ugliest fish that swims. The beady eye and whiskered catfish might have a face only a mother could love, but those who strive to catch a big one have their own affection for those big brutes that swim in our lakes and rivers.

As I write about Outdoor Journal’s 20th anniversary, I realized that 20 years can seem like a long time, but even 20 hours can seem a short time when ever a deadline approaches. Miss Atkins only asked for 100 words, so I hope she is proud of her contribution to my life’s career.

Over the years I’ve written many words for various clients, and I still have never hunted in Africa.