This morning I was admiring the framed certificate hanging on our dining room wall that read, “Pinnacle Book Achievement Award”. Below that line followed the announcement, “Winner of the Category of Children Interest”.

What an impressive looking award I thought but then I was reminded of the rest of the story. My artist Janine and I had indeed won the award but if I wanted to receive a certificate t0 memorialize the achievement I needed to send them some money. What?!

Also, I could order nifty gold stickers with a star on it and the words, “Pinnacle Book Achievement Award” that I could attach to the books’ front cover.

I could just imagine book shoppers clamoring and even pushing each other out of the way to get their hands on Nature’s Rhyming Riddles with the beautiful gold achievement sticker.

Oh, did I mention the stickers also cost money? They were available in batches of twenty-five.

And then to rub salt in the wound I had to pay an entry fee to enter the children’s book contest!

After I bought Janine and I each a certificate, two picture frames and a pile of stickers I was beginning to have the word “scam” reverberate in my brain. 🙁

But on the bright side our local paper did a nice writeup on the award as did my hometown paper, so I possibly sold enough books to offset the purchases of two certificates, two picture frames and 100 fancy, gold stickers. 🙂 Life is a tradeoff!

That experience of receiving such a questionable award reminded me of an award that I received nearly sixty-eight years ago that was even more memorable and astonishing and no one knew about it except me, my family and the Clinton pharmacist.

It only cost me a three cent stamp and I received a small certificate that was absolutely free.

Let me tell you the story.

We lived on a farm and every day the Minneapolis Tribune was delivered to our mailbox that stood at the end of our driveway. The news was always a day late because the paper was always a day late since that’s the way the rural delivery system worked in those days.

When the Tribune arrived usually in late morning my two brothers and I had a tradition of opening the newspaper up to the ‘funny pages’ and laying it on the living room rug.

Then we got down on the floor on all fours and read the funnies as we called them. Dick Tracy, Blonde and Dagwood, Lil Abner and Dennis the Menace being among our favorites.

A few squabbles occurred as we elbowed each other for prime reading positions. Sometimes our mother had to step in and settle things down. 🙂

Now you are probably wondering where this is all going so, I better get to the point. On the right page of the newspaper there was a section for kids to color pictures, solve puzzles, etc. One day the section contained a contest challenging the readers to write a poem about their favorite things.

I must have been around a fourth grader and that challenge intrigued  me. I liked making up rhymes and so I immediately got my creative juices going and started to create a poem.

Sadly, the poem I created has been lost but I do remember in the poem some of my favorite things were my July 5th birthday, Christmas and the Fourth of July.

I excitedly put my new creation in an envelope and addressed it and sent it off to the Minneapolis Tribune. I had no idea at the time what my future would hold and how many more times I would create that process of preparing a manuscript and sending it off in the mail.

I waited excitedly each morning as the Minneapolis Tribune arrived and scrambled to open it to the funnies. The wait was anguishing as the days went by with no winners being announced.

Then it happened! Opening the paper one morning I discovered a boxed in area that announced the poetry contest winners. Oh, if we only would have had copy machines back in those days! 🙁

There was a list of winners, and I scanned the list quickly looking for my name. And there it was in the second column, Michael Larson, Clinton, Minnesota! I was a published author at the age of ten! 🙂

Now one would expect the local paper to carry a  headline story with my cute little ten-year-old face splashed all over the front page. How many other ten-year old’s make the Minneapolis Tribune?

Sadly, the local paper never received information of my publishing exploits. So, its front page did not feature my face the next week.

My Dad came home from town several days after the paper had been released however and while in the Drug Store, he told me that the pharmacist asked him if Michael Larson was his boy.

When Dad acknowledged I was indeed his son the pharmacist congratulated him for me making the Minneapolis Tribune paper.

Finally, I am able to share my writing success with the world even though it did take sixty-eight years! I only wish I had a copy of the poem I wrote those many years ago.

And what happened to the boxed in announcement in the funny paper section where my name and hometown were shared? That should be in a tiny frame and hanging alongside my Pinnacle Book Award.

If I were able to see the future sixty-eight years ago, I would have certainly been excited to know my writing career would have just been started. 🙂

Until next time.