My Perspective - Thanks for letting us tell your story

By Jim Palmer

Over the years, I have thanked both our drivers and our writers in this column, but I have only given a tip of the hat to another group of people who are crucial to the success of this publication -- the individuals who agree to be featured in our feature stories. A great story idea is wonderful, but if the person doesn’t agree to move ahead with it... there is no story.

Since Senior Perspective was founded in the early 1990s, more than 1,000 individuals and/or groups of people have been featured in Senior Perspective. And while most people say “yes” when we ask them if we can do a story on them, we do get some rejections. Sometimes they just don’t think people will be interested in the story, sometimes they are not comfortable bringing any attention to themselves, and sometimes they just prefer to not tell their story publicly.

We receive the most “no thank yous” this time of year. Why? Because we are finalizing stories that will appear in the Veterans Day special section. We hear about some really amazing and impressive military men and women but when we ask them about a story, the veteran refuses. Either they don’t want to talk about it and/or they just don’t want it published. We respect their wishes, thank them for their service, and move on to the next story idea.

For every story in the Senior Perspective, there needs to be three green lights -- one green light from me the editor, one green light from the writer, and one green light from the person being featured. If I give a red light or the person featured gives a red light, the story stops there. If we are both green but the writer doesn’t want to do it, we ask another writer and the story usually happens. Sometimes there is a yellow light situation... which typically happens because we need more information before moving ahead or the person being featured wants to think about it.

When someone agrees to share their story with us and our readers, it shows that they trust us... and that is a good feeling. And over the years, we have told a lot of stories that people have only shared with our paper. That also makes us feel warm and fuzzy.  Thank you!

A few extra tidbits about the people we have featured...

• Sometimes during an interview, we learn that the spouse is doing something as interesting or more interesting than the person we are featuring. This has happened about five or six times that I can remember. In those cases, we add the spouse into the story. If their story is unique and interesting enough, we schedule them for a future interview/article focused solely on them.

• While most of the people featured in our paper are older, they don’t necessarily have to be. This year, we have featured a couple of teenagers and we have also spotlighted a couple 100+ year olds. Like I have always said, the stories don’t always have to be about seniors --- they just have to be stories that the majority of our senior readers would find interesting. People in their 40s and 50s are usually the ones who are most hesitant about being featured in Senior Perspective... because they’re inching closer but are not considered “seniors” just yet. After we explain to them that they don’t need to be a certain age to be in the paper, they are okay with it.

•  A typical interview lasts about 45 minutes to an hour, but some interviews have gone on for three-to-four hours (or more). This happens when the person being interviewed and the writer doing the interview find a special connection and just keep visiting.

• About 15-20 times over the years, the person who we interviewed passed away right before or right after the newspaper that featured them was printed. In these cases, the article takes on special meaning. Extra newspapers have been offered to these families so they can hand them out at the visitation or funeral.

• During the heart of COVID, several interviews were done by phone or Zoom. We would then rely on the person being interviewed to help supply us some photos. Typically our writers take most of the photos. If you look back at copies from 2020 and early 2021, you will notice that nearly all the photos are contributed. Not everyone is good with cameras, so there are some rough photos during that time frame.

If you know someone who you think might make an interesting story in our newspaper (or if you are the person who might make a good story), there are a few things you can do. First, you can reach out to me and see what I think.  Or, you can run it by the person you have in mind for the story. Getting an idea if the person is okay with being featured is usually a good move. If you do call me first, I will be looking for the person’s name, a summary of what the person has done to be considered a candidate for an article, and their contact information. I don’t need a ton of information, but I need enough to know whether to go ahead on the story. I’ll be able to tell you right away if it will work for the Senior Perspective. It’s as easy as that.

Send your story ideas directly to me. My email is jim@srperspective.com and phone is 320-334-3344. You can also send me a letter at Senior Perspective, Attn: Jim Palmer, PO Box 1, Glenwood, MN 56334.

Thanks again to all those who share their stories with us and our readers. We really appreciate it.