Marlo redefines retiring
Don’t read anything more into Marlo Faulkner’s retirement from nonprofit life than this: It’s time.
Her recent birthday and the health problems of a contemporary prompted her to pull the plug.
On May 23, her 78th birthday, executive director Marlo was headed to a Coeur d’Alene Symphony board meeting when she paused. A friend had just suffered a stroke. And she was a year older. She had spent a lifetime problem solving and pouring herself into various nonprofit causes. She was bone-tired of checking her calendar every morning to see where she had to be that day and at what time.
“I’m too old to be on a board,” she thought. “It’s time to retire from organized, nonprofit (activity) and stop herding cats. It’s time for younger and more able people.”
Marlo may be small-R “retired,” but she won’t be idle.
She has written a book about author Jack London and his wife. She is writing a screenplay and two novels, including a mystery based on Coeur d’Alene’s experience with the Aryan Nations.
Marlo’s retirement from nonprofit life is two weeks old. Will it last? The odds are less than 50-50.
Learning to Vote
Jennifer Drake has photographed her kids outside her polling place since they were born.
The daughter of former Idaho lieutenant governor Jack Riggs learned early that every vote counts. And she wanted to impart that idea to her three wee ones, beginning with Francesca, now 9, and continuing with Simon, 7, and Rosamund, 5.
“It didn’t take long for them to understand the importance of what we were doing,” Jennifer tells Huckleberries, “and to love what has become a family tradition.”
Jennifer had at least 17 photos of the children posing with “Vote Here” signs heading into spring 2020. COVID-19, of course, shut down in-person voting. But that wasn’t a problem for a resourceful mother. Jennifer grabbed her offspring, her mail-in ballot, along with husband Ben’s, and found a USPS mailbox.
Before mailing the ballots March 27, she photographed her children holding them. Afterward, she posted the photo on Facebook, super-imposing a white arrow pointing to the mailbox and two words: “VOTE HERE.”
The only thing missing to complete the Election Day Photo No. 18? An “I Voted” sticker.
Huckleberries
• Poet’s Corner: It’s June/too soon — The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“Speeding Toward 2021”).
• You read about a woman crashing her green Subaru through the front of Midtown Home & Vintage Market Monday morning. Owners Matt Bright and Megan Eatock shared their frustration in a Press story that such a thing would happen after the COVID shutdown. But they were smiling through tears when they posted this message on their Facebook page at 12:21 p.m. that day: “We should specify curbside pick-up, not drive-thru!”
• Speaking of frustration, Anne Marin of Hayden finally caught a break in her work schedule and the weather to tackle a DIY project to paint furniture. She was one coat in when a guy with a leaf blower arrived on the scene, preceded by a cloud of yellow pollen and pine needles. He lived to leaf-blow another day.
• Robo-Callers are getting trickier. I’m having coffee with my brother, Frito Ray, when his phone rings. The Caller ID flashes “Mayor Steve.” And Baby Brother wonders aloud why Mayor Steve Widmyer is calling. He wasn’t. A Robo-Caller was pushing an extended car warranty. Click.
• Sign of the Times (spotted last week by Christa Hazel of Coeur d’Alene at U.S. 95 and Appleway): “Throw Kindness Like Confetti.” Says Christa: “Unfortunately, too many people today are ready to throw punches, verbal or otherwise, like confetti.” Bingo.
Parting Shot
I’ve been newspapering for 50 years this month, beginning in June 1970 with the Chico (Calif.) Enterprise Record. I’ve been a reporter, sports editor, bureau chief, news editor, managing editor, investigative reporter, columnist, editorial writer, and blogger. In June 1977, shortly after our second anniversary, I packed my bride and all my earthly belongings into a U-Haul and moved 1,200 miles to become news editor and then managing editor of the Hagadone-owned Daily Inter Lake of Kalispell, Mont. And the rest is history. It’s been a wonderful ride. And it’s not over. Thanks for being part of it.
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You can contact D.F. “Dave” Oliveria at dfo.northidaho@gmail.com.
