We ve got a new baby
By PAT WICK
© Another Day in the Country
It seems rather appropriate to announce the arrival of our newest baby in the Marion County Record — especially if that new baby is a book called "Another Day in the Country." It's here! We've got it in our hands! It's beautiful!
This is one of the dreams we had when we first came back to Ramona in the year 2000 from far-off California. We were going to write about country life and eventually we were going to publish all these stories in a book. I'm not sure that in this dream we included that our baby would be in living color. Nor did we dare to imagine having our photographs of the country and the people we've come to love on every page; but we knew that our book would tell their stories. In this way, reality is more impressive than our original dream!
When the truck pulled up in front of our office the other day, loaded with book boxes, our friend Joel jumped out and said, "Here we are! Shouldn't there be a drum roll or something?"
The closest we came to fan-fare was that Bobby Tajchman was in town visiting from Colorado. He was actually pacing the floor, along with us, waiting for our new baby's arrival. When we got our first look, he snapped away with his camera as we "oohed and ahhhed," touching the lovely photographs on each page and hugging this precious volume to our heart.
Several members of the Tajchman family were in town. Pat (Tajchman) White said, "Oh, this is so exciting," as her brothers all bought books and stopped to have them autographed. Bobby actually got Book #1 coming straight out of the box before it even got inside the door of the bank.
We'd hardly had a minute to be excited ourselves, we were so busy making a room for our new baby. Fifteen hundred books makes quite a stack of boxes and this baby, like all newborns, needed to be kept warm and dry, safe and secure from any harm. The room was finished just in time, although not decorated pink or blue with frilly curtains on the windows. In fact, there are no windows in this baby's room. We put them in the vault.
The first copies of the book were delivered to our Cast of Characters, whose picture is featured in the front of "Another Day in the Country" because they are mentioned in so many stories. What delight it was to get phone calls from cousins and aunts who jumped for joy with us on the book's arrival even though they live far away. Aunt Gertie, a long-time Ramona resident who now lives in Colorado, immediately commissioned more books to be sent.
In this morning's mail came another note from a loved-one who'd requested the book in advance. (These cards are our version of a baby shower — absolutely delightful to receive!) "Dear Pat," she wrote, "I was thrilled to receive 'Another Day in the Country.' The mailman delivered it to the front door yesterday. My first inclination was to read the entire book, but I decided to read several vignettes at a time and savor the book as one would an expensive piece of chocolate — nibbling a bit at a time. The photos are beautiful. Way to go! Love, Rita."
I know what it's like to savor stories like fine chocolate. I used to hide myself away in Grandpa Schubert's attic with his back copies of the Saturday Evening Post and read the serial stories that came in segments one magazine after another. It was delicious.
These days, I've been sitting at the table in The Ramona House, every chance I get, reading and rereading the stories in our new little book even though I wrote them! No matter how many times I reread the accounts of country life or look at the pictures of our dear friends — some of whom are now gone, I smile and say, "I'm so glad we came back to spend another day in the country."
