From Jim Stalker
Creston
Some of your readers may remember when I was in business at the bookstore the first time. Early on, I ran an ad in your paper called “Stalk talk.” It was a single column by 4”. In that ad, I used it to play up a new book, make a humorous statements, pretty much say what I had to say. Over the years, it got to be pretty popular. Some people told me they looked for it before they looked at the obituaries. That was saying quite a lot.
One day, a couple came into my store, Mary and Wayne Hill, owners of the Afton Star Enterprise. They wanted me to write a column in their paper. I wrote that column under a fictitious name. They felt it would be better if I kept my real identity a secret. I conjured up a name that I called “Fester’s Conjectures,” and that was my title for the next five years.
The plan was to write comments about an issue, an event or basically anything that popped into my head. Local history was a favorite. Paperboy (Wayne) would write a counter comment the following week. Finally, after about five years, it was decided we’d gone about as far as we could and Fester was buried. Silence ensued.
And then, a few weeks later, Wayne approached me about resurrecting our conversations, using my real name. I suggested I write under the title of my former advertisement, “Stalk talk,” and he agreed.
So now, thanks to an advertisement I purchased in your paper, I’m writing again! I concur with the argument that advertising really does return a profit. Over the years, that has happened in my business and now a new door has opened for me under that title.