Shenandoah Valley News Today columnist Evelyn Birkby is hanging up her keyboard after more than 3600 columns.
My Up a Country Lane column has been published in this newspaper every week without fail since 1949.
Now I’ve reached a point in my life where I’m no longer able to write as well as I used to. I want to pass the landmark of 70 years of columns, and then put a bow on my writing career. My November 27th column will be my last.
Her first column has been posted online as well.
Our “Country Club” met with its usual relaxed good humor. I have often felt that its greatest value was to give farm wives a chance to just sit for two afternoons a month. “Just sitting” is almost a luxury to me anymore. Perhaps riding herd on a two year old has made more difference in my sitting time than any other activity in a crowded day.
There were many more farm wives in 1949.