My Background

I wrote my first sports story for the Two Harbors Chronicle in approximately 1970, when I was 10 years old, motivated solely by wanting to see my name in the newspaper.

It worked.

The small town of Two Harbors, Minnesota, offered numerous opportunities. That included the folks managing, publishing, and distributing our weekly newspaper. I’d occasionally walk in the door with a story about our hockey team or a local golf tournament, and they’d publish it. Now, I laugh at the thought of it. What were they thinking?

“Oh my, stop the presses! Tommy Smith submitted another handwritten story. Our townspeople must read this. Let’s publish it!”

It took a lot of nerve on my part. It took an abundance of kindness on their part.

COLLEGE – THE LOST YEARS

I attended the University of Minnesota-Duluth, where I majored in Political Science and Journalism. I intended to become President of the United States. I haven’t applied my college education to anything other than political posts on Facebook, where I was gratified by agitating both sides leading up to the 2016 election. I’ve deleted all those posts, (mostly) retired from political commentary, and focused on non-toxic pursuits.

By the way, there’s still a realistic chance I could become President.

WRITING AGAIN

In the fall of 2019, I was fortunate to join the Dallas Morning News team covering high school football games. Thirty-five years after studying journalism in college, I received my first assignments. I enjoyed the experience of traveling throughout North Texas during the next four football seasons, writing stories related to 80 football games.

Those experiences prompted me to think more seriously about writing—for fun.

MAKING THE BEST OF A PANDEMIC

Writing “The Boys of Leatherbrook” and constructing this website were my “pandemic stay at home” projects. My only goal at the time was to urgently write and share that story just in case I contracted and died from COVID. I wanted to leave something behind.

Anything. 

That was it. That was the motivation. Nothing more.

WHY CONTINUE?

Every story I’ve written has been an exercise in mental health preservation. If it took you 60 minutes to read something I wrote, it probably took me 60 mornings and 120 cups of coffee to write. Those were 60 days of purpose—getting out of bed, driving to “the office” (Starbucks), and starting my day by focusing on something positive. It was 60 days of trying to get—and keep—my brain in a comfortable place.

My altruistic objective for each story is simple—I hope to give people 10, 15, 30 minutes or more of diversion from the daily news headlines.

That’s it. That’s now the goal. Nothing more.

I’m not delusional. I’ll never be mistaken for J.K. Rowling, John Steinbeck, or Ernest Hemingway. I rarely look at stories I wrote a year or two ago. When I do, I often cringe. Like, “Tom, couldn’t you have done better than that?” But I leave those stories as I originally wrote them. That’s who I was as a writer. Then, and now, I’m far from perfect.

GRATIFICATION

I never imagined that people from 61 countries and all 50 states would visit this site. Thank you to everyone for taking a few minutes of your time to read the stories or look at the pictures.

Throughout this process, I’ve learned one thing—the most interesting stories aren’t about me. They are about you. So, thank you to everyone who built the foundation for these stories by sharing your thoughts and memories of those significant moments in your life with me. I hope I have time to write many more.

The accountants at Starbucks wholeheartedly agree.