I have written about many different topics since I began this column. I figured – since this is the 100th one – I would write about the column itself. How it began, how it evolved, how it overcame obstacle after obstacle – and how important it is to me.

How the column began was a story in itself. In October of 1996, I became Editor-In-Chief of The Brooklyn Baron. As part of being an Editor-In-Chief of a newspaper, you are required to write an opinion-editorial for each edition. Although it was my duty as Editor-In-Chief to do so – I did not want to for a number of reasons. First, up to that point in my career, I had only written news articles containing quotes from the parties involved and a brief synopsis of what the story was about. None of the stories I wrote contained my opinion, the word “I”, or how I felt. Secondly, I am not the type who enjoys writing opinionated articles on the state of the stock market, the decline in unemployment, or the latest overseas conflict. So I was an Editor-In-Chief stuck with an editorial to write – and nothing to write about.

The necessity for my editorial was becoming increasingly more apparent when we had reached our thirteenth issue. At this point, The Brooklyn Baron contained an editorial-type column from Mayor Giuliani, Jim McGrath, a well-known Brooklyn writer and former editor of the Brooklyn Graphic – and even the President of the United States – but not from me. So it was obvious that I had better start writing something – and fast.

I still did not want to write about “current events”, so I needed something else to write about. One evening, I had a lengthily discussion with the girl I was dating at the time about my father. We talked about how it was the thirteenth issue of the paper and how that was my father’s lucky number and how much I miss him and wish he were still here. After our conversation, she suggested that I write down everything I just said to her because it would make a great story. So I did, and I decided to publish that as my first editorial – and A Penny For My Thoughts was born.

The way the column evolved was proof that the voice of the people is still the most powerful voice of all. When I published the first column on March 12, 1997, which I called only Dad, I did not know what my readers would think of it. After all, I thought, why would they want to read a story about me and my life experiences? But to my surprise – almost immediately after the story was published, I received hundreds of letters from people telling me that they not only enjoyed the story, but it also helped them get through the death of a loved one in their own life. One person who wrote to me thanked me for the story, because he had lost his wife just before the article was published and had withdrawn from society – and after reading the article – realized he could go on. Another reader who wrote to me told me that she had never gotten over the loss of her father, and now she realized that, as I had written in my story, he would always be with her.

I could not believe the overwhelming positive response to an article that I thought would be disliked by my readers. With each new letter I received, I realized that I was on to something. After only one column, I saw the potential of A Penny For My Thoughts and decided to continue writing it. I still did not know if the column would work, but judging by the reaction I received from the column about my father – I figured I was doing something right.

The obstacles I have faced in trying to write this column have been tough to fight at times – but only for a while.

I ran into the first obstacle right from the beginning. With each new column that was published in the Baron, more letters would come in from people who not only liked them, but also looked forward to the next one. It seemed as if everyone liked the column – everyone but the Baron’s publisher.

For some reason or another, he did not like the column and wanted me to stop writing it. He felt that nobody cared about me or my personal life and they had no place in his paper. I tried to defend the column by showing him the positive letters I received about it – but he was not listening. So – reluctantly – I stopped writing it.

Two editions of the paper were published without the column and I was called back down into my publisher’s office. To my surprise, he apologized to me and told me to continue the column. He said that an overwhelming amount of readers had called in asking where the column was and wanted it back immediately – among those readers that called in was his own mother – so I continued the column for as long as I stayed at the Baron.

The second obstacle came when I left the Baron and went to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Since the column had seen so much success at the Baron, I decided to continue the column at the Eagle. At that point, I had published 16 pennies in the Baron which were very well received by its readers. Now, I had a whole new crop of readers at the Eagle and wanted to see if the column would work as well there. This time, unlike the Baron, I had the publisher of the Eagle behind me. When he approached me about joining the staff of the Eagle, he told me he loved the column and wanted me to continue to write it in the Eagle. So, of course, I did, because if the publisher loved it, I was hoping the readers would too.

This time, it was the Editor-In-Chief of the paper that was the problem.

For whatever reason, he did not like the column – or me – at all. No matter what I wrote, he hated it. It was when I wrote the column called My Girlfriend that he complained out loud instead of to himself or just to me. So after 22 columns in the Eagle – the column stopped again. The next obstacle came when I left the Eagle and went back to the Marketeer. Once again, I faced another unhappy publisher. The Marketeer is known for its distaste of editorial. It sees stories as a waste of lucrative advertising space rather than a good story, so I expected this – and stopped the column again.

Despite these obstacles and a few others, the column has remained – although the people and one of the papers have not – proving once again that only the strong survive.

As for how important the column is to me. It has become – in its short life – so many things. It is my diary, my soapbox, my vessel, my microphone, my outlet – and my voice – but most importantly, it has become a written record of my life.

I saw the episode of VH1’s Behind The Music about the late Jim Croce, who wrote such songs as Time In A Bottle and Bad, Bad Leroy Brown. In the documentary, artist Arlo Guthrie said Jim Croce was one of the few artists who wrote the soundtrack of his own life. That’s what I feel this column has become to me – because as I have grown, how I have changed and what I have experienced since the column began has found it’s way into each penny. I’ll show you what I mean:

When I wrote the columns that appeared in the Baron, the column itself was brand new, so those were written about topics that would “introduce” me to the readers. So I focused those columns on the early stages of my life – my father, the schools I went to, the house I grew up in and the summer camp I went to, my family, my oldest friend, etc.

When I joined the Eagle, I was working in a new part of Brooklyn and was literally rediscovering my own hometown and it’s people. I was also becoming more involved in Brooklyn’s political and social circles as Assistant Publisher, so this batch of pennies were focused on politics and Brooklyn’s people and culture.

It was at this point that my life took a dramatic change – and consequently – so did the column.

At this stage of my life, I went back to the Marketeer so my work schedule went from publishing a daily newspaper to writing a few stories a week. I had also broken up with my girlfriend, converted my house into a homebar and made more friends then I ever had in my life. So the columns published in the Marketeer focused on my friends and my homebar and how terrible relationships were. When I went to publishing on my website, my topics changed as my life did. From my great summer of 1999, to getting the job as South Park’s Booster Club Moderator – to losing my stuff and finding Sandy – whatever found its way into the pages of my life, was written into the pages of this column.

Throughout history, writers write dozens, hundreds – even thousands of published works, and only a few are remembered. William Shakespeare wrote dozens more plays then his well-known classics, Charles Dickens is revered for Oliver Twist and David Copperfield but wrote many others that are not even known – even Mark Twain, who is famous for Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer invented so many other characters that no one remembers. I have written well over six hundred stories since my first one was published and I certainly don’t expect everyone to remember each and every one – because I don’t. I do hope, however, that A Penny For My Thoughts will be long remembered by anyone who read at least one as something they enjoyed, related to, or incorporated into their own life. If one just person has done this – than it has all been worth it.

To everyone who was involved in this column in any way – from my ex-girlfriend who helped me discover it, to the publishers that have let me publish it – although reluctantly, to the countless others that have helped me write this column just by being a part of my life and sharing my life experiences with me, thank you for giving me a column that has been one of the best parts of my life, and will continue to be for as long as I have experiences to write about and a hand to write them down with.

That will be one dollar.