What makes Points East work?

In the midst of this year’s Points East holiday gathering I wondered, as I have done yearly at this event, why does this magazine “taste” so good? Why the devoted readership? Why the nearly 100 percent staff attendance at this party, year after year, many driving from afar? Why the immediate sense of camaraderie despite most of us being  face-to-face only once a year? Why virtually no staff turnover, despite the hardly scintillating wages. In short, what makes it all work?

Think about it, what makes a great stew? First, one needs to start with the right pot. A hearty stock can’t be created in a flimsy pot. And it needs a tightly fitting lid. The two founders of Points East started with the right concept, with a solid foundation in newspapers under them. Then they sprinkled in just the right blend of humor, interesting information, stories, and local news and characters, always keeping the interest of the readers first. Like all good stews, though, it’s good and fun to mess with the ingredients once in a while. You don’t want to turn up the heat too much, though. That can lift up a tightly fitting lid and perhaps things might bubble or boil over a bit.

Speaking of boiling over, we might as well begin with me. This is how I got my start: Years ago, our editor asked to meet me at a restaurant for my ‘interview’ to be a regular columnist. I asked him how I would approach the job, and what were the guidelines? “Just be yourself, Dave. Just be real. Oh, and maybe a bit irreverent. We’ll discuss. Let’s meet outside in the restaurant parking lot,” he suggested.

“How will I know you?” I asked.

“I’ll be leaning against the door of the worst, most beat-up car in the lot,” he replied.

“No, that would be mine,” I said. Already we had something in common. So there we met and then headed into the restaurant. There was a long line of folks waiting to be seated and a frazzled hostess behind the podium. I read her nametag; it said “Stacy.” When we finally got to her, she peered at her seating chart, shook her head, lifted those frantic eyes and looked at us.

“Two? It’s just that, well, I don’t think I can.…” she began to stammer.

“No, not two,” I said, smiling. “We called ahead; we’re here with that busload of seniors, many in wheelchairs. Most of them are out of the bus in the parking lot now. Kind of cold out there. Anyway, the manager said Stacy could handle it.”

She gave me an icy look that chilled me to the bone. I’m not sure my “only kidding” quip did much to thaw her out. But I tried.

The next day the editor called me. “Oh, well,” I thought to myself, “this won’t be good.

“Dave, I just wanted to tell you that what you did in the restaurant made me wake up at 3 o’clock in the morning.”

“Yeah, look, I get a little carried away and….”

“I woke up laughing so loud and hysterically in bed that I woke my wife. She gave me a very strange look. Until I told her about our interview. Then she too started laughing, and there we were, both of us laughing hysterically in the middle of the night. Anyway, you’re hired.”

Perhaps we’ll have another profile about some other crewmembers in the next issue; some other great ingredients in the Points East stew. I have certain ones in mind; they make my Stacy story pale in comparison.

In this age we’re in, it’s nice to be mixed into something that’s cooked just right. I love these folks. We’re a great crew. Yes, old and seasoned, as you can see from the photo, but still ready to nourish our readers, young and old. And always a laugh or two.

Oh, normally I’d be glad to identify those in this picture – I’m the one they put way in the back, under the thermostat – but some of these folks are in witness-protection programs.

Only kidding.

“Nonsense is an assertion of man’s spiritual freedom,” the late English novelist Aldous Huxley once wrote, “in spite of all the oppressions of circumstance.” And Dave Roper lets freedom ring gloriously throughout Points East World. His bestselling book, “Watching for Mermaids” is available through amazon.com. His new novel, “Rounding the Bend: The Life and Times of Big Red,” will be published this winter.