Staff photo by Mark Kennedy. Hixson retiree Elaine Kistler spends hours each week sending newspaper clippings to friends and family members.For more than 50 years, Elaine Kistler has read the newspaper with her pair of scissors handy.
Almost every day, the 68-year-old retired nurse clips articles, cartoons and photos from the Times Free Press to mail to friends and family members in envelopes.
“I send out about 18-20 every other week,” the Hixson resident said.
Kistler, who worked at Erlanger and Memorial hospitals before she retired, said she picked up the hobby years ago from her grandfather, a World War I veteran named Bert McCreight.
Growing up in Aledo, Illinois, she watched her grandfather clip articles from the Rock Island Argus newspaper and the Chicago Tribune with a pair of barber scissors. He paid special attention to news about veterans, Kistler said, and delighted in sending the clips to friends.
“He was a real special person,” Kistler said. “My sister still has his old scissors.”
In the late 1960s, when she was in eighth grade, Kistler decided to take up her grandfather’s pastime of mailing newspaper clippings to friends. She prefers to send cartoons, articles and columns with funny and/or positive messages.
“I get positive replies from everybody,” she said. “Whenever I threaten to quit, people start calling me and saying, ‘You can’t quit!”‘
Kistler, who moved to Chattanooga in 1980 and worked in nursing for 38 years, says that her clipping hobby has become her personal trademark. Her dining room table is always covered with clippings from the Times Free Press, and she gives careful consideration to which friend should get each clipping.
Some of her favorite cartoons to send are “Beetle Bailey,” “Snuffy Smith” and “Dennis the Menace.” She also has favorite local columnists whose work she likes to share with her circle of cousins, co-workers and church friends.
Lately, though, Kistler has begun to worry that the newspaper’s switch to a digital-only format Monday through Saturday in the coming months will make it harder for her to continue her hobby.
When the newspaper announced it would stop publishing on paper most days, “It pierced my soul,” she said.
Due to a series of concussions years ago, Kistler says she has vision and balance problems. She can’t read the type in most books but she can still read newsprint, she says. Trying to read anything on a smartphone or a computer makes her dizzy, she said.
“If anyone starts scrolling on a computer, I have to close my eyes and look away,” she said.
Kistler also worries about all the dogs in the newspaper’s circulation area who like to fetch the paper for their owners every morning.
She said her podiatrist has a black Labrador named Fern who faithfully brings in the newspaper every day.
“How do you tell a dog that they are about to lose their job?” she wrote to the newspaper recently.
Well, Ms. Kistler, we are on the case. The newspaper has staff members who are helping folks through the digital conversion, and they think they may have some solutions that will help you. And even though it’s not exactly the same as cutting out a story on paper, electronic clip sharing by email and text is a feature of Apple iPads, which are being provided to subscribers.
And as for Fern the black lab, it has been suggested we look into getting some plastic dog toys that look like newspapers that owners can toss into their yards Mondays through Saturdays. That idea is now in the suggestion box here at the Times Free Press.
Oh, and don’t forget, the Sunday newspaper will continue to be delivered in print form, so you and Fern can enjoy at least one day a week with things just like they’ve always been.
Life Stories is published on Mondays. Contact Mark Kennedy at mkennedy@timesfreepress.com.