The Sunday Roast

Chronicler Of A Life In Many Hues

This week's interview is with Mushy,
who writes the blog Mushy's Moochings.

The first of the standard weekly questions: Why do you blog?

There was a sincere effort, in the beginning, to document my life and the things I remembered, was told, and experienced. I always loved it when my parents and family members sat around and retold old stories of how I acted on occasion, or things that happened years before I was born. I was afraid I would someday forget those stories, and wanted so badly to tell my grandchildren about them.

However, like all grandchildren, they are young and too busy to listen to Papaw discuss the past. Heck, they won’t even watch black and white movies, so why should I expect them to listen to stories from a “black and white” time! I had written several pieces ten or fifteen years early, mostly the really funny things, and kept finding them stuffed in closets under other old papers on the top shelf. I was afraid these would be lost to the ravages of time, so those were the first things I posted. Even though they were out of sequence chronologically, they made for a few quick posts in the beginning.

However, no one was reading my blog in those days, so I later reposted them in the general time frame they occurred. After I built some readership, I realized that I should start at the beginning and so I rearranged my priorities in posting. After reaching the Vietnam era, I then knew that I was about to run out of memories, at least those I could post without hurting feelings, so the “blook” idea hit me. I had already self-published a fictional piece with Lulu.com, so I proceeded to post everything I wanted in my “autobiography” and it is now published and sitting on my computer desk. I feel as though a great weight has been lifted from my shoulders.

I will now continue to write about my past, refining and detailing some episodes, but I will also continue to chronicle my expanded family’s daily life. They enjoy life so much and are a joy to me…they have a lot to say as well.

What's the story behind your blog name?

“Mushy’s Moochings” seemed only fitting in the beginning. It was about Mushy, a nickname I picked up from a rather large-breasted girl my junior year in high school. I liked her a lot and fooled myself into thinking I had a shot. Turned out she was leading me along to make the boyfriend that just dumped her jealous. One evening there was a bunch of us walking through a neighborhood on Halloween when she suddenly blurted out “Mushy” after I had said something nice to her. The crowd overheard and “Mushy” was born!

I tried for years to live that name down, hoping for something a little more masculine, but it never happened. Even today I’m greeted locally with a rousing “Mushy” from across a parking lot or sales floor! The blog helped me realize that being Mushy was not a bad thing. It’s been great being “Mushy” and I realize that I am a one of a kind! What is the best thing about being a blogger? Friendship and fellowship has to be the best perks in blogging. Like I posted once, it’s the new CB radio of our times!

My blogroll is full of friends, not just “reads!” I have met so many of them and love to spend time finding out about their lives and what makes them “them” and how all the stories tie in to their blog title. Of course, there is satisfaction in creating something in which you can be proud. The “writer” in all of us needs an outlet even if it’s just blogging to a few select friends across the world. Their feedback, through comments and emails, makes it all worth the time we spend sitting in front of the computer.

What key advice would you give to a newbie blogger?

Write about something close to your heart, something you’re passionate about, and something you enjoy more than anything else in the world. Share your heart and wear it out there on your “cyber” sleeve. You will be comforted, supported, encouraged, and even loved! One warning - do not let blogging replace your family, friends, and life! Just document the life you have on the blog…control the blog, don’t let it control you! What is the most significant blog post you've ever read? Wow, this is the hardest question of all! There is nothing profound or life changing that I remember reading right now, though it will probably hit me after I send this.

Suffice it to say that finding and first commenting on Fat Hairy Bastard's blog the first time, in August of 2006, was the beginning of a great friendship. Back in those days, Jeff was prone to posting crude jokes and pictures of fat naked girls! However, his blog has matured into many posts about family, friends, loves, food, outdoor interests, and others with a thought provoking take on world history. Jeff is important to me…hell, he’s a brother to me!

Meeting Ruby, the wonderful elderly lady that Les Becker writes about, was important to me as well. Les can write and does a wonderful job of making Ruby’s past life live once again. Les can take a story from anyone and hold you spellbound until she’s finishing telling the tale. I’m also drawn to Lin's daily adventures on a desert ranch. Her words even give more color to the landscape surrounding her world, and I long to visit that world and explore it and her mind. I also long to blow up one of those nearby oil wells!

One of the best writers I was drawn to was Carol Cooper. And, David, you have done wonders for a lot of us. You began by posting the “blog of the week”, and now you do a similar service by posting “post of the day”! You have even attempted to teach us how to blog and how to plan and arrange our writing, but we continue to fall short of your expertise and praise. However, I do find myself thinking, “I wonder what David will think of this one!”

How could I leave without saying a line or two about Rebecca, My Goddess! She is standing in that short photo line along with Ruby, who detests photos of herself. We may never know what she looks like, but we know what she wants to look like…a frumpy old married woman, with sixteen kids living paycheck to paycheck, in a trailer in Pennsylvania! I seriously doubt it; she does have us guys all by the “cajonies” and keeps us straight about everything we encounter in our daily lives!

The Goddess has been with me from the beginning, and I appreciate her guidance and counseling.

What is the most significant blog post you've ever written?

I’d like to think that I have not written that post yet. I’d like to think that tomorrow I will write something so profound, so touching, that I will cry writing it, and world will be a much better place. Ain’t gonna happen! I have already cried writing a post about My Dad, my My Step-Dad, Lacy, the best damn dog ever, and about Leaving Vietnam!

There is a post on the horizon, distant I hope, that I’m dreading and it will probably concern my brother-in-law Ron. I have already alluded to the fact that our happy number will someday be fewer, in a post called One Less Set Of Feet!

Thank you David for this opportunity to analyze “why I blog”, I think I needed it. We often need to sit down and contemplate the reasons we do anything. Even though there are a lot of bloggers in the world, blogging is still only special to a select few of us. Therefore, we need to understand why we do it.

Today's Sunday Roast with Mushy is the eighth in a weekly series of interviews with bloggers from around the world.