Browsing with Burton

My father, Marion, wrote a column for about a decade. Called Browsing with Burton, he recounted stories from his childhood (during the Depression), from his days as a student at Ohio State, encounters he had with famous and infamous people through the years and opinions about everything from small town charm to international politics. Although the circulation of Browsing was limited to north-central Ohio, his real reason for writing the weekly column was to "let the kids know what dad was all about". His children (six of us) read dad's stuff often. We all had subscriptions to the paper and would discuss his perspectives. And laugh alot. Dad was a great satirist and a skillful writer, no doubt. His career as an advertising man honed his writing skills and gave him some great war stories. I hope to re-tell a few of those.

I ended up writing a series of columns about jazz music in college and became a technical writer in my career in the environmental consulting world. Both dad and I are musicians and always shared those stories of gigs from hell, club owners that shat upon the bands whenever they had the chance, nights when all sorts of folks would "sit in" and other tales. I'll share a few of those as well.

I don't have my own kids to tell these stories to. Just a few family and friends that might smile when they read a piece. Or wince.

So there it is. Browsing reincarnated. Father to son. A hand-off about 10 years in the making. I wonder if he will be reading this? Fasten your seat belt. Its going to be a bumpy ride. Eh?