Where was I going with this anyway?

On this day in 1983, the final episode of M*A*S*H aired. With almost 160 million viewers, it still holds the record for viewership of a season finale.

I’ll admit it. I cried.

If you saw it, you did too.

M*A*S*H is one of those shows that I can watch over and over, no matter how many times I’ve seen a

Mug Shots
(click the pic)

particular episode.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t do that. But, on the rare occasions when I’m sitting down for mindless television…not that M*A*S*H was always mindless, work with me…when the channel surfing doesn’t produce something I really want to see, I’ll settle in for something comfortable like M*A*S*H or Star Trek.

M*A*S*H came about near the end of the Vietnam War. I was in high school at the time. In all honesty, I don’t remember much time spent watching M*A*S*H when I was in high school, it was more of a college thing. Maybe it was because my parents didn’t watch it.

I just know that I would have rescheduled just about anything to see that final episode.

I never served in the military. That may, or may not, be a regret. Frankly, the older I get the more I wish I’d had that on my resume. I could have used someone to kick my eighteen-year-old behind. Post college I briefly considered the reserves. I think we all know that didn’t happen.

With the war and the draft ending in my early high school years, not many of my contemporaries chose military service. Some did. I will always be grateful.

I didn’t start out to talk about the military or to save the Shire (points for the reference) with this post.

It just sort of happened.

Much of my writing just sort of happens.

I mean, sometimes I sit down and know exactly what I intend to write, I get the words down, and move on.

Sometimes I sit down to write these posts, or the novel, or the script and things just sort of take off in directions I had not planned.

That’s part of the fun of Nanowrimo. When you do that the point is just getting the worlds on the page and understanding that editing comes later.

Some of my best writing is done when I go off on a tangent.

Not unlike much of what you may read here.

Of course, when you’re a writer, you can often get your characters to behave by threatening to fit them for a chalk outline.

So, be nice to me if you want to be a part of my story and want to be around in the end of the book.