December 7, 2005
Author writes punny book
Gordon Charles compiles word plays and silly stories
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Making his living with words for more than six decades, Gordie Charles just published another book this fall.
Dubbed the King of Puns by colleagues and friends, Charles compiled 98 pages of word plays and silly stories in "Stalking and Capturing the Wild Pun." Acknowledging his lifelong fascination with words and twists on words, the retired Traverse City Record-Eagle outdoor columnist pulled together the book at the suggestion of a colleague in the Michigan Outdoor Writers group.
"One of the guys said, 'For gosh sakes, Gordie, why don't you write a book and get these all out of you system," said Charles, who has authored a number of previous books. "I tell people you're not going to find anything sensible in this."
"Stalking and Capturing the Wild Pun" features illustrations by the late Gene Hibbard, who was a colleague of Charles' at the Record-Eagle for many years.
Still writing prolifically in his mid-80s, Charles is a self-syndicated outdoor columnist with approximately 15 papers around the region, including the Grand Traverse Herald. A devoted diarist who has documented his life since he was 14, Charles mined file drawers filled with journals for some of the book's content.
"I have 14 file drawers filled with everything imaginable: photos and writing," said Charles. "There's no such thing as a brand new pun, everybody steals them from everyone else."
His first journals were hand written but after receiving a portable Underwood typewriter upon graduation from Traverse City Senior High in 1939, he learned to touch type and converted.
"I'm sure they scraped the bottom of the barrel to pay for that," said Charles.
A jump to an electric typewriter is as far as Charles has ventured into high technology. He still types all his work, whether it is diaries, columns, articles or books. A computer resides in the East Bay Township house he shares with his wife of 58 years, Dorothy, but it is her province.
"Our kids gave us a complete set up, but I don't use it - I don't want to do it!" he declared.
A native of North Carolina, Charles moved to Traverse City with his family in 1935 when his father - struggling with employment - got a job with the Grand Traverse Casket Company. An avid hunter, fisherman and explorer of nature since boyhood, he made extra income in high school during the Great Depression by trapping. One of his books, "A Boy, A Bike and Buster," is based on his childhood experiences outdoors.
After graduation, he held a number of jobs, including a stint at WTCM, before joining the Army. He served in radio intelligence for two and a half years in the Army during World War II before receiving a medical discharge.
Charles' first published work was about the Trout Rearing Station - now the Platte River State Fish Hatchery - in Honor. For that piece in 1945 he made $20 and a career was born.
"I shipped it off to the New York Times, went to the top," he recalled. "Be damned if they didn't buy it from me."
Charles joined the Traverse City Record-Eagle as a daily outdoor columnist in 1952, where an editor dubbed his work Outdoors with Gordie. For eight years, Charles wrote that column six days a week, back when the Record-Eagle did not have a Sunday edition.
He took a break from local column writing for ten years when his career took him and his family to South Dakota. While there, he penned columns for a range of publications in addition to his duties as chief of information and education for the state's Department of Game, Fish and Parks.
He came back to the state to work for the Michigan United Conservation Clubs, living with his family in Lansing for five years. Moving back north, he revived Outdoors with Gordie and wrote it weekly until he retired from the Record-Eagle in the mid 1990s. Although retirement has barely slowed him down as Charles continues to write in his diaries, churn out columns and craft books.
"I've been doing this so long, I'll keep on doing it," he declared.
For more information on "Stalking and Capturing the Wild Pun," contact Charles at 929-0741.