Remember reading comic books?  Brenda Starr: Reporter was one of my favorites.

I read her adventures and fantasized that one day I, too, would write for a newspaper.

The Christmas I was 14, Santa Claus brought me a Kodak brownie camera and I carried it everywhere at-the-ready to snap pictures of people and places. I pulled the strap over my head and that clunky camera thumped against my chest as I walked. Although I took lots of pictures, I never saw them because I did not have the money to have them developed—remember black and white film. Oh, well!

I still carry a camera in my purse—and fill it with digital images that I post on my personal blog. To my way of thinking, digital filmless photography is one of the greatest advances of the 20th century. At least in my world.

In 1985, I carried that vivid memory of Brenda Starr as I proudly wore a PRESS PASS for Women Artists News at the UN Conference on Women in Nairobi, Kenya.  With pen, paper and camera in hand and Press ID around our necks we had magic access to everything.

That's part of why I started Ellouisestory six years ago and love having a place to write and publish. Plus, its free.

With this backstory, you will understand how delighted I was recently when Laura Thornton, editor of the Chevy Chase Patch, invited me to be a blogger on this website. My first post was about the storytelling-for-adults monthly series at the Friendship Heights Village Center.  
 
I will be posting once a week and my head is swirling with ideas for covering many local people and places.

Taking pictures, yes, but I am not wearing my camera around my neck—just carrying my iPhone in my pocket with the camera at the ready.