short stuff
by Linda McThrall, editor

Having a hobby is therapeutic.

A hobby can relax you, stimulate you, make you happy, make you think. Some hobbies last a lifetime, others are tried and discarded. But hobbies are part of the human experience.

Hobbies bring like-minded people together. If you move to a new town, you can find a club with people who enjoy the same interests as you have. Voila! new friends.

A hobby is defined in Webster’s New World Dictionary as “something a person likes to do or study in his spare time; an avocation.”

Pastimes don’t always “match” their hobbyist. You can be surprised by what a person likes to do outside his or her public life.

For instance, Katie Decker, Community Affairs and Media Relations Administrator for the Town of Fountain Hills, loves home remodeling.

“I am a firm believer that every woman should own a belt sander, a saw and a wonderful drill,” Decker said.

Who would have thought the woman responsible for getting information out the media about all the goings-on in Fountain Hills could wield such power in her off time?

Jerry Miles, columnist for Let's Go! and former Fountain Hills mayor, lives his hobby.

“This Town is our hobby,” Miles said of he and his wife, Jackie, who also writes the State of the Arts column in Let's Go! “Thus our passion for building the Town's public art collection. I also spend countless hours at my photography, and Jackie devotes as much time to music as she can.”

Charlotte McCluskey, owner of Fresh Ideas, Inc., a marketing and public relations firm in Fountain Hills, may have named her business after one of the things she loves.

“My hobby is gardening,” McCluskey said. “My relationship with my plants is cordial but silent, so it allows for contemplation time to recharge my batteries. I am so darn proud of anything that prospers in Fountain Hills soil that it is a very rewarding pastime!

“I love to cook, and the range of Mediterranean herbs we can grow here is pretty vast. The thing I love most on a weekend is a meal flavored with my own herbs and a table graced with home-grown flowers.”

With some, they are living their dream.

“The Old West is my passion, my hobby and my life and it's been this way since I was nine years old,” said Bob Boze Bell, executive editor of True West magazine. “I love going to where history happened, I love museums and I love the art and the literature.

“But, I also am very aware of Dave Barry's sage warning: ‘There is a fine line between hobby and mental illness.’"

Julie Ghetti, one of Fountain Hills’ busiest folks, doesn’t have much time for her hobbies: cooking, golf and reading.

“Actually, I guess I do have time to cook,” the Deputy Town Manager said. “We do have to eat.”

Practical and fun. The perfect hobby.

One of the graphic artists in the Let's Go! office asked if children could be considered a hobby.

When you have young children, you probably aren’t engaged in an activity that’s all about you.