(Photo Illustration - MetroCreativeConnection)

Five years ago this week, I wrote the first “The Way I See It” column. That’s a lot of me, and a lot of you, our reader, reading what I have to say each week. Thank you for taking a few minutes out of your day each week to read what I have to say. I hope I have not bored you too much.

If my math is correct, this is column 261.

I went back and reread the first column to see what I promised I would write about. In the beginning I said that I would frequently talk about the daily photo that appears on Page 2 and “showcases the beauty of the Mid-Ohio Valley. At that time the feature had been running for four years.

This turned out to be seldom the case for a couple of reasons. The photos tend to run very close to the time they are taken. I tend to write the column with more of a margin. When they do align it is to provide an additional perspective to the column. Since we started running the photo in The Times, we added an identical feature in The Parkersburg News and Sentinel. They are normally not the same photo. We also publish the column in both newspapers, although on different days, which would make photos and the column even harder to align.

I always try to tie the past to the current day through connections that I have been annoying coworkers with for years. Through the column I can now pass the “did you know” information on to the community. I hope you have enjoyed the information.

This has taken me down some interesting paths, with some columns actually being about paths. Columns, such as those on Zane Trace, area trails, early roads and long forgotten rail routes, were about real paths.

I have written columns several times and then decided that they would make better photo pages, which is how pages about George Washington’s trip to the area, trains in Marietta, ghost signs and the grindstone business ended up as pages instead of columns.

Readers have suggested several columns. I had a neighbor suggest I do a column about the great Churchtown wolf hunt. When I told him I needed more information, he found a tattered clipping from The Marietta Times. The column prompted a call from an Ohio State professor that suggested I should do a column about the return of elk to Ohio, which ran a few months later.

Some have been personal, including those about my grandfather, the original Arthur Smith, dying during World War II, a recent column about me being related to one of the pilgrims, and a column last summer about the clandestine photographing of my daughter’s engagement.

The historical columns have unlocked memories for many people, who share them with me through e-mails and handwritten letters. These comments never get old, nor does meeting people who stop me on the street to share kind words.

I also promised “When it quits being interesting, I promise I will quit writing it.” I don’t think I am there yet, so for at least a while, you still need to put up with me every week.

Art Smith is online manager of The Marietta Times and The Parkersburg News and Sentinel. He can be reached at asmith@mariettatimes.com.