Opinion: Rusty Saber is on a silver streak

That means in six months, this column will have been around for 25 years in Springfield Business Journal. That’s a long time.

Most professionals don’t stay at one job that long. It’s more likely that the nature of work will vary greatly during an entire career.

That’s not so with the career of Rusty Saber, born in January 1983 as a semimonthly commentary on everyday life that soon morphed into a weekly column. During it all, virtually no tinkering with the premise of the column has taken place. It remains what it was 25 years ago.

The longevity of this column surprises no one more than me.

This weekly newspaper was taking its baby steps in the local market, and I was probably at the most busy stage of my day job. I’m not certain what I may have thought at the time, but I’m pretty sure a silver anniversary wasn’t on my radar.

Well, it happened. As we progress toward the end of the year and the anniversary of Rusty Saber, I will occasionally refer back to remnants from the knapsack of past column fodder.

I consider the second column in the series to actually be the first one. The inaugural column appeared Jan. 17–23, 1983, and set up the next installment. SBJ was then called Top’s Executive Journal; I began that first effort by saying:

“The folks at Top’s must have taken leave of their senses. They have asked me to write a twice monthly column.”

Not only did they take leave of their senses, but they haven’t taken them back.

The first column explained the meaning of Rusty Saber. I vowed to comment on events and people. Since my saber was rusty, it might poke, but never cut or badly injure anyone or anything. The saber has been wielded in that way ever since.

The topic of the second column was about the peculiar creature known as the “Springfield driver.” This one became a favorite of readers. Over the years, if it had been awhile since the saber was poked at local drivers, requests for another stab at the subject began to reach me.

Youthful readers and newcomers to the city may find it difficult to fathom the changes 25 years have brought to Springfield traffic patterns, traffic signals and new streets and roadways. Some of today’s most complex and congested traffic areas were cornfields in the early days of the Rusty Saber.

The basic danger then was from airhead drivers plunging through red lights or turn arrows. This was unlike the present day red-light runner who may be talking on a cell phone while weaving in and out of heavy traffic. Today’s traffic provoker may posses a greater danger to self and others than those I chided in 1983.

Readers of that column were especially appreciative of some Springfield survival techniques, one being the “Law of Redefined Colors,” which defined green as “Go,” amber as “Go,” amber changed to red as “Go Faster,” and red as “Go Even Faster.”

Readers said that the subsequent “Queen City One Step” helped them adjust to the color redefinitions: When the light in front of you turns green, but the cars continue through the intersection in front of you, take one “step” forward (one turn of the car’s wheels) and stop. After four cars move through illegally, you should be able to use your green light; however, should the lane remain cluttered with law breakers, initiate the “Springfield Backtrack,” which called for backing up and crashing into the traffic behind you. The thinking here was that you should get out of the way of a collision probably caused by a tourist who foolishly assumed the green light meant Go. It would be safer to crash into cars behind you than face the mess in front of you.

From the emergence of these first columns the Rusty Saber has plodded along for a quarter of a century, poking and prying away at this and that.

Joe McAdoo is former chairman of the communication department at Drury University.[[In-content Ad]]