Long Interview With Michael Aronstein (the MA in TCMA)

[Writehooks]

Terrific interview with Michael anad Andrew -- and a nostalgic "reconnect" to my first tentative foray into the hobby.
In 1975 I was a teenaged hockey collector on Vancouver Island, specializing in programs, media guides and magazines. My other great passion was writing about sports. I was determined to become a real-life Oscar Madison, but who was going to give an untried kid a break? After reading Michael's call for editorial contributions in the debut issue of Collectors Quarterly (Winter '75), I sent him a 600-word article on how to start a program/magazine collection. Three weeks later I received a "notice of acceptance" from CQ -- along with a personal note from Michael saying how much he enjoyed my story, and inviting me to send more. When the article was published in issue No. 3 (Summer '76) -- prominently positioned between Ed Broder's feature on Japanese baseball cards and Bob Solon's analysis of variations in the Kellogg 3D sets -- I was over the moon.
That first byline in CQ launched a career course that over the past 50 years has seen my work appear in dozens of publications in Canada and the US, as well as a 10 -year stint in Beijing as lead sports columnist for the largest English-language newspaper in Asia. In between, I've found time to author seven books and still feed my passion for collecting programs and magazines -- although my focus long ago switched from hockey to boxing.
And it was all because a ballsy young New Yorker took a chance on creating one of our hobby's best publications of the 1970s. Thanks, Mike.

[TCMA]

Originally Posted by Writehooks

That first byline in CQ launched a career course that over the past 50 years has seen my work appear in dozens of publications in Canada and the US, as well as a 10 -year stint in Beijing as lead sports columnist for the largest English-language newspaper in Asia. In between, I've found time to author seven books and still feed my passion for collecting programs and magazines -- although my focus long ago switched from hockey to boxing.
And it was all because a ballsy young New Yorker took a chance on creating one of our hobby's best publications of the 1970s. Thanks, Mike.

Amazing! Thanks so much for sharing this, will pass along to my dad.

[bobw]

Finally finished listening to the interview.....brought back a lot of memories of when I started collecting back in the early 70s...condition was not so important as long as I needed it ....the Power Memorial shows, the Gallagher brothers, the St Paul"s Church shows....and lots of familiar names, Bill Hongach, Renata Galasso and her father, John Zaso, who sold stamped cachets at all the shows and Keith Olbermann who I communicate with often.

I totally enjoyed it.