I was invited to write a weekly column for the Wairarapa Times-Age and the first of these appeared in January 1998. I wrote a weekly column for that paper until October 2009 when I switched allegiances to write weekly for the Wairarapa News.
I spent most of my life behind the counter of a butcher’s shop established in Masterton by my grandfather in 1905. I later owned with my eldest son a signwriting and graphic art company called The Sign Factory. I have been heavily involved in local body politics; first with the Masterton Licensing Trust where I was elected in 1972 and was on the trust for 35 years, the last 29 of these as chairman. I also spent a term on the Masterton District Council, then three terms on The Greater Wellington Regional Council and am presently a member of the Wairarapa District Health Board. I have been married to Marion since 1963 and we have four grown-up children and seven grandchildren.
In 2006 Fraser Books put together a number of my articles in a book titled
One Man’s Meat. Book reviewer Marlene Ditchfield wrote:
“Such is the literary magic of this book. This is high praise and I do not give it lightly. Rick Long is a talented man. His writing is insightful, sincere and warm and above all very, very funny.” Graeme Barrow writing in the Northern Advocate was also fulsome in his praise:
“The columns are interesting and chatty and I’m surprised that New Zealand being short of quality columnists as it is, these haven’t been given wider circulation.”
