PCN Construction reporter recalls 'Family Circus' comic contribution

Nearly 30 years ago, Malta's David Veseth, then living in Laurel, Mont., and but age four at the time, quipped "Mommy, can I unplug some grapes and eat them?" as he looked at a bowl of grapes and thought they looked like they had power cords attached.

The memory came up last week after David's mother, Rosemary (herself a Phillips County News Contributor) came into the PCN office to talk about her son's latest Malta Construction Update, a feature he writes for this newspaper on a weekly basis.

"I get people coming up to me quite often saying how much they enjoy his column," Rosemary said. (Editor's Note: David's column is one of the most read on the online edition of the paper each week.)

But back 29 years ago, David asked to unplug the grapes and his comment got Rosemary thinking about the one-liner and how it might work well in the The Family Circus, a syndicated comic strip by Bil Keane.

Keane's comic strip started showing up in newspapers in 1960 (under the name The Family Circus) and features the family of parents Bil and Thelma, and children Billy, Dolly, Jeffy, and P. J. Keane wrote the comic for 51 years before he passed away in 2011 and it continues to be penned by his son, Jeff.

Rosemary, back in 1990, went to a local library and found Keane's address in a book about cartoonists. She sent David's grape comment to him, but never really expected to hear anything back. In her letter, Rosemary wrote Keane telling him if he used David's statement, she didn't want or expect a payment, but rather could he send her the original ink and pen drawing. A month later, a note from Keane showed up at the Veseth home thanking her for the submission. Almost another six-months later, Rosemary saw The Family Circus for the day and, low and behold, Jeffy was reciting David's line.

A little after that, Keane sent the Veseths the hand-drawn, original cell with Jeffy and the grapes, with an inscription reading "To the Veseth Family Circus! Love, Bil Keane." (Subsequently, four-year-old David was featured in the magazine Presstime and on the front page of the Billings Gazette following Keane's gift.)

Rosemary brought the Keane comic - which since 1990 has been professionally framed and matted - over to the PCN office and David, now 34, showed up to file his weekly PCN Construction Report.

"It's still a pretty good joke," David said.

As for his time as the PCN Construction Reporter, David said he enjoys traveling around the community and that he sends newspapers to his friends around the country each week.

"I like it," he said. "And they really like it, too. I hope to continue to do it, and I don't think anything will stop me."