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Editor's Note: With the recent death of longtime Hartington fixture Joe Hish, the Cedar County News did some research into his colorful life and discovered some interesting stories from the past. Reprinted from the Aug. 27, 1979, Baltimore Evening Sun
— Linell Smith
Evening Sun
MARLOW HEIGHTS, MD – Joe Hish spins off poems the way some people spit out watermelon seeds – with gusto.
‘’The longer poems usually take me about 10 to 15 minutes,’’ he says from his small office at Marlowe Heights. ‘’But it’s commercial, you know.’’
He’s the creative energy behind Mail-A-Poem, a fledgling operation aimed at the sentimental soft spot unpunctured by cards, flowers and candies.
‘’Mail-A-Poem, our new idea
We feel is very clever
Flowers are lovely, we all agree
But poetry lasts forever.’’
‘’For that special event you wish to reward
Bringing cheer to a loved one’s home
Just give us a dial and for three ninety five
We’ll send Mail-a-Poem.’’
A regular portfolio poem is two or three verses. One that's individualized for a customer starts at $7.95 and goes up according to length. The poems are printed on yellow paper resembling that used for old Western Union Telegrams. Same-day service is available and customers can pay in advance by credit card or money orders.
"Anyone who is thoughtful enough to send this type of thing would not renege on payment," Mr. Hish explains with sound authority.
He's a member of the International Entrepreneurs Association and vie president of Diversified Sales, a company that also markets baby furniture, computer sketch equipment and submarine sandwiches. "Right now Mail-A-Poem is embryonic," we're testing the market. He has signs in over 40 floral shops in Baltimore and Washington and ads in newspapers and magazines. Orders are pouring in almost as fast as he can versify.
"There hasn't been a bit of bad reaction to my poetry," he said. "People are pleased, sometimes ecstatic."
He's a slim, dapper man of 50, wearing a plaid three-piece suit, gold braided pinkie ring and matching bracelet. Today, he's babysitting Feathers, a white Maltese dog, while he reads sample poems over the phone and handles calls about Wonda Chair, a toddler's seat that can be transformed into 14 different pieces of furniture.
Tracking the muse of business has made his career as diversified as his sales.
From Hartington, Neb., "not far from where Johnny Carson comes from," he joined the U.S. Air Force in 1946 as a cryptographer with embassy and attache duties that took him to Alaska, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and Japan.
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