Taking over my dad’s joke column, Wolfe Woofers, was an honor and, in my mind, a way to keep my father’s spirit alive.
But the truth is, just like the island has grown, the style of writing he did belonged to a tiny little community back in the day, when everybody knew everybody. It was truly a special time. While many of those people still live here, many do not, and many are no longer even with us anymore.
It’s just not the same.
Back then, my dad would poke fun at local figures and island characters that everybody knew – people like Casey Moore, Placenta, my teachers, me, my brother, my family, sometimes even the mayor. Nobody really took it seriously because everybody understood the spirit behind it. The jokes were part of island culture.
The formula he used was simple: he would find a really funny joke or story and apply it to someone in the community, and somehow it worked because everybody knew the people being referenced. For a whole week people would laugh, tease each other, and talk about it around town.
But now? Not everybody knows everybody anymore.
I started realizing that while a handful of longtime locals were still getting the jokes, a huge percentage of readers probably had no idea what I was even talking about half the time.
I had to stop and ask myself the other day: Am I actually a joke writer?
The answer is… not really.
I can absolutely bring humor into my writing, but I, Melody Sanchez Vázquez Wolfe, have a very different style of writing than my dad did.
The truth is, sometimes it became really hard for me to sit down and write a joke when there were very real things happening in the community that I wanted to talk about instead. Saving mangroves. Island changes. Life lessons. Relationships. Art. Business. Old San Pedro. Community issues.
Sometimes I just wanted to write about what was actually on my mind. And if you know me, you know I cannot fake things.
If something heavy was on my heart, I could not force myself to write comedy that week. Then I started feeling like maybe I was somehow failing at continuing Wolfe Woofers.
And honestly, part of me also kept it going because hey… who cares if anyone fully got the joke? I was a paid writer after all.
But I realize now that I wasn’t failing.
I was simply evolving.
Those who have been around a long time probably remember that years ago, I worked with Ambergris Today and had another column called Where’s Melody Today? In it, I went around the island writing reviews, visiting places, and trying new experiences. I went skydiving. I explored.
For years on Facebook, I’ve basically been known as that girl who writes really long ass posts.
And honestly, I think that’s who I’ve always been as a writer.
I also want to be able to honor the other people who shaped me and shaped this island in different ways. People like my editor, Dorian Nunez; his father, Mr. Angel Nunez; my mentor, Miss Lydia; my mother; and so many others who left lessons behind without maybe even realizing it.
I also want to encourage people – especially young people – to write again. To pick up a pen, put it to paper, and let ideas flow. In a world becoming more and more AI-generated every day, I want to inspire people to use their real voices more.
And somewhere through all of this I realized this:
I do not need to write a joke column to keep my father’s spirit alive.
His spirit is already alive.
It lives on in my little brother Dennis, who is still out there playing music. It lives on in Derek, Conrad, Dale, and so many others he inspired through music over the years. It lives on in every person who walks up to me with a funny memory or story about my dad. It lives on in the people he inspired to write, create, and laugh.
And it lives on in me, too.
So this is my ode to Wolfe Woofers – but hopefully not the last woofer column.
If the editor of this newspaper allows me, this will simply become the next chapter of the Wolfe Woofers column: a place where I write what’s on my mind, wherever that may lead.
I’m thinking somewhere between Carrie Bradshaw meets Mr. Angel Nuñez on an episode of Gossip Girl.
Even though I now bounce back and forth between Mexico and the island, I will always write about island life because that will always be part of who I am. That’s home.
There will probably still be humor, random observations, and the occasional chaos that comes with my ADHD brain bouncing from one thought to another. But I also want to write more openly now about life on the island today, the changes we see happening around us, community issues, art, people, relationships, nostalgia, frustrations, beauty, growth, maybe an occasional review here and there, or whatever else feels important enough to put into words that week.
Some of you know me well. Many of you probably don’t. But I do hope that somewhere along the way, my writing either inspires you, helps you, makes you think, or at the very least makes you laugh once in a while.
Honestly, I have no idea where I’m going with this yet.
But if you’re reading this, it means the editor of this paper is on board…and you’re officially coming along for the ride.
XO,
Melody
Share
Related Artilces
Read more