Columnist Mary Cristy celebrating sixth decade at the Town Crier
By Laurel Lathrop, Town Crier Editorial Intern
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Mary Cristy’s Los Altos Hills home is full of treasures. The secluded redwood ranch house bears the hallmarks of having been lived in by creative people. There are artistic photographs of family members on the walls, oil paintings of sunsets and still lifes, a Picasso print and even a few Byzantine Madonnas scattered around.
Things have changed, both inside and outside the house, in the 50 years since Cristy moved to Los Altos Hills with her husband and started writing for the Los Altos Town Crier. But the accumulation of beautiful objects in the house can be likened to Cristy’s gathering of her own treasures: inspirations and ideas about the essence of writing.
The longtime resident will celebrate 50 years as a Town Crier columnist this summer.
Early beginnings
Mary De Cristoforo “Cristy” always knew she would be a writer. “All my life I was scribbling,” she said. “Mother said, ‘Don’t tell lies, write stories.’” Proving the wisdom of listening to one’s mother, Cristy (then Mary Ferrari) began a writing career in New York, writing for women’s and parenting magazines.
In 1951, she and her husband, R.J. (Cris) De Cristoforo, moved from New York to Palo Alto. Two years later, they moved again, to their redwood house in Los Altos Hills, where Cristy began writing for the Town Crier. She had already spoken with the paper’s founder, Dave MacKenzie. He was impressed enough with her r/sum/ that he “gave me an assignment on the spot.”
Thus began a 50-year freelance career with the Town Crier, during which Cristy watched it grow from a semi-weekly advertiser with a few humorous columns to the weekly paper it is today. She can name seven editors with whom she worked - from Tuck Shepherd to Bruce Barton - and is sure there were others.
Her responsibilities varied with each change in ownership. Always considering herself a freelancer, she devoted more or less time to the Town Crier depending on the status of her other freelance work.
Starting in the 1980s, Cristy dedicated herself to the Town Crier. For six years, she wrote a weekly column. Now she is back to monthly columns and occasional features.
Her writing is “something of a community thing … you keep the reader in mind; what will interest, amuse, touch them. You’re actually making friends the whole time,” according to Cristy.
Indeed, the best part of the Town Crier was the “people I met along the way.” Cristy corresponds with several of her readers, and said she has been impressed with everyone she has interviewed.
Cristy’s inspiration
This general satisfaction translates into a positive tone in nearly every column. “I try to write mostly upbeat; I’m most happy with things that make people laugh.”
However, especially since her husband’s death three years ago, she finds herself every so often writing “columns I hope will resonate with someone who’s not being considered,” such as widows. Indeed, she describes writing a column about being a widow, and having four other widows approach her. “I didn’t know them,” she says, “but it had resonated.”
Cristy has published poetry in religious magazines and a book, “Chicken Tonight — Feathers Tomorrow.” Her freelance career has spanned romance, inspirational and even some D.I.Y. or do-it-yourself articles.
She credited her husband for her interest in the D.I.Y. genre. Her husband, whom she called the “guru of D.I.Y.,” was a “craftsman-writer.” He combined creativity with wood-craftsmanship. Indeed, he and Cristy were equal partners in a creative relationship. They both wrote and enjoyed photography; Cristy painted, and Cris was a skilled carpenter. The relationship inspired Cristy’s book which described their life as freelance writers.
Cris inspired more than the book, according to Cristy. He kept her writing when it was difficult, especially in the early years, when “my family (three sons, Daniel, David and Ronald) was my main focus; writing was held in abeyance — but … my husband knew if I didn’t write, I got very ornery,” Cristy said with a laugh. She acknowledged that he gave her s technique for generating ideas. “He taught me, you don’t wait for ideas, you sit down and something will come.”
Cristy has developed her own views on writing over the years. Perhaps because of her husband’s method, she never lacks story ideas. She believes “there are more ideas than you can ever document … stories are everywhere.” In fact, she said, she “might like to write another book.”
Turning words into a career
Over the years, Cristy has developed quite a following with her personal, perceptive pieces. “They’re very positive, very spiritual,” said Dee Dee Woodhead, who moved from Los Altos Hills to the Salinas area three years ago. Woodhead said Cristy is one of the reasons she continues to subscribe to the Town Crier. “She’s from the same generation as my own mother,” she said. “I related to her like she was my mother and I had not even met her.” When they did meet, “we just clicked.”
Current Town Crier Publisher Paul Nyberg called Cristy, “the total personification of community journalism,” a person who is in touch with her neighbors.
Cristy has saved many of her fan letters, including one from 1966 about Mount St. Helen housing the Sisters of Charity: “It was a pleasure to witness her marshaling of pertinent facts in perfect sequence,” the reader wrote. “I haven’t witnessed something so nicely done in some time.”
She saves the criticisms, too, from readers who find her viewing the world through “rose-colored glasses.”
“They help me,” Cristy said. “I get another viewpoint. It makes me less judgmental. You get an overall picture.”
Cristy thinks writing is more difficult now than it was when she first started, especially marketing. She self-published her book online, which she does not recommend as a way to publish books, and has sold many copies herself. She noted, “Publishers don’t spend a lot … except on their real stars.” Even freelancing has gotten more difficult: “Magazines take six months to get back to you.”
Despite the obstacles, she is visibly proud of her son Daniel, who “just fell into writing.” She hopes he will follow in her footsteps as a freelance writer.
Reading has always been an integral part of her thriving relationship with literature. A voracious reader, Cristy reads for fun, instead of just the classics. She often reads “16 books at once, four books a week.” She described with relish the “whole new crop of writers I’m beginning to discover.”
Indeed, life will always be full of new discoveries and new treasures at Cristy’s house. She said everyone is full of treasures, “everyone is a book, really … the mind is teeming with stories it wants to tell.”
Cristy’s column, “A View from the Hills,” appears the first week of the month in the Town Crier.
