From the Notebook: The Library
Posted: October 13th, 2008 | Filed under: Cleveland, Essays | 71 Comments »
I missed Banned Books Week, but I spoke on behalf of the Olathe Library that week, and I told this library story from my childhood. I figured I’d put it up here for safekeeping in case I ever need it again:
* * *
There was a library just a couple blocks from my house in Cleveland. It was a small library — I think it’s still there, corner of Cedar Center, same side of the street as Davis’ Bakery and the old Stop ‘N Shop* and the Cedar Center Bowling Lanes.
*I think it was a Stop ‘N Shop … it might have been an A&P. Which leads to one of my father’s favorite jokes when I was a kid: Did you hear that the Stop ‘N Stop merged with A&P. Yeah, now it’s called Stop ‘N P. … Understand, I said that was just ONE of his favorite jokes. His favorite joke, as I recall, was a Polish Army joke, which he was cleared to tell having grown up in Poland. Seems like the a Polish Army battalion was out on a long march, days and days, through rain and sleet, no relief in sight. And finally one day the Lietenant-Colonel stood in front and said, “Men, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that finally, after all this time, we will have an underwear change.” Everyone cheered wildly. “The bad news is … Kotlowski change with Witkowski. Somovits change with Zabrzeski.”
I still remember how I felt when I was officially old enough to walk to the library by myself. I was 8 or 9 years old, I guess. It seemed like my first moment of freedom. I would go to the library, I don’t know, once a week or so. Maybe not quite that often. Maybe two or three times a month. I loved going to the library. I still love libraries … I wrote much of my first book in a library and most of what I’ve written in my second book* I wrote in the library. I just like the vibe in libraries, the musty smell, the out-of-date books, the ultra-helpful librarians, the way people will generally respect the “quiet in the library” theme, the charming fact that they are still clinging to the Dewey Decimal System. I find that inspiring, really.
*Did I mention? I’m writing a book about the 1975 Reds. The Machine is the tentative title. William Morrow publisher. Tentatively scheduled for Marcy 2009. I may have mentioned it.
So, I was able to go to the little library by my house and look for the latest Alfred Slote books. Man, I loved Alfred Slote books. I have often said that Frank Deford was my ultimate influence, and after him Jim Murray and Leigh Montville and Mitch Albom and Rick Reilly and Bill Nack and Scott Price and Mike Lupica and all those terrific sportswriters of my time. But before any of them, I read “Hang Tough, Paul Mather” — an amazing young-teen book about a talented little league pitcher who had leukemia. I wasn’t much into reading then, and I would not be until much later. But I was into Alfred Slote books. I remember Hang Tough, Paul Mather got inside me and changed me in that remarkable way where you do not even know that you’re being changed. Not long after that, I read a Slote book I loved even more — Tony and Me — about a brilliant shortstop and troubled kid. I probably read that book 25 or 30 years ago, but I still remember the scene of Tony reaching out like he was going to bunt and then slashing a vicious liner at the third baseman. There were other Slotes I loved. Matt Gargan’s Boy. My Father, The Coach. I was always looking for another Alfred Slote book.*
*Not too long ago, I mentioned Alfred Slote in a newspaper column, and he wrote me a thank you, which remains one of the most awesome things that has ever happened to me.
Which gets to the story: When I went to the library, my mother would always send me with a list. See, my mother, back then, read Harlequin Romances. Those, I’m sure you know, are the romance paperbacks that always have a photo on to the cover of some woman in a bed or on a ski lift or on a desert island and some man without a shirt. My mother realized that these books did not exactly challenge her intellect nor teach her too many new things about astrophysics, but she liked them as vocabulary candy, and really, it was her business. Who am I to judge? Heck, I play “Brick Breaker” which is even more mindless.
Trouble is, my mother has never been able to do anything half-heartedly. I mean anything. I remember she decided to start saving coupons and collecting refunds in a more serious way. And one day, when they had a triple coupon special at the Stop ‘N Shop (or A&P) she bought like $138 in groceries for 12 bucks. Something like that. She had a filing system that would baffle the Pentagon with labels and boxtops and the like for refunds. And when she went back to school to study computer programming, she didn’t just make A’s across the board, she scored perfect scores time after time. My mother can be, in the best possible way, a tad bit obsessive.
And so, she decided it was not good enough to just read Harlequin Romances for some mindless joy. No, she was going to read EVERY SINGLE Harlequin Romance. She kept a notebook where she would keep track of which ones she had read and which ones she still needed to read. Only, here’s the thing: Every single Harlequin Romance* has more or less the same title — Last Minute Proposal, The Single Mom and the Tycoon, Bride at Briar’s Ridge — there’s no way to keep them all straight. No possible way. So my mother kept track of which ones she read and which ones she did not by the numbers on the side. Seriously. She would say to me, “OK, see if you can find me No. 111, No. 148, and No. 174.” And that’s what I would do.
*OK, I have to point THIS out. If you don’t want to click on that link, I don’t blame you … it takes you to the Harlequin Romance page (“Books for Women Who Love To Read”) for, you won’t believe this. No, really. You won’t.
It takes you to the page for Harlequin NASCAR.
Yeah. Harlequin NASCAR. “Stories set i the world of NASCAR.” Risky Moves. Running on Empty. Tailspin. Hot Pursuit. And, my favorite title, Overheated. I swear, I want to do a 15-part series on the remarkable concept of Harlequin NASCAR.
So I would go to the library and, first thing, I would look for various Harlequin numbers for my mother to read. It was fun in a weird way, sort of like trying to get the last few baseball cards I needed for a set. Plus the number system helped me separate what I was doing from the guys without shirts. I wasn’t looking for “Elizabeth’s Way” or “Sleeping With The Enemy.” No, I was looking for No. 138 and No. 219. I’m sure the librarian got a real kick out of a 10-year-old boy coming to the front with a pile of these Harlequin Romances.
But, now we get to the heart of the story. My mother read these books so fast that after a while she had read just about all of them. Except, I recall, No. 3. For some reason, we had never found No. 3. The series was up in the 300s, and she had read just about every one, and the ones she had not read were all like in the mid-200s or higher. All except the mystical No. 3.
And No. 3 really did take on this mystical quality after a while. It started to grow in our minds, it became like the great lost Harlequin Romance, the one that Sylvia Plath or Maya Angelou or Dostoevsky wrote under a pen name. Every time I would go to the library and look for No. 3. But it was never there. You had No. 1 and 2 and 4 and 5, all the way on up. But no 3. I would ask the librarian if she could order number 3. She claimed that she had tried but 3 was out of print. That only made the book seem more mysterious and luminous. If there were secrets to be learned about the world, surely, the would be found in Harlequin Romance No. 3.
The search went on for months, probably years. And at some point, I think, we began to lose hope. Maybe there never was a Harlequin Romance 3. Maybe, like the respectful political campaign, the open lane of traffic in Boston and the rare and precious snipe, it did not really exist. I can remember looking at my mother’s Harlequin notebook, seeing all those numbers crossed out, all of them except the 3, and I felt sad, like it was a job incomplete, a lost masterpiece, an unfinished Beethoven opera.
Then, you know what happened. One day, I went to the library, made my cursory check of the the Harlequin Romances. And there it was. Number 3. I did one of those movie double-takes. I blinked to make sure it was real. It was there, Harlequin 3, and I grabbed it off the shelf, quickly, with authority, like Moses Malone yanking down a rebound. I raced to the front desk, to the librarian, to check it out. I didn’t even look for Alfred Slote books that day. I went outside — it was a gray and cold Cleveland day in my memory. I put the book under my coat and I ran home, fast as I could, I was so excited. By the time I got to our house, I was breathing smoke, my side hurt, and I shoved open the door, and I shouted, “I found it! I found it.”
And my mother said, “You found it?” And she smiled. And I handed her the library book, what I considered the greatest gift a young boy can give to his mother. And she looked at it. And I will never, ever forget what she said to me that day.
She said: “Oh, I already read this one.”
* * *
Bonus: A few commenters have already mentioned the wonderful children’s sports author Matt Christopher. Well, if you go to Matt Christopher’s Site, you will find a story about him written 20 years ago by a green and yet clueless 21-year-old sportswriter who had no idea what he was doing but adored the man. It ain’t much of a story, truthfully, but it was written from the heart. Matt Christopher was every bit as nice and kind a man as you might hope and expect of the author who wrote “The Boy Who Only Hit Homers.”
Loading ...
Joe,
You are the best writer in the world. I don’t care what they say about Steinbeck, Capote, Kafka, Franzen, Wolfe, O’Conner, Rand, McCarthy, Joyce, Updike, Hemingway, or Twain. They’re all pretentious fools compared to you. I get more enjoyment from this blog and your articles at the Star than I get reading anything else on the web. You’re smart, simple, and always have a great story to tell. I love you like you love Bruce.
N-Dog
After debating, to great lengths, whether I should go to bed to better prepare myself for a geography mid-term or stay awake and aimlessly surf the Web, I chose the latter. This single post made that decision worthwhile, and then some.
I’m willing to bet that there are few sportswriters out there than can even come close to your ability to utterly captivate readers with writing that, frankly, has little or nothing to do with sports at all. A great read… thank you.
Re: Harlequin NASCAR.
Okay, so I have a PhD in English, which either makes my opinion worth more or much, much less, but here’s the thing:
“Slingshot Moves” is a freaking amazing title for a romance novel.
Bravo, Anna Schmidt. Bravo.
At the age of 10, I was a gritty, plucky, scrappy catcher that somehow, through pure gritty determination and unrelenting hustle, became the starting catcher for the local Babe Ruth League’s All-Star team. I also made weekly visits to the (Olathe Public) library in search of sports-themed books. My favorite book was Matt Christopher’s classic story, Catcher with a Glass Arm.
Little did I know that later in life I would draw upon the book’s title while heckling Gregg Zaun and John Buck. As a Royals fan, I’ve found that utilizing unusual, if not absurdly obscure, source material when voicing my frustration helps to ameliorate the suffering. However, Joe, when it comes to easing my pain, you are the ultimate elixir. And beer. Beer helps, too.
The one I remember was Crazy Legs McBain, about a running back. I haven’t thought of that title for years. Guess there were a bunch of us little boys riding our bikes to the library to live out our dreams in the pages of those kind of books—but at the time, it seemed like I was the only one.
Alfred Slote? I’m so freaked out right now — woke up this morning with The Trading Game on my mind for no reason whatsoever, and you drop that one on me. Should probably go buy a lottery ticket.
Bravo
When I was 8, I used to WALK the 3 miles to the library. My Mom had to send the librarian a note so I could check out books from the Adult (no, not THAT kind of Adult) books. I never read any Slote or Christopher. I was reading the Stan Musial Story or Nice Guys Finish Last or Veeck As In Wreck at that age. I wonder what I was missing?
The little library is still there, as is the shopping center – but the Stop ‘N Shop, bakery, and bowling alley are all gone.
I love you, man. In a totally hetero, beer-commercial manner of course.
My Alfred Slote? The Chip Hilton books by “Claire Bee”.
OK, so the main story was, of course, terrific, and I would never want to speak ill of someone dear to you, Joe. But … THAT was your father’s favorite joke? I feel like Jerry must have when he finally heard the tractor story.
Matt Christopher for me, too… I remember reading The Boy who only hit homers, The Catcher with the Glass arm, and probably a dozen more in elementary school. I devoured them. Ahhh, memories!
From the Royals “Around the Horn” blog –
Seitzer tied a franchise record with 6 hits on August 2, 1987. He is the only player, home or visiting, with 6 hits in a single game at Kauffman Stadium. No other player has had more than 4.
Can someone with a less sensitive web filter at work fact check this for me? No one has ever had 5 hits at Kauffman? I ain’t buyin’ it.
“the rare and precious snipe” awesome Joe this is what keeps us coming back.
Thanks as usuall for starting the day my day off with a great smile. Can’t wait for the new book.
I thought Matt Christopher sounded familiar…
I probably read The Boy Who Only Hit Homers 10-15 times.
Great post Joe.
The book on the Big Red Machine cannot come soon enough. What a wonderful post today with a tremendous kicker at the end.
And Fezzik, that brought back happy memories… I also had to produce a note from my mom that allowed be to take books from the adult section of the library. My mom has been gone a long, long time, but you just brought back a wonderful memory.
And now my son reads Matt Christopher books. I bet we’ve read them all together. I sure hope we’ve read #3…..
Thanks, Joe. You are the best.
I remember “My father the Coach.” It was funny because when you mentioned the Alfred Slote books, I immediately thought of the Matt Christopher books. But I remembered My father the coach, as vividly as any of those books but I could never remember who wrote it.
Nice piece, and a great book.
Anyone read “The Kid from Tompkinsville” and the subsequent series? I loved those baseball books…
Oh man – I remember the one about the liner at the third baseman, too. And the fact that he hit the first one foul and then was absolutely SURE that the third baseman was going to ince more creep in did it again! And Crazy Leegs McBain, too!
Shoot – I don’t think my son, who’s 16 now and too old for Alfred Slote, has ever read one of his books. Makes me sad…..
So, was book #3 about Dale Earnhardt?
Great library story, Joe. Vonnegut-like humor.
Yeah, Joe, awesome post! The author I remember reading as a kid was Thomas J. Dygard (Point Spread, Running Scared, Outside Shooter). I’ll have to check out those other books, because my son just turned six…
I loved The Kid from Tomkinsville and The Kid Comes Back, both of which were passed to me by my dad who read them when he was a kid. My all-time favorite book though used to be Bats and Gloves of Glory by Marion Renick. I recently found an old, beat up library-bound copy at a used book sale and I can’t tell you how excited I was. Until I actually read it again. I couldn’t make it much past the first few chapters before I decided my memory of the book was much, much better than the book itself.
For any of you baseball radio fans, I got picked to be on the Jim Deshaies and Dave Raymond radio show tomorrow between 10-11 am in Houston. They are two of the Astros’ radio announcers and have begun hosting a witty off season show that is different from a normal sports program. Here’s a link to the station. I believe you can listen live. Perhaps they’ll let me metion my Dodger Dogs story and how cool Joe Po and this site are?
http://www.790kbme.com/main.html
Ah, Matt Christopher. I loved those books as a kid.
Switching gears for a sec, I voted for “Always Wear A Helmet” in the poll. ‘Cause, seriously, what kind of stuff is going on in this romance that you need to wear a helmet, always?
“From the Royals “Around the Horn†blog –
Seitzer tied a franchise record with 6 hits on August 2, 1987. He is the only player, home or visiting, with 6 hits in a single game at Kauffman Stadium. No other player has had more than 4.
Can someone with a less sensitive web filter at work fact check this for me? No one has ever had 5 hits at Kauffman? I ain’t buyin’ it.”
As per B-R PI: 36 players have had exactly five hits at Kauffman. 23 have gone 5-for-5. Seitzer does in fact have sole possession of the franchise record for most hits at Kauffman in a game (though Carlos Pena also had six on 5-27-2004), although there’ve been 12 games in which a Royal has collected five hits at home, including Mike Sweeney, 7-9-2005.
Yeah, for me too it was the Chip Hilton books by Coach Clair Bee.
Crazy Legs McBain is by Joe Archibald. He also wrote my favorite, West Point Wingback. His protagonists are usually high school or college kids.
One I remember checking out from my public library as a kid was “The Kid who Batted 1.000″. The premise was that the kid had such keen eyesight and hand-eye coordination that he could foul off any strike thrown to him. So he works the pitcher for a walk every time.
The Matt Christopher books.. wow I think I read all of the baseball stories, plus most of the football ones. I think I also almost got my ass kicked for pulling one of them off the shelf just before someone else got there.
The Slote books were great too, same with John Tunis- those were set back in the early part of the century but were still amazing.
Guess i gotta call my mom and see if she knows where any of those might be hiding!
Thanks as always Joe!
I knew that minute you mentioned Slote, somebody would mention Matt Christopher and Catcher with a Glass Arm or The Kid Who Only Hit Home Runs.
Not only is this the best blog on the net, but you fellow commenters are no slouches either.
“The Kid Who Batted 1,000″ was a fun book. I also remember a rather dark piece of baseball fiction called “never Come Back” by (I think) Frank O’Rourke. Rather grown-up themes for a 12-year-old.
Great post, Joe.
Thank you for the great story. Reading can be a transformative experience. Even if it doesn’t seem like it at the time.
There is a theory that you can tell how racy a romance book will be by the color of the dress worn by the woman on the cover. A white dress, not racy. A red dress, very racy.
Perhaps your mother can validate this theory or expose it as a myth.
Darn your poll. I had to click the link to see which were made up.
Best poll ever. I would actually buy some of these books–not to read, but to unload at White Elephants and gift swaps.
Also, I want to write in Cold Hearts and Red Necks.
A friend of mine grew up in a small town where the streets were named after the alphabet. One time his dad gave a ride home to someone who lived on N Street, and said “You know what’s the worst part about living on N Street? You have to walk two blocks to P.” My friend said “That’s not funny, dad,” but 15 minutes later he was calling people to tell them his dad’s joke.
a proton, electron and a neutron walk into a bar
sit down
tender asks the proton, “what’ll it be bub”
“beer”
“dollar bub, and you?” the tender says to the electron,
“beer”
“dollar. And you buddy?’” tender boy says to the neutron.
“beer”
“no problem”
beer tender turns his back and the proton says with an elbow to electron, “What the fuck beer boy, dollar, dollar, and what the fuck?!”
“No charge on the neutron, eh” says beer boy
not sure
used to be you couldn’t have too many ex-Chubs on your side and win.
How much help is it to have a few ex-A’s
Stairs
Kotsay
Spezio
or
the wrong ones,,
zito
harden
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Absolutely priceless.
Joe and all the rest of your are the best. This just makes my day reading all of these posts after Joe has me all happy and thinking!
I wanted to write in “Rubbing is Racing” as a title.
Great post, Joe. I too, loved Alfred Slote books. smehow I never stumbled across Matt Christopher, although I have heard of hi. How is it that none of slote’s books are even in print these days? What a travesty…
Wow, talk about your mom crushing your spirit?
Also, are you sure the words “Rick Reilly, Mike Lupica”, and “those terrific sportswriters” should be uttered in the same sentence? Mike Lupica, really? That bitter idiot who thinks it’s A-Rod’s fault that the Yankees aren’t in the playoffs? The man who absolutely hates every single statistic that plainly shows he’s an idiot (and every other statistic beside?)
Who are you, and what have you done with the real JoePo?!
http://www.judgeabook.blogspot.com/
A blog by a librarian about awful art and subtitles. (Unfortunately, Maughta doesn’t post as often anymore) Complete with recurring theme entries like Phallic Phriday and Mammary Monday.
Periodic coverage of Harlequins, with no punches pulled, as well as two entries about Harlequin NASCAR:
http://judgeabook.blogspot.com/2007/05/kmart-trip.html
http://judgeabook.blogspot.com/2007/05/headed-north-by-northwest.html
Awesome stuff
I’m 59, and I thought I was really the only one who got you…just kidding. I really do enjoy your writing and I’m always telling guys down here in southwest Mo. that they need to start reading the Star just because of your stories. I went to the library when I was a boy also, but not as frequently as you because I never returned the books on time and even today I’m sure that someday the library police will knock on my door and want me to cough up a gazillion dollars or give back “The Boy Who Batted 1.000″ or maybe that was One Thousand. I wish a lot of the old books for kids of the 40’s, 50’s and early 60’s were still available. They were great, I’m sure even better than the internet, because the internet’s got no imagination to go with it. Thanks for using your brain for us and letting us remember what it was like.
To Jim Haas, I didn’t read the previous replies first and when I went back and read a few, I see I wasn’t the only one who read “The Boy Who Hit 1.000″, kind of funny.
I was trying to remember some of the author’s I enjoyed as a kid and my Dad got me to reading Joe Archibald. It was brought up by one of the other replies. He was one of the best. Does anyone remember who wrote lots of dog stories? I think it was a 3 word name.
Matt Christopher was fantastic. I remember when I was reading The Boy Who Only Hit Homers and he met a player named George Baruth. I was so excited because that WAS Babe Ruth! I ran all around my house looking for my dad to show him. When I finally found him, I was in shock that he wasn’t as excited as I was.
The last time I heard that joke I was a freshman in high school sitting in my Kansas History class. The only thing worse than a Kansas History class? A Kansas History class taught by one of the driest people I had ever met. When he delivered that joke, I stil laugh thinking about, he wasn’t one of the driest people I had ever met, he just had one of the driest sense of humors. He turned out to be one of my favorite teachers from high school.
@ Jim Haas –
Is this what you were referring to?
If I Never Get Back, by Darryl Brock
I remember reading this a fairly young person and thinking it was a little too, ummm, grown up for me at the time. But of course that made me like it more!
http://www.amazon.com/If-Never-Get-Back-Novel/dp/1583941878
Shout out to Cedar Center! We used to live on Ashurst Road, and I walked to Davis Bakery all the time. (I understand it has moved.) Used to use that library, and the Blockbuster near there . . . memories. I loved living in University Heights. Running the Shaker Lakes, and so on. What a great place to live.
Considering that EVERY supposedly “banned” book is readily available on Amazon.com or at Barnes & Noble, I think the librarians’ association should quit being so melodramatic.
I swear, I want to do a 15-part series on the remarkable concept of Harlequin NASCAR.
The funny thing is… if you wrote it, we’d still read it.
Yet another shout out to the Cedar Center Library. I spent a very large majority of my time there after leaving Wiley.
I can live with Harlequin Nascar – as long as they don’t come up with Harlequin Pro Bowlers Association. I don’t need my lonely mother reading about some chubby PBA legend giving a woman a Seven-10 split. If you know what I mean….
Dan, I think Alfred Payson Terhune was the dog writer you’re thinking about. I was given one of his books once but never got around to reading it.
This seems like the best thread to ask this question. In the late 60’s I was reading a series of boy books about a fictional major league baseball team. They were like the Yankee’s but each book was a about a new player on the team. They always had the same players and some of the players would end up retiring or getting trading during the run of the series. The books were probably written in the 50’s or early 60’s . Anybody have a clue as to the author of these books. I loved those books.
Joe – this is a must read for me every day. Thanks for the stories as I know this is just a throw away for you considering everything else on your plate. It just shows how talented you are, that your throw aways are better then the main stuff other columnists are spewing out.
Phil:
OK, I have some possibilities for you. Duane Decker wrote a series of books from the 40 through the 60s about a mythical team the Blue Sox. John R. Tunis wrote a series about the Dodgers, The Kid from Tomkinsville, is one of them. And less likely, a series of books about a kid named Bronc Burnett, written by Wilfred McCormick.
Brent:
Thanks, I’ll check the Blue Sox series, that period sounds right.
Brent:
Bingo on Duane Decker, just checked a couple of synopsis and even my 50 year old brain was able to recognize the story lines and names of the players. Thanks very much, this has been bugging me for about a decade or so.
Best … post … ever. Thanks Joe!
Josh over at the Cardboard Gods blog has also mentioned how great the Mather book is. I’ll have to look for a copy.
Speaking of books, whatever happened to that Rosenberg book giveaway? I don’t remember seeing any followup about that, and I want to know what the funniest Woody Hayes jokes were. They can’t be worse than the ones in this post, after all.
Joe,
You never read the “Chip Hilton” series? As a child of the 60’s and 70s, the Claire Bee series was inspirational not just because of the sports aspect, but also because Chip Hilton would do the right thing despite the social pressures of the times. These books were written in the 40’s and 50’s and took on political issues such as race and religious differences in a time very few authors would even consider writing about these subjects. Chip Hilton is still a hero!
Joe: again, tremendous work.
Great post. I remember reading “Hang Tough, Paul Mather” when I was about ten (and wanted to be a pitcher; ha!).
Joe,
Awesome stuff. I lived in the “country” so we didn’t’ read books (just kidding!) but the neatest library was about 15 miles into town. I took out a book about the Chiefs glory years, and forgot to return it for about 6 months. When I finally got to return it, my mom made me pay the $10 late fee (I think BUYING the book would have been cheaper, but that wasn’t the point).
I don’t think I’ve checked out a book since… Now I read fewer books, but I buy all the ones that I read. It’s cheaper and less stressful that way.
I also loved going to the library. It was that extra special bit of freedom, because that meant I got to ride the bus downtown (I grew up in St. Joe, Mo). I think I was allowed to do this on my own starting around 8 or 9 years old. I tore through the John Tunis series at a very young age. I was a pretty voracious reader (started reading at 3) and stopped going to the basement where the kid’s books were around age 11 i think. But Joe nails it on the smell of a library, the overall vibe. I hadn’t been in Watson Library at KU for ages, but needed to do some research for an adult learning course I taught this fall, and as soon as I started climbing around the stacks, I knew I had been gone too long. My all time favorite library visit, though, was in the winter of 77-78 to the Cambridge Public Library. I was on semester break in my first year of law school, and suffice it to say I had done NO pleasure reading (other than newspapers) for months, so i decided to try the library. I just wandered the stacks, looking for something interesting. I remember that for some reason, I was drawn to a book titled Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. I had never read Le Carre (and they hadn’t made the tv miniseries yet), and that proved to be a real treat. But once classes started, no more visits for fun to the library!
“But … THAT was your father’s favorite joke? I feel like Jerry must have when he finally heard the tractor story.”
Joe should thank his lucky stars. My grandfather told only one joke: “I can row a boat. Canoe?” That was it.
Great post. Though (like you) I left Cleveland long ago, I have strong memories of Davis Bakery and the A & P. One memory that stick is one time in 1968 (maybe 69) my brother, another kid and myself racing past the A & P on bikes. My brother won, Nick got hit by a truck and I lost. However that is one time where a loss is better than second place.
I got here after googling “Crazy Legs McBain.” Loved that book. My guys growing up were Joe Archibald, Jackson Scholz, John Tunis, Dick Friendlich, Duane Decker, C.P. Jackson, Philip Harkin, William Campbell Gault, plus Burgess Leonard and his Stretch Bolton books. I still read ‘em when I can find ‘em, and I’m 45! Matt Christopher was a little too contemporary for my tastes.
My wife hooked me on Harlequins, too, but only the old English reprints. Really. I swear.
You are patently, a professional of dissertation form related to this good post writing but when you want to choose the thesis writing, I will advice you to find the best item.