Just a few thoughts....

I'm a novice at blogging but have been so impressed with Concord Patch that I wanted to do something to contribute.

While I know the world may not be awaiting my every word and thought, I have found I enjoy reading other peoples' blogs, even when I may not necessarilly agree with what they're saying.  I just love the notion of people expressing ideas and sharing them.

I grew up in Concord in the late 1950s and 60s and worked here for many years in a variety of jobs. I got to meet tens of thousands of area residents and truly believe that the upbringing this community afforded me helped me devlop skills that enabled me to survive some less than pleasant moments in life. It also helped me during the time I lived in Los Angeles from turning into another of those individuals who seemed culled from a cookie cutter and often lacking in common and always welcomed human attributes.

While some people I grew up with screamed that they couldn't wait to get away from Concord, I enjoyed all the city had to offer and later used it to keep myself grounded always knowing I would one day return.

The other day I did my first local booksigning at Gibson's, a bookstore that is an increasing rarity in a world marked with chains. These chains are not the kind worn by Jacob Marley in Dicken's "A Christmas Carol" but rather chain restaurants, stores and booksellers.

At the risk of sounding like I am heading for the last round-up, I remember a time when Concord had several independent bookstores including Gibsons, Apple Tree and even Bookland on Main Street among others. On Warren Street in a basement location, Ella Anderson and Helen Young ran a wonderful "olde" bookstore that contained treasures from a bygone era for prices that were affordable even for me on a dollar a week allowance.

My book entitled, "Was That a Name I Dropped?" was published at the end of April by Aberdeen Bay Publishers. On the Amazon.com website it has done very well.

Having invested considerable time and energy into writing this 536 page memoir, I wanted to launch it locally in the appropriate setting since much of the story involves Concord. Gibson's seemed the logical choice.

Never having previously done a booksigning, I knew not what to expect and had thought I would simply be sitting at a table signing copies. After all in every movie or television show in which an author has written a book (including the character of Jessica on "Murder She Wrote") that's about all they did. That is, I was advised, not the way it's done any longer.

In grammar school at Saint Peter's on Bradley and Walker streets in Concord, there were few phrases more fearful than Sister Mary John announcing we would be standing in front of the class doing a book report. I'd have rather risked the fires of eternal damnation than stand up in front of the class, unprotected, talking about anything.

That gut-wrenching fear never lessened through the years. Sure, I could play a role in a play - Peter Pan, replete with green tights or Joseph with his technicolored dreamcoat - and that was easy because I was no longer me and could immerse myself in the role. As myself, however, it was sheer terror.

In 1982 I agreed to introduce a film series in the Rabb Auditorium at the Boston Public Library. For eight weeks, each Monday for two showings, I would stand in front of hundreds of people and talk for 10 minutes.  It did not get easier with each passing week.

I would take a bus from Concord to Boston for the showings and would sometimes silently pray that the bus would be hijacked to the Burlington Mall. Anything would be better than standing up there exposed.

When I found out the format for the booksigning would include readering a little of the book, talking about why I wrote it and taking questions from the audience, I was suddenly back in third-grade doing Novena's to Saint Jude, the Patron Saint of Lost Causes, asking to be excluded from the Book Report. I even played "Let's Make a Deal" with God, offering to go to daily Mass if I could not be called on.

The Gibson's event was scheduled for June 30 and I spent an hour in front of the bathroom mirror at home rehearsing various facial expressions and practicing what I felt might be amusing banter. I was not impressed.

What I'd not expected were the number of people who showed up at the bookstore in the evening. I'm afraid I was in an almost permanent state of surprise as one face after another from my life made their way into the store.

I'd have been happy with 15 or 20 attendees. It was about three times that number and I was surprised to find myself fighting back tears as I greeted friends and co-workers and acquaintances from the last half century.

Classmates from Saint Peter's Grammar School, friends from Bishop Brady High School, co-workers from the Department of Motor Vehicles, a large group from Blue Cross and Blue Shield, a former psychologist or two, members of the community theatre group, former legislators, a Commissioner and many more. It was an eye-opening experience and a wonderful reaffirmation of why I feel as I do about Concord. No matter how many years had passed, those years were erased instantly and conversations picked up where they'd left off in the 1960s, 70s, 80s and 90s.

During the coming months I may talk a bit about the book but I'll also comment about Concord - past and present - and some of the wonderful people I've had the pleasure to know on this journey through life.  Maybe I'll stir up a little controversy and maybe I'll stir up the warm nostaglic feelings that we all have for a time and place. Feel free to call me on something or disagree with me. I'm only one person and I can only see things through my own experiences but I hope you'll never be bored and perhaps, from time to time, will pause and ponder what I've said.