Part 130 - 139

Part One Hundred & Thirty

“We make a “crazy” decision.”

My son, Adam, was preparing for his high school graduation from Lexington Christian Academy and he still wasn’t sure which college he was going to attend in the fall. He had been offered a decent academic scholarship for the University of Cincinnati but he had not yet been accepted into the musical theatre program. He would need to audition for the theatre department and his confidence had been shaken because of a few unsuccessful recent college auditions. This university was recognized as one of the top schools in the country for theatre and Adam was seriously considering going there even if he didn’t make it into the theatre department. He figured that once he was there, he could keep trying until he got into this exclusive department. He was also offered a generous theatre scholarship to attend Eastern Nazarene College in Massachusetts, based on his credentials as a good student and actor as well as a good recommendation from his high school drama teacher, Chris Greicco. Adam wanted a change and really didn’t want to go to a private Christian college, so he declined the offer. He also didn’t want to be separated from his girlfriend, Meridith, who had already been accepted at The Boston Conservatory in Boston, Massachusetts. With a last-minute audition and a recommendation from Adam’s private voice teacher (who was also a teacher at The Boston Conservatory) Adam was accepted into this highly acclaimed school. When we asked Adam how much the tuition was, he admitted that he had no idea. It never occurred to him that it might be more than we could afford. Our agreement with both of our children was that we would pay for half of their college expenses and the other half would be their responsibility. Any scholarships that they earned would be deducted from their half of the cost of the tuition. This seemed fair to us because any scholarships would be the result of their own hard work. Unfortunately, since Adam had waited so long to apply to The Boston Conservatory, there were no scholarships offered to him. He was just to consider himself lucky to be accepted.

My sister Sharon’s daughter, Emily, was graduating from a small, private Christian school in Laconia, New Hampshire a week or two before Adam’s graduation and we were invited to attend the graduation ceremony.

Emily was supposed to be born a few weeks before Adam but since Adam was born seven weeks prematurely, he was born first. Emily and Adam ended up in a good-natured “competition” during their youth. Who would walk first? Who would talk first? Who would start school first? Who would get their drivers license first? Now, Emily was graduating high school first.

We noticed some unusual things as we listened to the speakers at the graduation ceremony. The “special guest speaker,” Bill Broughton, was a teacher from the school and although he was a quiet, soft-spoken man, his message was an encouragement to all of the students and the audience. The principal of the school, Dave Borchers, (also known as Mr.
B.) introduced each of the twenty graduates to the audience. He shared some of his personal thoughts about each student and then listed some of each student’s accomplishments and aspirations for the future. My wife and I were surprised that this principal seemed to really care about these students and personally knew so much about them. The other thing we noticed was something that didn’t impress us. It seemed as if most of these students had rather unspectacular life-goals. One girl hoped to become a secretary. One boy hoped to work in his family’s excavation business. Some expressed interest in some form of missionary work. Several students were planning to go on to college after graduation but none were accepted into prominent “Ivy League” colleges. Those that were going to go to college had chosen small private Christian universities or state schools. I wasn’t very impressed.

The next week we went to Adam’s graduation from Lexington Christian Academy. The ceremony was a formal affair with all of the “pomp and circumstance” you’d expect from a serious college preparatory school with the outstanding reputation of Lexington Christian Academy. Many of the teachers and administration proudly wore their robes adorned with sashes indicating their educational credentials. The list of colleges and universities that Adam’s classmates were going to attend included Harvard, Yale, Princeton and other top schools. Very impressive indeed.
This school had certainly prepared these graduates for the next part of the educational process. If I’m not mistaken, every student in the graduating class was attending a four-year college the following fall. That is quite an accomplishment for both the school and the students. But after experiencing Emily’s graduation ceremony and comparing it to Adam’s ceremony, we couldn’t help but notice a significant difference. At the time, it was hard to put my finger on exactly what the difference was, but I knew that I wanted my daughter, Cassy, to be a part of the small school in New Hampshire instead of the school that Adam had attended. Cassy had been put on a “waiting list” at Lexington Christian Academy but we weren’t comfortable waiting any longer for a spot to open up for her. We needed to make a decision. Only half seriously, I made a crazy suggestion.

In the unlikely event that a spot did open up for Cassy at Lexington Christian Academy, we’d be paying about $10,000 per year for tuition. We loved my sister Sharon and her whole family and we’d enjoy being closer to where they lived. When Adam went off to college in Boston, the rest of us could move to the Laconia, New Hampshire area so that Cassy could attend Laconia Christian School. The tuition was so low (about $2800 per year) that we could rent an apartment or condo and pay the tuition for less money than just the tuition for Lexington Christian Academy. I was rarely needed at my comic book stores because I had a good staff of competent employees. We could keep our home in Bolton, Massachusetts, just in case this situation didn’t work out. If it didn’t work out, we could just move back to Massachusetts.

After discussing this for a few days it started to seem like a real possibility. We called the school in New Hampshire and the school secretary, Judy Downing, arranged for us to come up for a mandatory student and parent information night and interview. After a brief interview we were asked to prayerfully consider whether this was the right move for us. Convinced that it was, we called a few days later and were told that Cassy would be allowed to attend this school. This meant that we needed to deal with a lot of major issues before the summer ended, like finding and renting a place to live in New Hampshire. But first, we were leaving on our huge family cruise soon!

Next chapter: The cruise.

Part One Hundred & Thirty One

While Mal and I were on a Caribbean cruise in 1997 we thought it could be nice to celebrate our upcoming 25th wedding anniversary by taking a cruise with all of our siblings, their spouses, and our parents. We had a nice wedding all those years ago but it wasn’t very expensive or “fancy” because we had no money at the time. Now we had a little bit and we wanted to share this milestone anniversary with the people we loved. We had negotiated a reasonable price with Carnival Cruise Lines for fifteen cabins on the outside of the ship because we wanted all of our family to enjoy a window view. The location of these cabins weren’t the greatest since Mal and I were paying for this trip and we were trying to make this trip affordable. Even in the “less desirable” location this vacation was going to cost us over $30,000.

A few weeks before we were scheduled to set sail, our travel agent, Elsa, called to say that Carnival had upgraded all fifteen cabins to suites with private balconies on the top deck at no additional charge! No explanation was given for this great upgrade but we were happy to take it.

The ship, “The Imagination,” was “sailing” out of Miami, Florida and since we were coming from several different parts of the United States we all planned to meet on the ship near the main pool. Travel arrangements were the responsibility of each of our family members because we couldn’t really afford to pay for their airfare, too. Several family members used accumulated “frequent flyer miles” and another group just drove to Miami because they lived nearby. A bunch of us flew out of Boston, Massachusetts together since that was the most convenient airport for us. Surprising, even though there were thirty-one in our group, we all found each other soon after we boarded the huge cruise ship.

After the mandatory “lifeboat muster” drill, we all spent some time exploring this luxurious “floating hotel.” This ship was twelve-stories high and it was almost 1000 feet long. It contained several nightclubs and lounges, two huge dining rooms, a large casino, a health club, swimming pools and much more! This ship carried over two thousand passengers and almost one thousand crewmembers. My wife and children had no problem finding their way around this ship since we had taken numerous cruises on similar ships but many of our relatives found themselves intimidated by the enormous size of “The Imagination.”

After the ship headed out to sea and our initial exploration was done, it was time for dinner in the main dining room. Since our group was so big, we were seated at three large tables next to the windows looking out over the ocean. We decided to change our seating arrangements several times during the seven-day voyage so that we’d get to spend time with as many of our relatives as possible. As usual, the food was delicious and beautiful to look at. Most of our group enjoyed the opportunity to sample foods that they had never tried before including snails, cold strawberry soup, and several Caribbean dishes.

This cruise offered lots of activities onboard while the ship was at sea and there were dozens of tours available for the days that we were scheduled to be the islands. With such a large group I knew that it could be much too difficult to be their designated “tour guide,” so we decided to be available to offer suggestions without putting pressure on them to do what my immediate family was planning to do. Each evening, I’d explain several tour options and I’d tell them what I was going to do. Anyone who wanted to travel with us was welcome. If they wanted to do what I was doing, they needed to meet in the lobby at a specified time. No pressure at all. This was their vacation and they should do whatever they wanted to do.

Our first island stop was in Cozumel, Mexico. Most of us took taxis to the beautiful Chankanaub Park where we snorkeled in crystal-clear, fish-filled water, explored a small botanical garden, and relaxed in the sun.

Our next island stop was Ocho Rios, Jamaica where I chartered a private bus to take us to the famous “Dunn’s River Falls.” This is a huge series of waterfalls that you walk and climb, (holding each other’s hands) through rushing water with the help of an experienced tour guide. Although there were a few very challenging parts of this climb, we all managed to survive and we had a fun time. The family members who had decided not to go with us to “The Falls,” went snorkeling and reported that it was even better than Cozumel.

Our last island stop was in Grand Cayman where most of us went on a tour of “Sting Ray City.” This tour takes you to a sandbar about twenty minutes out into the ocean. When you get into the water you are suddenly surrounded by dozens of stingrays that measure as much as four feet wide. These strange, gentle creatures would glide under your feet and brush up against you as you swim around this sandbar. The tour guides gave us pieces of squid to hold between our fingers so the stingrays could suck it out of hands. This was an exciting tour, and although I’d done this once before, it was fun to watch our relatives experience this.

One night, before dinner, a group of us went to a lounge for a Karaoke session and we were entertained by several of our own family members including Lori Howley, Madeline Paladino, Carol Walsingham, and our son Adam and daughter Cassy.

Another night, my daughter Cassy, and Mal’s sister Carol, participated in the “Passenger Talent Show” in front of almost one thousand people. Cassy sang the theme from Walt Disney’s “The Little Mermaid.” Carol sang a song by Ray Boltz titled, “The Anchor Holds,” that explained that during times of crisis and trial, the power and strength of God will remain constant if we rely on Him. This was an interesting choice of songs to perform for a “cruise-crowd” but she certainly did a great job.

On another evening, while the ship was at sea, our relatives surprised Mal and I by reserving a function room and throwing us a twenty-fifth anniversary party complete with many thoughtful gifts. It was great to have almost our entire families together in one place. (The only relative who wasn’t invited on the cruise was my brother Jay and his wife, Annette. Although we love them, we knew that they couldn’t afford to spend any money on shipboard or island activities and they wouldn’t enjoy the “cruise-atmosphere.” We didn’t want them to feel uncomfortable) As it turned out, this would be the last time we’d all be together.



Part One Hundred & Thirty Two

During the summer of 1998, my family got ready for some really big changes. Adam worked full-time to save money for his college expenses.
He was heading off to The Boston Conservatory in the fall and he would need enough money to enjoy himself for his first semester. We had an agreement that we’d pay for half of his tuition and room and board (we’d pay a higher percentage if he got good grades) but he would be responsible for his own “fun” money. If he wanted money for pizza and other entertainment, he’d need to save during the summer while he was working because the Conservatory warned us that, as a theatre major, he’d have no time available to work during the school year. His schedule was going to be very intense and loaded with both “core” academic classes and acting, dance, and voice lessons. His school day could go from early in the morning until late into the evening. He was going to a very busy guy.

In addition to working his full-time job, Adam had decided to continue his involvement in local community theatre by co-directing “You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown.” This would involve lots of days when he’d have to go directly from his job to the play practice but this was made more enjoyable for him since his girlfriend, Meridith, had the lead role of Lucy.

Our daughter, Cassy, had graduated from eighth grade at The Imago School and she was now accepted to Laconia Christian School in Laconia, New Hampshire for the fall semester for high school. Cassy got the lead role of “Kim” in a local community theatre production of “Bye, Bye, Birdie,” so she was going to be very busy all summer.

This summer was also going to be a busy time for Mal and me. We needed to make all of the arrangements to move from our home in Bolton, Massachusetts to Laconia, New Hampshire. We had decided to keep our house in Massachusetts, just in case the situation in New Hampshire didn’t work out so we spent some time looking for a place to rent near my sister Sharon and her family since we enjoyed their company. We had a few decent options and chose a condo rental which was down the street from Sharon and a reasonable fifteen-minute drive away from the high school. This was a fully furnished, two-bedroom, two bath, unit on the second floor of a former apartment building that had been turned into condominiums. The monthly rent was $650 so even with the full school tuition and rent combined we were still paying much less than just the tuition cost at “Lexington Christian Academy” in Massachusetts. Mal and I were eager to begin this new adventure in New Hampshire but Cassy really wanted to stay in Massachusetts with her friends, especially her best friend, Bethany Tobia.

Cassy and Bethany were the kind of friends who shared all of their innermost secrets with each other. When they were together, which was most of the time, they were usually laughing or giggling. In fact, in August, as an eighth grade graduation gift, we treated Cassy and Bethany to a cruise to Bermuda and they laughed (and flirted with boys) through the whole week. Both of these girls were trustworthy, responsible and very well behaved. Cassy was an especially good girl. The only exception was one time that is now known as “The Great Burrito Licking Affair.”

One winter, while Cassy was attending the Imago School for eighth grade, a few of the “mature and responsible” older students were asked to help prepare some Mexican food for the whole school during a week-long event known as “Winter Carnival.” Cassy and her classmate, Marta, were two of the students asked to help. While they were preparing the burritos Cassy thought it would be “funny” if she actually licked each burrito! Cassy and Marta were laughing at the thought of watching their schoolmates eat the burritos after the shells had been licked.
Cassy really thought it was hysterically funny. She assumed it would be safe because the burritos were going to be cooked after she licked them so she thought that no one would get sick. The girls made two mistakes though. First of all, they shouldn’t have done it in the first place, and second, they shouldn’t have told other kids about it. One of the students, Pete McNamara, thought it was very funny too, but he told his mother and she didn’t get the humor. She reported it to the school principal who then felt obligated to take disciplinary action against Cassy and Marta. The two girls were suspended from school for a short time and they weren’t allowed to participate in the very popular “Winter Carnival” events. This was the only actual “trouble” that Cassy got into during her time at the Imago School.

Although Cassy was reluctant and sad to leave her friends from Massachusetts, she realized she had no choice. The public high school was not an acceptable option for her and there was no opening at the private school that Adam had attended. Mal and I were convinced that New Hampshire is where we all needed to be. Besides, it was a new adventure!

Next chapter: The move.

Part One Hundred & Thirty Three

In the late summer of 1998, my wife Mal and my daughter Cassy moved up to the rented condo in Laconia, New Hampshire to get ready for Cassy’s freshman year of school at Laconia Christian School. Adam and I stayed at our home in Bolton, Massachusetts, as he needed to work full-time right up until the beginning of his first day of college so he’d have enough spending money for his first semester. While Adam worked, I went to work at my comic book store in Worcester, Massachusetts to finalize my plans to end my involvement in day-to-day activities of the business. I’d be living about 110 miles away but would be available by telephone to help Chris deal with some problems if he needed me.

My staff seemed able to handle the responsibilities pretty well and I was comfortable that Chris, my company manager, would be a good motivator and leader. Business was great and sales were still rising.

Our move to New Hampshire was pretty easy because the condo we were renting was fully furnished. All we needed to move up there was our clothes and a few personal effects. We settled in quickly.

A few weeks before Cassy’s school year began, we got a call from the Massachusetts high school that had put Cassy on the “waiting list” for admission informing us that a spot had opened up for her. It was too late for us to change our decision so we declined. We were confident that we were making the right decision.

Shortly before the New Hampshire school classes started, the school organized a family “work day.” It was expected that the entire family of the school’s students would volunteer some time to help maintain the school property and buildings. This was our first real involvement with the school and Cassy and I met and worked with Steve and Dan Forbes. Dan was a classmate of Cassy’s so it was nice for her to get to know him before school actually started. Although Cassy’s cousins, Jesse and Jacob, attended the school too, they were not in the same grade. Cassy was a “new kid” at this school and that can be awkward for a young teenager. Luckily, there were a few other “new kids” coming to the school for the first time including Nichole Behan, Seamus O’Brien, and Andrew Hare. We had met some other local families when we had gone to church services held in the gymnasium of the school including the Verhoeks and the Foote families. The Verhoeks had a daughter, Emily who was several years ahead of Cassy and the Foote family had Bryan, who was several years ahead of Cassy, and Caleb, who was in Cassy’s class.
Before I actually met Caleb, I had heard that he was a serious comic book fan and his favorite was Spider-Man. I found out that he was missing one part of a multi-part storyline and on one of my trips to my comic book store, I was able to get a copy for him. I got directions to his home and put it into his mailbox. When we finally met after church, we discussed comic books for quite a while. I found Caleb actually knew much more about the current series of Spider-Man than I did!

We became friends with the Foote family pretty quickly. Barbara Foote (the Mom) had lost her husband Al to cancer and found herself alone with three young children: Allison, Bryan, and Caleb Parys. In time, she married Jim Foote, a kind and patient man who helped raise Barb’s children as his own, with love and understanding.

Within a very short time, Cassy began dating Bryan even though he was two years older. Technically, we didn’t want Cassy to actually go on a date until she was sixteen so although we liked Bryan quite a lot, we were still “freaked out” when he gave her a diamond ring after only knowing her for a few months! He insisted that it was just a “friendship” ring so both families allowed it.

Next chapter: We invite one of my childhood favorite artists to our
store: Gene Colan, a true master of comic book art!

Part One Hundred & Thirty Four

I began reading comic books when I was about five years old. I enjoyed the fantastic adventure stories and the colorful artwork, although I really couldn’t tell the difference between most artists’ styles. The artists working at the “Big Two” publishers in the 1950’s and early 1960’s had talent but were not very distinctive to my young eyes. In fact, I wasn’t really aware that “real” people drew the comic books until I bought a copy of DC Comics “Flash Annual” #1 from 1963. There was a feature in this issue titled, “How I Draw The Flash” by Carmine Infantino that actually explained how he drew the character. From that moment on, I paid more attention to the artists. After a while, it became pretty easy to determine which artist drew the stories even though many comic books failed to “credit” them. Dynamic artists and artists with their “own” style of illustrating were few and far between but some did make an impression on me as a young reader and collector. Jack Kirby (The Fantastic Four), Steve Ditko (The Amazing Spider-Man), and Carmine Infantino (The Flash), were some of my favorites. Kirby was dynamic. Ditko was strange. Infantino was sleek. But there was one artist whose work was so different that it really impressed me. He was the only artist who could draw “movement.” He experimented with oddly shaped panels with characters swinging in and out of sight. He blurred the image and used heavy shadowing to convince the reader that this was a super-hero of action. This artist was dynamic, strange, and sleek, all in one package. This was Gene Colan!

Gene Colan had been working as a comic book artist for many years before I became aware of him. He was under contract with another company when he began to do some work at Marvel Comics in the 1960’s under the pseudonym of “Adam Austin.” I can’t believe that this false name really helped because his style is so distinctive. After a few months, he began to use his real name. Within a few years, Gene Colan had illustrated Iron Man, Doctor Strange, Submariner, and Daredevil. Many comic book fans consider Gene’s version of these popular characters to be the best versions. In the 1990’s he was considered to be one of the top artists of the “silver-age” of comics. So, imagine my excitement when Gene Colan agreed to be a guest at my comic book store in Worcester, Massachusetts!

We had hosted many artists, writers, and celebrities at our stores over the years but the biggest thrill for me was to host people whose work I loved. We had my childhood favorite, Davy Jones of The Monkees back in 1993, and now we were having one of my favorite comic book artists! This happened because of the hard work and dedication of Ken Carson, one of our part-time employees. Here, Ken relates how this appearance came about:

“I saw that Gene was soliciting commission drawings in the national trade journal for the comic book business, “The Comics Buyers Guide.” There was only a fax number listed, so I decided to contact him about making an appearance, and quickly typed something up without much expectation of success. But just a few minutes after the invitation went out, a return fax came in, accepting. I remember you being shocked when I came down from the office to tell you Gene and his wife Adrienne were coming to the store, because it came completely out of the blue.

Two days a week at That’s Entertainment was my schedule at the time, but I worked from home on the event. It meant a lot of contact with the Colans in the weeks leading up to the big day.

From our press release, “The Worcester Phoenix” (a local newspaper) set up a nice interview. We asked Kevin Hall, a huge Daredevil fan and a long-time customer, if he’d do a special interview with Gene, just for our website.

When I called one day to firm up details, Gene asked me if I thought anyone would come to see him; he had appeared at a store in New Hampshire or Vermont and just a few people attended. I assured him our clientele would turn out to meet him, and that we would promote it right. We had already received inquiries from fans from New York and Canada about the appearance.

Before the event, Adrienne mentioned that she was working on an idea to raffle Gene’s remaining original art, and that was when I mentioned Internet auctions. I also offered to try to sell some of his original art on our website.

Then, the day before the event, Adrienne called to say Gene was having a vision problem. They wouldn’t stay in Worcester the night before as planned, but would come straight from a Boston hospital to the store. She told me not to worry, that everything would work out.

The day of the event, there was of course, a huge crowd lined up, and the Colans arrived as promised. Gene immediately started doing sketches for people—really beautiful, detailed drawings—and while this was underway I found a few minutes to introduce Adrienne to the Internet. Seeing eBay, as well as some comic art sites, quickly convinced her that Web would be the way to go.

Afterwards, it became clear to me that they really needed someone with the time and experience to work up a website—someone completely trustworthy—so I put Adrienne back in touch with Kevin Hall. Soon, www.genecolan.com was up and running. Through that, Gene found out that the world was full of admirers who recognized his talent and appreciated the care he always put into his work. Adrienne told me years later that she and Gene thought it was strange that such a big turning point in his career should follow from a random event—our invitation. I told her it wasn’t completely random, because the reason I contacted him was that he had made a connection to me years ago through his art. Even as a kid, I could see he was putting more into it than most artists. Through that small contact, the success of the event, the adoration he then tapped into through the website, Gene had actually made it happen through the quality of his work.”

Over the years, Gene Colan has made two more appearances at our store and each time he was an outstanding, courteous and gracious guest, thrilling his fans with stories of the comic book business and impressing us all with his dedication to his craft. He is truly one of the “Masters” of comic book art.

Next chapter: We suggest a drama program at Cassy’s school.

Part One Hundred & Thirty Five

My wife, Mal, and I, brought Adam to college at The Boston Conservatory. We filled our minivan with a large portion of his possessions and helped him set up his dorm room that he shared with three other guys. The college was in the heart of Boston, and although I wouldn’t enjoy living there, Adam loved it. After spending most of his life in a very rural town in Massachusetts, he was excited about the many possibilities in a large city. Surprisingly, I wasn’t upset about Adam going away to college. I knew he could probably take care of himself and we had a close enough relationship that he knew he could come to us if he needed anything. Our only request was that he was to call us, collect if he needed to, at least once a week.

Our daughter, Cassy, was now involved in her freshman year at Laconia Christian School in Laconia, New Hampshire. She missed her friends from Massachusetts and she didn’t enjoy living in our small rented condo. She spent hours crying and almost begging us to let her go back to Massachusetts. We explained to her that we truly believed that this was where we were “meant to be.” We encouraged her to appreciate all that this new school had to offer, including a good after-school sports program for girls that featured volleyball, basketball and cheerleading.
Cassy had wanted to be a cheerleader since she was a very young girl and now she had the chance to do it. We all needed to make the best out of this new time in our lives.

We knew Cassy was sad that this school didn’t offer any Drama program, so Mal and I discussed the possibility of volunteering to start such a program. I felt confident that I could direct a school play and I knew that Mal and my sister Sharon could design the costumes. How difficult could this really be?

I met with the principal, Mr. Borchers, and explained that I felt there was a need for a drama program at the school. The school offered several sports programs but there were limited opportunities for students interested in “The Arts.” He told me that it had been tried before and that although the plays were good, not too many students seemed interested enough to continue doing plays. Usually there would only be a handful of girls interested and that made it too difficult to produce quality performances. I knew I had learned quite a bit about producing a play by watching my kids as they participated in plays throughout grade school and their community theatre involvement. I suggested that we produce the play “Annie” because it was a steady “crowd-pleaser” and since Cassy had been in it before, I could count on her help. I urged him to let me try it my way and assured him that I’d keep him informed of things as they developed. By the end of our conversation, I had convinced him to let me try it. Mr. Borchers gave me a phone number of another parent who had also volunteered her time if the school ever decided to produce a play. I called her and this was my first experience with Brenda Carney. Looking back, even though we had help from many parents, we couldn’t have done this play without her!

Next chapter: The audition process.

Part One Hundred & Thirty Six

Although Cassy would have preferred to be back in Massachusetts with all of her childhood friends, she agreed to make the best of the situation at the small private school in Laconia, New Hampshire. Cassy joined the girl’s volleyball team during the fall semester of her freshman year of high school. She had come from a school that offered no sports at all so she lacked the experience that most of the other players had. Also, since she was quite small (less than four feet ten inches) she was at a disadvantage. Still, she gave it her all. She attended every practice session and worked hard. Luckily, the girl’s volleyball coach, Laurie Haines, was willing to let every girl play in the actual volleyball games. This established a positive “work-reward” attitude for the players. Cassy knew she was being treated fairly.

Cassy found the course work at this new school to be pretty easy, especially coming from the very strict and serious education at The Imago School. She realized that she had been fully prepared for high school academics. She worked hard enough to get straight “A’s” in all of her classes.

Mal and I were willing, and eager, to volunteer our time at this school. We met with Cassy’s whole class to discuss possibilities for their big senior class trip. Many were surprised that we would want to discuss a trip that was four years away, (a lifetime away for teenagers) but we knew that, historically, students would usually wait until the last minute to decide on a class trip and there wouldn’t be enough time to raise whatever money was needed for it. Camping was always an inexpensive option, but after talking with the class, it was evident that they wanted something different. We suggested taking a Caribbean Cruise and the kids seemed to be excited about the possibility of this so we agreed to help them plan this trip, since we had been on dozens of cruises in the past. This seemed to be a group of fun-loving, well-behaved kids, who were willing to work hard to reach any goal set before them, and Mal and I were willing to help them.

I met with Brenda Carney, the other volunteer who offered her time to put on a play. We discussed the “positives” about producing “Annie.” There were lots of characters so we could allow anyone interested to actually be in the play. The play was “clean” and was acceptable subject matter for a conservative school’s involvement. It was also a play that Cassy had been in a few years before and she had played the title character of “Annie,” so I knew she’d be comfortable doing it again. We wouldn’t have to worry about the lead character and that would take some of the possible stress off of us as first-time directors. I don’t remember if we held auditions for the role of “Annie” but I do know that Cassy was right for this role for several reasons, one of course, was her small size.

The auditions for all of the other roles surprised us. We announced, through the weekly school publication, “The Newsline,” that the play was open for any students grades five through twelve. Brenda and I publicized the upcoming auditions and we personally urged several students to try out for the play, including Brian and Peter Groleau, Andrew Hare, and (Cassy’s boyfriend at the time) the incredibly shy Bryan Parys. We had been told that the school didn’t have much success when they attempted to produce plays in the past because there just wasn’t much interest there, so we had no idea what to expect this time around. Brenda and I were really surprised when we had nearly 60 kids audition for the play for either character roles or stage-crew! Out of an eligible student population of about 130 kids, almost half of them were interested in being a part of this play!

The auditions were great and it seemed quite simple to assign the parts to the “right” kids. Although some students who wanted the lead roles may have been disappointed that they didn’t get chosen, Brenda and I based the decisions on a combination of abilities displayed during the audition process, and physical appearance. If the kids were really tall, but the part called for a short person, they wouldn’t get that part. We eventually found appropriate parts for every student who wanted an “on-stage” role. Several of the students were satisfied being “back-stage” as stagehands and stage crew.

The principal of the school, Mr. Borchers, located a place for us to perform the play, since we had no auditorium on the school property. The “Christ Life Center” was an old theater that had been converted into a church in the downtown area of Laconia. All of the original theater seats had been removed on the first floor, but the original balcony was intact. The stage was small and there were no real “stage wing” areas to store changes of scenery or waiting performers. It wasn’t exactly perfect, but since it could seat over five hundred people and it was offered to us at no charge, we would make it work.

Once we had secured the location, I needed to fill out the contract with the owners of the play indicating the location of the production, the number of seats, and the proposed ticket price. All of these factors affect the fees that eventually get paid to the owners of the play. The royalty fee could be as high as $1000 for this play. After talking with some of the school’s staff, I got the impression that it we shouldn’t expect more than a hundred people to come to this play. I was further discouraged when I was told that I shouldn’t expect that people would actually pay to see this. It just hadn’t been done this way before. I knew that the school didn’t have any “extra” to spend on a big drama production and the businessman part of me wanted to this to be a money-making event so I strongly urged the school to continue to let me try this my way.

Knowing a little bit about human nature, I planned to get the parents and relatives to commit far in advance to attend this play by selling the tickets on a “first-come-first-served basis.” If they wanted a good seat, they’d have to buy the tickets right away. If the tickets had been given away for free and something else had come up on the night of the performance, or if the ticket-holder arrived home from work too tired, they would just not show up. Even though the tickets were going to be sold at a “bargain” price of only two dollars for students and senior citizens, and four dollars for everyone else, I knew that once the tickets were purchased, the people would come because they’d feel that the money would be wasted if they didn’t go to see the show. For many months before the performance, I carried around a large envelope of tickets and a seating chart, encouraging and pressuring people to buy tickets while good seats were still available. Three weeks before the show, we were completely sold out! But in the meantime, it was up to Brenda and me to make this play work.

Next chapter: The play and the school board.

Part One Hundred & Thirty Seven

Producing a large-scale musical is a lot of work, but it’s so much easier when there are people willing to volunteer to help. At Laconia Christian School, where Cassy was going for high school, there were several people willing to give up so much to make this play possible for the students. We had a dedicated group of mothers who created all of the costumes including Sally Perrino, Anne Glines, Zee Murphy, Jeanne Sample, Mal Howley, and my sister Sharon. These women worked many hours sewing costumes and scouring local thrift-stores for inexpensive clothes to use. Jane Jepsen volunteered to choreograph the play. My daughter Cassy also helped with the choreography, improving on the choreography she had performed in “Annie” a few years earlier. Cassy’s voice teacher, Carol Gellart, agreed to come and help with some vocal coaching.

Putting on a musical play requires musicians, or at least a solo pianist. Since this was a small school, an orchestra was out of the question. I didn’t even know anyone willing to play the piano! I don’t remember who it was (although I think it was the principal of the school) but someone recommended that I contact Nancy Cross, a member of a local church and a good piano player. After we explained what we’d need from her, Nancy agreed to play the piano for our production. Nancy intended to learn all of the music at home so she’d be ready by the time the rehearsals required the music but she worked full-time and seemed to be overwhelmed. Unfortunately, I think she underestimated the enormous amount of time that this commitment would require!

My daughter, Cassy, was involved in JV Basketball and Varsity Cheerleading at the same time that we were beginning to rehearse the play but she seemed prepared because the “lines” just came right back to her since she had played the title role of “Annie” a few years previous.

Brenda Carney tackled the position of director with energy and eagerly tried to prepare the cast with exercises designed to loosen them up and free them from inhibitions and shyness. It was clear to me, almost from the beginning, that Brenda was far more qualified to direct this play than I was. My job ended up being more of the business end of producing this play. As it turned out, this was a good thing, because I could not have done it all by myself.

Another aspect of putting on a play is the set design and scenery building, and since I barely know which end of a hammer to hold, I was thrilled when two parents stepped forward to volunteer to take over this important part. Belinda Simpson and Lyndel Jackman worked with nineteen students “behind the scenes” to build the sets and gather the necessary props. They also recruited the assistance of Al Jepsen to help out with the sets that needed a talented carpenter’s expertise. Belinda and Lyndel convinced several local businesses to donate the materials that they needed for the sets so it wouldn’t deplete our meager budget.

While the play rehearsals were in full swing, a school board member who was coming to the end of his multi-year term approached me to see if I’d be interested in taking his seat on the board. I thought I might have some skills that I could offer in this capacity so I applied for the position. The school board members reviewed my completed application, interviewed me and, with the condition that I become involved in a local church, allowed me to be a board member.

The board was made up of several people I knew, including my sister Sharon, my friend Barbara Foote, Tyler Simpson and Karen Fogg. The chairman of the school board was Jim Morel, the pastor of the Laconia Christian Fellowship, the church that owned the property the school buildings occupied. Also present at the school board meetings were Roger Allen, a volunteer in charge of finances, and David Borchers, the school principal, but these men did not have “voting” privileges. We may not all have been the most “qualified” people but we certainly all took this responsibility very seriously. This school was very important to all of us.

To satisfy my requirement to be involved in a local church, my family began to attend the services of Laconia Christian Fellowship that were held in the school gymnasium. We had “sampled” several other local churches in the area and hadn’t found “just the right place” but since my sister Sharon and her family, and several of our newly made friends attended Laconia Christian Fellowship we decided that this would be our “home church.” Although it wasn’t exactly the kind of church I was accustomed to, we were all welcomed by many in the congregation.

Next chapter: We decide to make our move to New Hampshire a “permanent”
thing.

Part One Hundred & Thirty Eight

After living in a small condo for almost six months, (and not enjoying it) we decided to start looking for a house to buy. Unfortunately, we still owned our home in Bolton, Massachusetts and a lot of our money was tied up in it. We decided to try to sell it.

We contacted a few local Massachusetts real estate agents and decided on a local woman who was friendly and serious about selling our house. We agreed on a commission, negotiated a shorter term for the exclusive “right to sell” and signed the brokerage contracts. Within eleven days we had an offer that we accepted. The potential buyers were from California and they had an expensive home that they needed to sell in order to buy our house but our agent talked with their agent and was assured that the house in California would sell very quickly. We were pretty excited that our house “sold” so fast. Our agent stopped marketing our house because we were all confident that the deal was certain to go through as agreed. A few weeks went by and our buyers still hadn’t gotten any offers on their house in California, so they lowered their “asking price” on it. A few more weeks passed, still with no offers, so they lowered the price again. Eventually, after we took our house off the market for almost two months, the asking price of the buyer’s house in California had been reduced so far that they no longer would qualify to buy our house. We learned a valuable lesson from this experience and from then on, we would keep marketing our home even if we had a signed contract, just in case the sale fell through.

Within a few days after we relisted our house, we had another full-price offer. The young couple loved the house although it seemed to us that this was an expensive purchase for first-time homebuyers. They hired an inexpensive home inspection company that they found on the Internet to do the inspection. This inspector was unprofessional and lazy and turned in a report with vague comments about the roof, appliances and heating system, stating that these items were seventeen years old, without mentioning that they were all still in very good condition. This made the buyers nervous and they asked to be released from the purchase agreement. We allowed them to cancel the purchase and within a couple of weeks we had another full-price offer.

The next couple had come to look at the house a couple of times and really loved it enough to sign a contract to purchase it. On one of their visits, Mal and I were there while they were looking and we noticed that their four-year old daughter was out of control, running around the house, opening drawers, and paying no attention to her parents’ plea for her to calm down. The mother was a former Olympic-hopeful swimmer, and although both of the parents loved our swimming pool, they were concerned that their kid would fall into the pool while they weren’t looking. We explained that the door from the house had a deadbolt lock, and then the child would need to walk across our large deck, go down a set of stairs, walk across part of the lawn, and go down two sets of stairs before she would be near the pool. It would be very difficult for the daughter to get to the pool area without the parents being aware of it. Despite our efforts to convince them that the daughter would probably be safe, they asked if we would let them cancel their agreement to buy our house, and we let them.

Our real estate agent assured us that she’d keep trying until she got the house sold for us. The real estate market was very strong and there were more buyers than sellers so home prices would continue to escalate making our house an even more attractive investment for someone.

Mal and I found a real estate agent in New Hampshire to show us some houses in the Laconia, New Hampshire area. We looked at cheap ranch-style homes and small “capes” but Mal fell in love with a beautiful reproduction of a farmhouse from 1790. Mal loves antiques and old houses while I like brand-new homes that don’t need constant upkeep. This house had the best of both worlds for us. Since it was only about five years old, everything was in great condition but it looked like the actual antique home that it was copied from. The owners had tried, unsuccessfully, to sell it a year earlier, for a little over $500,000 but the market in this part of New Hampshire was a bit slow at that time so they had just lowered the price to $429,000. This was still too high for me. I believed that I would also have a tough time trying to sell this house if we decided to move somewhere else because buyers who love antique homes aren’t necessarily interested in reproductions and most other buyers are interested in homes with a more modern style with larger kitchens, white walls, and a Jacuzzi tub in the master bathroom. Mal reluctantly agreed and we continued our search for a new home.

Our real estate agent in Massachusetts, doing her best to sell our house, asked if she could paint our master bedroom. It was painted a vivid burgundy color that Mal and I liked but it could “turn-off” potential buyers. She painted it with two coats of white paint and the next couple that came to look at the house made us another full-price offer. We nervously waited for the required home inspection and septic system test to be completed. We had been through some emotional ups and downs with the three previous buyers and we were hoping for a mutually satisfying conclusion. Things looked good but we would have to wait for almost sixty days to “close” the deal. In the meantime, our New Hampshire agent took us to see a house in Gilford, New Hampshire.

This house had been custom-built for an executive at a nearby company and the night before he had planned to move in he was “laid off” from the company. Part of his negotiated lay-off package was that the company had to buy the new house from him, so when we were shown the house, it was owned by the company and they were eager to sell it. Mal wasn’t excited about this house but I knew the moment I walked in that I wanted to buy this house. It was a brand-new, two-story colonial style, four bedroom, three-bathroom home with a partially finished basement with more space than we really needed. I liked the clean, white walls, nice white carpeting, and the wood floors in the kitchen, dining room and foyer. Mal just thought the house was boring with no character. I knew it would be easy to resell when it came time to move.

The company was asking $329,000 for the house, but sensing some eagerness to sell on their part, I offered $282,300. (Feel free to ask me about how I came to such an uneven price.) They accepted our offer but they insisted that we had to “close” within two weeks. I didn’t have the cash to pay for this house so I needed to get a very quick loan. I went to Laconia Savings Bank, and although I had no account with them and had never done any business with them, I asked them for a loan of $211,000. I explained that I was self-employed and all of my tax records were in storage in Massachusetts, so I couldn’t provide confirmation of my income. I told the loan officer that we owned a home (with no mortgage) in Massachusetts that was under agreement and that within three months it should be sold. I also explained that I’d need the money within a week. Eleven days later, we were moving into our new home. It was pretty amazing that, in that day and age, a bank loan officer would be so accommodating.

I made several trips in our Dodge Caravan with boxes of our fragile and personal things to the new house and hired a friend of a friend in the moving business to bring two twenty-six foot trucks of our stuff from the house in Bolton Massachusetts to our new home in New Hampshire.

Shortly after we moved in, the deal on our house in Massachusetts was finally completed. We used part of the money to pay off our loan on the New Hampshire house so that we were “debt-free” again. The house that we raised our children in was now just a memory but I didn’t have any regrets about selling it. The most difficult thing was realizing that we would now be living so far away from the many friends that we had made during our time in Massachusetts. Even though we were only one hundred miles away, we knew we wouldn’t be able to get together with our old friends very much. I also wouldn’t be visiting my comic book and collectible stores very often anymore. I was confident that the manager knew what he was doing so I wasn’t too worried. That would soon change.

Next chapter: My company manager must go!



Part One Hundred & Thirty Nine

I had moved most of my family to New Hampshire and we were now settled into our new home. Adam was busy enjoying his first year at The Boston Conservatory and we usually only heard from him once every few weeks. He invited us to attend a play in which he was asked to perform titled, “Savage In Limbo.” It was an honor for him to be asked because it was primarily a play for the senior students and Adam was only a freshman. He warned us that the language was a little rough and he didn’t want us to be shocked. We weren’t shocked. Adam had primarily performed in comedies or musicals in the past and it was refreshing to see him in a serious drama. His performance was excellent and, when it was over, a professor from the college came over to us and praised Adam for his strong performance.

Since I was now living over one hundred miles away from my two collectible stores I needed to trust that all of my employees would continue to act in an efficient and professional manner. I trusted my manager, Chris, to oversee everything and to lead the staff by word and example. Chris had been with me for almost ten years and I had always been impressed by his dedication to the business and his interest in keeping our customers happy. I had big plans for Chris to eventually take over the company while I was away. I even had him written into my personal will. I was shocked when things began to unravel at the Worcester store. The potential problem in my delegating so much responsibility is clear. The situation that developed was not unique, but nonetheless extremely disappointing. Changes had to be made.

During this same time period, Mal and I (and many other volunteers) were very busy getting ready to put on the big musical of “Annie” at the school that Cassy attended in New Hampshire. Our show had completely sold out three weeks before the performance but the owner of “The Christ Life Center” allowed us to sell a few more tickets for the balcony area of their building. These tickets sold quickly too.

As usual, two weeks before the actual performance, the play seemed doomed to be awful! Some kids still refused to learn their lines, several songs still needed work, some sets were still not built, and our pianist had to work at her full-time job and she couldn’t always make it to the rehearsals. By March 26th, 1999, the first day of the real performance, everybody pulled it all together and put on a really great show! The audience loved it and commented on what a great uniting event this was for the school. Remember, almost half of the entire school participated in this production!

Not everyone at the school was happy though. A couple of teachers complained that the play took too much time out of the students schedules and that some of the kids complained that putting on a play was much more work than they anticipated. I explained that by comparison to the athletic program, which only includes ten to fifteen students for any one sport, the play was actually less of a commitment of time and energy. Basketball and volleyball players practiced every weekday for several hours and then traveled in busses for hours to play in the out of town games, all at a great cost to the overall school budget. This play actually made a profit, which went back into the general school budget. I also explained that if the students came to the play rehearsals with all of their lines and songs memorized, there wouldn’t be as many stressful moments. We also had a complaint from a parent about a scene in the play where several characters pretended to smoke cigars. I realized that we just couldn’t please everybody. Overall though, almost everybody enjoyed the play. When the second performance ended, even the students who complained that it was too much work asked what play we were going to do next year because they wanted to be involved again!

Once the play was over, it was obvious that I still needed to deal with the situation at my store. After a concerted effort to fix the situation, I parted ways with the manager on April 1, 1999.

Next chapter: Now what was I going to do?! I need a new manager!