How I became a writer Part I

Title: How I became a writer

Part I

I grew up poor...at least for an American.  If I wanted to play the video game Pong I had to go to Grandma’s house and if I wanted time on the Atari 2600, I had to go to my friend Kenny’s house.  He lived several blocks away and Grandma lived even further.  I just couldn’t go over and “play” games at his house.  Kenny also had something called a Beta tape player, which played MOVIES...IN YOUR HOME!!  I couldn’t believe it!!  I watched Star Wars eleven times at his house!  His parents were smart though and made us go outside to play too, so we spent hours playing in his backyard.

At home there was little to do than play with toys.  We lived above a bar, a major electric company was in our small backyard and stores were our neighbors.  There were no kids next door.  The power company had a keen parking lot that was awesome to ride bikes around in!  When Mom wasn’t at work, she read to us!  She read us all the Narnia books, the Little House on the Prairie series, and sundry other works.  We (my brother and I) begged her to read us the unabridged version of Swiss Family Robinson and to her surprise we enjoyed it!  She was a great reader!  She read us the Bible too!  I’ll never forget the thrill of hearing the story of Esther for the first time!

But Mom was smart and eventually made us read for ourselves!  She read the first book of the Hardy Boys to us and then said told me I had to read them for myself.  I did just that!  I read so many of them!  Mom, still read us bigger books, but now a whole new world was open to me!  I moved on from the Hardy Boys (thanks to our local library) to Encyclopedia Brown!  My Grandma Lane bought me a boxed set of them and I was so happy!  I wanted to be a detective when I grew up and even would draw a character with the title “Daring Detectives!”  It was probably misspelled but that is what I wrote.  I don’t remember if it was comic book concept or what the deal was, I just remembered I liked detectives.  At some point, Grandma Lane bought us a small thirteen inch black and white TV and I learned to like other professions.  I liked Cowboys, (the Lone Ranger), cool guys (I liked Happy Days), Space Captains (I liked Star Trek), but I never lost my love of reading.  My brother and I pooled our money and bought an Atari set for the low price of $146 dollars (I’m actually not sure what the final sum was but that number sticks in my head).  Even with TV and video games, I still loved reading.

Mom, would take us to the downtown library and it was wonderful.  Richard and I would walk up to the front desk with stacks of books (I think one time one of us had twenty) and my mom asked nervously about a limit.  The lady smiled and said, “No limit!”  I was so happy!  As an adult now though, I wonder if Mom was nervous because we were poor and she was afraid of the infamous “Library Fine.” 

One of my best memories is when we lived over the bar and we lost power in the winter.  Mom threw a blanket over the table and we put blankets and pillows underneath.  Then we dragged in piles of books.  We must have used a flashlight or something, I really don’t remember, but I was so happy!  It is one of my favorite memories.

When Mom took a job for a church friend, Bev, at an apartment complex, Richard and I found out there was a library a few miles away.  Since we were older, we were allowed to walk to the library.  That made sense in the early 80s and no one ever bothered us but I don’t know if we lived in 2019 if Mom would have let us do that.  Anyway, those were my favorite trips.  When I was dating my wife our second date was a walk to the library (we didn’t have a car and were poor college kids).  (Our first date was passing out tracts about Jesus on the streets of Binghamton at nighttime!  I’m such a romantic!)  Gail and I also visited a library in Canada on her honeymoon!  (It’s not as bad as all that!  That was before Google and I didn’t want to buy a map of Saint Catharines!) 

I don’t think you can be a writer of fiction without being a reader first.  Maybe you can but I use to love reading.  I don’t do it as much anymore because I have a lot of things to do but I always enjoy taking a break with a new book from a favorite author!