THE LONG WAY AROUND TO BED

Man, I started off to bed a half an hour ago and I’m
still sitting here staring at the screen.

Had a crazy busy day at work today. The weather was
cool and dank, not rainy. Just miserable enough to send
a horde of folks in to buy books or DVDs and we were
down one cashier who called out sick. While we had
several stockers about none of them are cashier trained,
so they pretty much stuck to Info while I ran up to the cash
line when needed.


We had the author William Martin in today to autograph and
talk about his latest book and I missed the talk part because
of the chaos. But I did get a chance to speak with him afterward.
He’s been in the store before and we talked during those visits
and he remembers my name and the conversations, which are
usually about the latest discovery I’ve made in my genealogy
research. So I did get a chance today to tell him about the relative
John Adams defended in a murder trial and he signed a copy of
his book for me.

“To Bill, who’s always full of stories.”

Well, I’m glad he didn’t use another word than stories!


Ok, let’s try this sleeping thing again…

ARRRRRRRRRGH!

Man, I hate when this happens.

Had one of those days at work. A lot of customers and
not enough staff really since they're watching payroll.
I must have been wound up tighter than I thought because
I came home by 8, nuked a dinner, fell asleep right after
eating and woke up nearly 5 hours later as -yech- Conan
O'Brien came on.

I had plans for writing tonight both genealogy wise and
Camelot wise, as well as doing rp. Pffffffffffffffft!

Ah well, at least I woke up and got out the Happy
Birfenday to Ladybug.

Oh, Ladybug! If you're reading this .....


HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

And now, off to bed I go....

TAKE ONE BLOG AND CALL ME IN THE MORNING

Just a quick one before bed. I sort of got away from
posting as much here as I used to so I'm trying to remedy it.

Finished and posted the second Camelot story of the week. I
hope people liked them. Most of the feedback I get lately is
from ladybug, snooks and the PoD but there's not as much
on the list anymore. Although the "Rumblings" post did get
some come to think of it now.

I also posted a short John Bates story to the old BD board
because I wanted to make an obvious pun on a char name.

Genealogy blog keeps going although I am a bit behind there
too.

And rp is up and down. We had several newcomers arrive the
last week or two and hopefully they'll stick.

And now, to bed.

FIRST KNIGHTS

This is the book that started it all.
I must've been around 8 when my folks bought it for me because
they bought it as the Stop & Shop in Dorchester on Gallivan Blvd.
There were three books, actually. One of the others was “Hans

Brinker and the Silver Skates”. I can’t recall the third one, but

this is the only one of the three I still have some 50 years later.

Its age shows, physically. The binding's loose and frayed and

there’s some red crayon on the cover. Some of the black and white

illustrations inside show where I traced them with a pencil so that

the carbon paper underneath would copy the image to the notebook

paper beneath that.

The first edition was published in 1924 but this one is the third

edition dated 1956, which would confirm the year I think it was

given to me.

From this book, I dove into mythology. The librarian at the

Codman Square Library steered me to the “Age of Chivalry” in

Bulfinch’s Mythology and I devoured the whole book. As I got

older I read any books I could find on ancient and medieval history

and I still have quite a few of them that I’ve bought over the years

within easy reach as I type this. I also have quite a few Arthurian

novels and nonfiction books on the subject. And I've seen nearly

every movie or tv show ever made about Arthur and his knights.

It sparked a lifelong love of history and reading that led me to a
college degree in History and later in life nearly 18 years as a

bookseller. But this was the first. This was the one that got me

hooked on Camelot and history for life!

I wonder how many people’s lives have been shaped by something

they read as a child?