Secret Origins
Another blast from the past, courtesy of Google. In the summer of 2004, I wrote an article celebrating the 20th anniversary of the comics store where I spent the better part of my growing-up years in Barre, VT. It was published in Burlington, VT’s Seven Days, the alt-weekly newspaper that published my very first professional work (a review of a Sex Pistols reunion show) in 1996.
7D wasn’t interested in just another “local business survives two decades” story, so they asked me to contribute my reminiscences of how I became a comics fan and what an influence the proprietor, Mark Patterson, had on my life. I eagerly accepted the challenge, which gave me the opportunity to add about about 50% more schmaltz to the piece than originally planned. It’s sappy, it’s highly sentimental and it’s one of my favorite things I’ve ever done.
image © Mark Patterson
My Dad
Today marks my dad’s last day of work, after 13 years as Barre City’s clerk/treasurer and approximately 87 years of full-time employment, during which he never called in sick and walked uphill to and from work in blinding snowstorms every day.
Rich just sent me a link to a really great article that our hometown paper ran on him today.
The man is an absolute machine, a champion of the people, and I hope to be just like him someday.
(And by that, I mean retired.)
Congratulations, Dad. I love you.
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