THE ROOM DOWNSTAIRS

Last night, August 19th was the first booksigning for ENTANGLED. My youngest daughter, Maya, assisted me and brought my 5 yo grand-daughter with her. This was an especially nostalgic event. It took place at my old high school, now the town municipal building. As I mixed and spoke to folks while signing books (busy trying to focus on the signing and get the names spelled right and not mix up their books) I had another of those moments that happen a lot lately: I kept feeling the presence of the young girl in the room downstairs. That’s the classroom where I met Janis more than half a century ago. The room downstairs 2 floors below the library we were in. The room where this petite young girl dropped into my orbit and turned my life into something especial.

Some of the folks who attended that night also went to school here with Janis and me. (Gene, Roger, and Fred.) For a couple of them it was their first time back inside their small high school since graduating in 1964. I tried avoiding the topic of the room downstairs with my old schoolmates, but it demanded my attention and I brought it up to the crowd. I consider that moment in my life to be one profound example of how life has it’s way with us, and changes us in unique ways. Here I was, nearly 75 years old, in the same building where I met Janis, and here were many of our friends and classmates. But, most importantly, here I was with our daughter and our 5 yo grandchild, Brinley who was enthralled (but not sure what all the hullabaloo was all about) with the whole affair and moved quickly into the children’s section where she remained most of her time.

My sisters, Cathi and Sonia attended as usual. And my cousin, Bobby. It always feels good to have my family with me. And many friends! I also heard from a friend I knew from my work in Child Protective Services. Shawn attended the signing from her home in New York via Zoom! What a nice surprise, thanks to Nancy, the librarian. (Holy Crap, I’m on Zoom.) We stay in touch through Facebook. Also attending were friends who were staff at the summer camp segment of the year-round camping program, these people, one of them a former camper, are the kind of folks any parent would be proud and happy to have in their children’s life. Camp was character building. One camper wrote on FB that her experience at camp saved her life. And these friends – these staff – are a sample of the character building/child oriented program that hundreds – thousands of children learned from. I’m proud to have them in my life as well. In addition, the surprise of the evening for me was an old friend of my mother’s (Joyce) who ran the Headstart program that I worked in after getting out of the military in 1968. She got me started volunteering in her classroom. I left after that first day high and strangely grateful for the experience. I loved it. And wondered how I could work in this field of early childhood education. Well, I was hired as a teacher and ran my own classroom. This experience sent me off on a life career in services to families and children. Joyce has attended book signings for each of my books. She always shows up. We hugged and talked. She whispered to me, “Bobby, do you know how old I am?” She smiled a big joyful smile that took me back to 1968 in her classroom of 4-5 yo kids, “I’m 94.”

So, later at home, collapsing on my bed, I was flooded with memories, all of them proudful, grateful, and sweet.

And the room downstairs? Well, the entire interior of the old high school has been renovated. Our old classrooms do not exist as they were in my memory. However, in my memory that one room downstairs remains exactly as it was that morning in 1961.