Thoughts About a 40th High School Reunion

As I was getting ready to leave for Providence, RI, for another gathering of independent booksellers, I received an e-mail about something I'd written about attending a 40th high school reunion. It's up on a Web site (http://www.chs1971.com/reunioninfo), but now I've added it here. I don't think it matters particularly where you went to high school: the reasons for going back are all pretty much the same. This reunion is for Columbia High School in Maplewood, NJ.

So I was asked to write something to encourage the Class of 1971 to show up at our 40th reunion. Fact is, I’m not too clear on that, and the reunion committee is doing just fine without me: I hear they’ve signed up nearly three hundred people who hope to attend.

I used to think that the best reason to attend a high-school reunion was to see how much progress everyone had made recovering from being teenagers. But that was before Facebook made it possible to feel like you’re spending eternity in your neighbor’s living room, complete with family photos and digitized accounts of summer vacations.

Of course, there is always the standard reason to attend a 40th reunion—to remember a simpler time when your knees were in good working order, and you worried about having enough money for Don’s instead of wringing your hands over the trade imbalance with China.

But here’s my reason for going—at least one of them. I want to be in a room crowded with people who know precisely what I know of a time and place that is becoming more difficult to remember in detail. Many of us have known each other since grammar school or junior high, and I want to be in a room with people who recall exactly how it looked when the street lamps came on during a November afternoon—who remember the rainbow glimmer of Christmas lights along South Orange Avenue, and the happiness of Saturdays watching a double feature at the Maplewood, and how exciting it was to be in school the day after the Beatles first appeared on Ed Sullivan.

I find the idea of that room comforting and joyous. I hope you do as well.

And here’s a final thought: Like many of you, I suspect, I’ve discovered that the wisdom ascribed to middle age is wildly overrated; life can still be just plain confusing; but this much I can say with some certainty. Live long enough to make it to your 40th high-school reunion and along the way you will find your portion of joy and sorrow, and the joy is sweeter if you can share it with old friends, and the sorrows are less burdensome.

I never thought about this so many years ago when my memories were being created. I do think about it now.

Reading For A Good Cause

On Saturday, November 13, at 7:30 p.m., I will be reading from my novel, Comeback Love, at the [words] Bookstore in Maplewood Village.

The bookstore is a remarkable place, and I hope people come out to support it. The owners of [words], Ellen and Jonah Zimiles, rescued the bookstore two years ago when it was about to go out of business. They now not only sell books, but use the store as a training facility to help people with autism learn retail job skills and move on to larger companies.

The Zimiles felt strongly about their cause: they have an autistic 14-year-old son. You can read more about their work at http://www.entrepreneur.com/magazine/entrepreneur/2010/may/206060.html

So please join us if you can. The store is located at 179 Maplewood Avenue. Hope to see you there.

Atlantic City Book Lunch

I just returned from Atlantic City, where the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association was holding a meeting. Along with a group of authors, I was invited to participate in NAIBA’s Movable Feast luncheon, where the writers move from table to table and talk about their books—in my case, my novel Comeback Love—with buyers and sellers from independent bookstores.

Of course, this speed-dating stuff was new to me, since I started dating before it was invented, and all speed-dating meant in my day was that your date turned to you not long after the evening was underway and said: “Take me home. Now!”

Talking to book buyers and booksellers was a lot more fun than that experience, and having a chance to talk to so many remarkable writers at the pre-luncheon and hearing about the books they were about to publish was a blast.

There was Adam Gopnik, T.J. English, M.T. Anderson, Chandra Hoffman, Jim Murphy, Téa Obreht, Lincoln Peirce, Darrin Strauss, Jay Varner, Larry Levin, Joyce Hinnefeld, Hazel Rowley, and probably some I'm leaving out—with regret—because I enjoyed hearing about their books.

All in all I felt lucky to be there, and I was certainly luckier than usual because I won a whole $29 playing blackjack—mainly because I had the good sense to leave the table after playing just three hands.

Joe Dee & the Starliters

Several years ago, I wrote a story about this NJ group, which enjoyed a brief popularity, but was remarkably influential. A couple of people have e-mailed to ask about the story so click here or the picture above if you'd like to read it.
Enjoy.

Old Friends

Been running around today, and in the middle of it all I re-learned one of the pleasures of publishing a new book: you hear from a lot of old friends. It was great. Hope to hear from more of them.

My Novel, Comeback Love

Comeback Love will be available on November 6! Read about it right here.

A New Look

So now there is a new look for my blog, which you can read here or on my Web site, petergolden.com. Also, if you'd like to e-mail, just click on this link.

Time is getting close for the publication of my new novel, Comeback Love. Over the next couple of weeks I'll be going to Atlantic City and Providence, Rhode Island, to talk with groups of booksellers. Sounds like an adventure.

It's been a busy few weeks, and I got some other good news as well. Final plans for publication in the fall of 2011 for O Powerful Western Star, a history I wrote of the Cold War. Took me over five years. Glad it's done. Glad it's being published.

I've recently completed another novel about the New Jersey suburbs, which is waiting patiently to be rewritten, but first I have to finish a book proposal for my agent. Interesting topic, but who knows if anyone will be interested. We shall see.