A brief introduction:
My name is Paul Howley, owner
of the Eisner Award winning pop culture collector’s store known as “That’s
Entertainment” in Worcester, Massachusetts and a second store in Fitchburg,
Massachusetts. Some people have called me the “luckiest man in the comic book
business.” (I’m not) My stores have been around for over thirty years and it’s
been a long and interesting combination of events and people that have brought
these stores to this current place. It is not my intent to boast or brag about
my store or my life. I just want to tell you my story. In many instances, my
wife remembers things a little differently, but this is the truth as I remember
it.
The current cast of
characters:
Paul Howley: age 48
Mal Howley: age 48
Adam Howley: my son, age 21
Cassy Howley: my daughter,
age 17
MY LIFE WITH COMIC BOOKS: THE
HISTORY OF A COMIC SHOP-Part 194
In March of 2002, Brenda, the drama teacher
at my daughter’s school, chose to put on a musical play titled, “The Truth
About Cinderella.” I had never heard of this play but it didn’t matter because
I wasn’t very involved in this production. I wasn’t needed to help with the
preparation in any way so my only involvement was to oversee the ticket sales. I
was no longer on the school board but I was very busy organizing my daughter’s
senior class trip. The class had chosen to go on a cruise and for the past
three and a half years they were saving their money so that they could afford
to go on this trip. We had been raising money by running the concession stand
at nearly every home sporting event and we had a very successful “Family Fun
Night” at the school that had a meatball sandwich dinner, a live auction of
donated items, and live musical entertainment provided by members of the senior
class. The event raised several thousand dollars and the money was evenly split
up among the senior students to make the cruise more affordable.
With twenty-three students going on this
trip, I knew we’d need lots of adult chaperones to be sure everyone obeyed the
“rules” (although this group of students was abnormally well-behaved!) and to
keep everyone safe. We put out the word that we were looking for responsible
adults to come on this cruise and, even though they had to pay for their cruise
and all of their own travel arrangements, we had more than enough adults step
forward to come along! We ended up with eleven chaperones; enough for at least
one adult per cabin.
As the departure date for the class trip
neared, I needed to make arrangements for all of the different modes of travel
including: cars, bus, planes, and the cruise ship. We also investigated the
kinds of activities and tours we wanted the students to have a chance to
experience.
The morning of our trip, we left the
Laconia, New Hampshire area very early in the morning. We arrived at the US
Airways terminal at the Manchester airport nearly two hours before the
scheduled time of our flight’s departure. When we got to the check-in desk we
were surprised that it was not open for business yet. By the time the US Air
employee arrived, we only had about an hour to get everyone checked in. The
rude and snippy employee seemed to be deliberately moving very slowly and the
check-in process was taking far too long. When I went to the head of the line
and asked him what was taking so long, he informed me (rudely) that there was a
good chance he wouldn’t have time to get everyone checked in! After I (probably
rudely) suggested that since we were all here very early, and US Airways should
have known how many people were booked on this flight, perhaps the company
should have had adequate help here. Not
surprisingly, this seemed to make him move even slower. By the time the last
student was checked in, many of us had to actually run to our gate to board the
plane before it took off! We felt bad for the dozens of passengers that were
still left in the line with the slow, rude employee.
Interestingly, several of the students had
never flown on an airplane before. Some had not ever travelled outside of New
England. It was an uneventful flight and the time passed quickly because most
of the students were excited about the trip and they were enjoying the
opportunity to spend this time together. Once we landed, we were struck by the
warmth of the Florida sun. It was a nice change from the normal chill of New
Hampshire. We all boarded the Carnival Cruiseline bus and headed for the Port
of Miami where the Carnival Fascination ship was docked. Most of the people in
our group had not been on a cruise before so they were surprised at how huge
the ship really was. The Fascination was built in 1994 so it was still in
almost brand-new condition. The ship was 855 feet long and 10 stories tall and
it would have 2600 passengers and nearly 1000 crew members.
It took a while for the large group of us to
get checked-in at the Carnival Cruiselines and when we were done, we all headed
to the Lido Deck buffet.
Next chapter: Bon Voyage!
