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 196
“The Senior Class Cruise:
The Final Chapter.”
The students in my daughter’s high school
senior class were really exceptional young adults. They were polite,
considerate, and they cared about each other. For the most part, they obeyed
the rules that the school had set. However, one young man struggled with an
addiction to cigarettes.
If any student was observed smoking, they’d
be suspended from the school. If my memory serves me correctly, they might be
suspended even if they smoked cigarettes at home. The rule was in place so that
the students would carefully consider the consequences before they began
smoking. Unfortunately, that didn’t stop Cassandra’s classmate from smoking. We
spoke with Jake (not his real name) and warned him that if he was caught
breaking the rules about smoking while he was on the senior class trip, he
could be suspended from school and that could affect his ability to attend the
upcoming graduation with his class.
Jake expressed his serious concern that he
couldn’t possibly avoid smoking for the five days of the trip. We told him we
understood but we’d still need to enforce the rule. One of the chaperones who
had smoked cigarettes for decades before he quit, spent some deep one-on-one
time with Jake to help him get through this difficult situation. Jake protested
at first but he realized that he needed help. The chaperone taught Jake about the
concept of “consequential thinking.” Decisions shouldn’t be made without
thinking of the consequences of our actions. For some, this may seem obvious,
but for others (especially young people) this isn’t quite as natural.
Over the course of the trip, there were some
tearful moments and some loving encouragement for Jake. As far as we know, he
was able to resist the temptation to smoke for the duration of the class trip.
Several weeks later, the senior class
participated in “Senior Day” at the school. This is a short program for the
seniors to impart some of their wisdom to the younger students. The
soon-to-be-graduating seniors sat at long tables at the front of the gymnasium
and answered questions from the audience of freshmen, sophomores, and juniors.
When asked, “What was your favorite school event?”, several students declared
that the cruise was at the top of their list. They learned about working
towards a long-term goal (raising and saving the money needed to pay for the
trip) and they learned to enjoy new experiences.
They were asked all sorts of other questions
and all of the seniors seemed to have some good thoughts to share. But for me,
the coolest wisdom given to the audience was when Jake shared the importance of
consequential thinking.
