My Life With Comic Books Part 204

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 18

 

MY LIFE WITH COMIC BOOKS: THE HISTORY OF A COMIC SHOP:  Part #204

 

   In June of 2002 we had a lot going on. We sold our home in Gilford, New Hampshire, rebuilt our cottage in Alton Bay, and we decided to move to Florida while Cassy attended Palm Beach Atlantic University. But at this moment, the most important thing was Cassy’s high school graduation from Laconia Christian School.

   Although we could only invite a few people to the actual graduation ceremony, we invited many relatives and friends to Cassy’s graduation party. Uncles, aunts, cousins, neighbors, classmates, and friends were coming... some from very far away! We were especially honored that our good friends, Gary and Peggy Walker, were coming all the way from Nashville, Tennessee to the party!

   We hadn’t seen Gary and Peggy for a few years but they’d always been special friends. We’ve known them since we worked for them in the mid-1970s and we kept in touch as often as possible.

   Mal and my sister Sharon had all of the details for the party finished and my brother-in-law Greg took care of setting up the chairs and other stuff outside for the party. It all seemed to go together very smoothly.

   The actual graduation ceremony was quite nice. The principal of the school, David Borchers, cared very much about the students and he made the graduation very relevant and personal. This particular senior class meant a lot to me too, and not just because my daughter was in it. These past four years saw significant changes in these young people as they matured and I was fortunate to be around to see it.

   During the ceremony the school choir sang some songs and Cassy was featured. Seamus O’Brien, Dwayne Currier, and Cassy each gave a “message” to their classmates while I sat in the audience nervously awaiting my turn to speak.

   Here’s a video clip of Cassy and the choir singing one of the songs:

 

   Shortly after this song, Cassy gave me a nice introduction. But she threw me for a loop as she introduced me as Dr. Paul Howley! Most of the people in the audience didn't know me at all so I would need to let them know I was not a doctor.
Next chapter: My message to the graduates.

My Life With Comic Books Part 196

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.

My Life With Comic Books: Part # 195

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 195

  

   After our entire group of Cassandra’s senior classmates and the chaperones boarded the cruise ship, we all met upstairs on the Lido deck to eat at the lunch buffet. We organized a meeting in my stateroom for everyone to get together to go over the “rules” of conduct.

   When we originally booked the cabins for our daughter’s senior class trip cruise, we knew that we needed to keep the expenses low so that all of the students could afford to go on the trip. We booked the most inexpensive cabins available; inside cabins on a lower deck of the ship. Mal and I paid for our own accommodations and we booked a very large suite so that we’d have space to have meetings of the whole class in our room. Once everyone was clear on what was expected of the students as far as behavior goes, we all headed out in small groups to explore the huge ship.

 

   While we knew the students quite well and we knew they were mostly decent, responsible young-adults, we didn’t want the close proximity of alcohol and casino gambling to be too tempting for any of them. One of the rules for the trip was that students must stay together in groups of at least three students. That way, they’d be accountable for each other’s behavior. When our group was on-shore there would always be an adult chaperone with the students, but while on-board the ship, the students could be together without supervision. This worked out nicely. We did, however, need to speak with two of the boys regarding their interest in flirting with some of the non-classmates on the ship.

   As a group, with input from the students and the chaperones, we agreed that all of the students needed to be in their staterooms by 1:00AM. Activities on cruiseships usually end around 3:00AM but we wanted everyone to be rested and eager to start each day. We had quite a lot planned for them.

   On the first night, we all met up in the assigned dining room for dinner where we had several large tables reserved for our group. We decided that we would mix things up by switching the seating each night so that the students would get to spend time with other classmates over the course of the cruise. There are hundreds of choices of food items on cruises and we encouraged the group to experiment by trying foods they’ve never had the chance to try before. Lobster, escargot, filet mignon, duck, vichyssoise, gazpacho, New Zealand spring lamb, sushi, and more. There were also lots of great-tasting deserts including cherries jubilee, baked Alaska, crème brulee, and the most popular desert of all…warm chocolate melting cake! (Did I mention the warm chocolate melting cake?)

   Dinner on a cruise ship can be a long process. If you eat in the main dining room your dinner will consist of several courses. There are appetizers and salads. There are a variety of soups. Then comes the entrée, followed by desserts. (Did I tell you about the warm chocolate melting cake?) It’s not unusual for the entire dinner to take an hour and a half. Of course, there are several other quick service locations around the ship to get other foods if you don’t want to spend a long time in the dining room. But, the purpose of this senior class trip was for the students to get to spend time together as a group, so we opted for dinner in the dining room each night.

   After dinner our exploration of the huge ship continued and at 9:00 PM until one of the chaperones announced that he was going to bed. He was accustomed to getting up very early each morning but he usually went to sleep early at night.

   Um…no. Sorry, I know we’re all tired from a very long day of travel but we all need to do our job as chaperones to ensure the safety of the students. As exhausted as he was, he persevered and was a great help for the rest of the trip.

   Anyway, since this isn’t meant to just be a detailed description of the entire cruise, suffice it to say, we had lots of fun together. Over the next few days we rented motor scooters, toured Key West, snorkeled in Cozumel, Mexico, did some shopping, saw some shows, and relaxed at a warm beach. Through it all, the students were respectful, grateful, and well-behaved. Well…almost all of them.

Next chapter: Consequential thinking.

  

My Life With Comic Books: Part # 182

A brief introduction:

My name is Paul Howley. Some people have called me the "luckiest man in the comic book business" but that all changed as of January 9th 2001, when our son, Adam Howley, died.

The current cast of characters:
Paul Howley: age 46
Mal Howley: age 46
Adam Howley: my son, age 21
Cassy Howley: my daughter, age 17

MY LIFE WITH COMIC BOOKS: THE HISTORY OF A COMIC SHOP-Part 182


I met my daughter Cassandra at her voice lesson one day during her junior year of high school. Her voice teacher, Dona Lynn Curry, was an experienced singer who travelled around the world in various singing groups for several years. For some reason, she felt the urge to move from south Florida to the “Lakes Region” area of New Hampshire and she began teaching voice lessons. My daughter learned quite a lot from Dona Lynn including vocal control and vocal performance techniques. Dona Lynn had put together a group of singers from several area churches and she called it “One Voice.” This group put on a fun Christmas program each year at a local school auditorium.

Dona Lynn asked me if I’d be willing to donate some money to the One Voice group so that they could purchase some costumes for the next Christmas program. I was happy to help her out with this. Shortly, she would help me.

As the snow began to melt and the ground thawed in New Hampshire, we realized we needed to make some decisions for Adam’s upcoming burial. We talked with the management at several local cemeteries to find out which place seemed best for us. We settled on Union Cemetery, the one that allowed plantings by the gravesite. Mal and I picked out a cemetery plot and ordered a black marble headstone from Laconia Memorial to be engraved with Adam’s “information.” We decided to have the happy and sad “theatre masks” engraved on the stone so that future generations could know how much Adam loved theatre. The engraver wanted thirty days to complete the headstone but I really wanted the headstone to be at the gravesite in time for the June 2nd burial ceremony so he agreed to get this done for us.

We asked our friend, Eric Robinson, if he’d be willing to speak at the burial and he accepted the task. We knew he’d communicate a meaningful message to anyone who would come.

As the school year came to an end we were surprised and honored that the senior class of Laconia Christian School dedicated their yearbook to us! It read:

“Dedication to Paul and Mal Howley:
Since they came to this area two and a half years ago, the Howleys have proved themselves true friends of Laconia Christian School.
Their constant help with fundraising activities, attendance at nearly every sporting event, help with the drama productions, Mr. Howley’s leadership on the school board, and countless other instances of behind-the-scenes aid have improved this school immeasurably.

Therefore, in memory of their son Adam, a good friend and brother who went to the Lord on January 9, 2001, the senior class would like to dedicate this yearbook to Mr. and Mrs. Paul and Mal Howley.”

As the date of the burial got closer, as we expected, it saddened us even more because we knew this would be the final “chapter” of Adam’s earthly life.

My Life With Comic Books: Part # 136

The current cast of characters:
Paul Howley: age 44
Mal Howley: my wife
Adam Howley: my son, age 19
Cassy Howley: my daughter, age 14

MY LIFE WITH COMIC BOOKS: THE HISTORY OF A COMIC SHOP-Part 136

Although Cassy would have preferred to be back in Massachusetts with all of her childhood friends, she agreed to make the best of the situation at the small private school in Laconia, New Hampshire. Cassy joined the girl’s volleyball team during the fall semester of her freshman year of high school. She had come from a school that offered no sports at all so she lacked the experience that most of the other players had. Also, since she was quite small (less than four feet ten inches) she was at a disadvantage. Still, she gave it her all. She attended every practice session and worked hard. Luckily, the girl’s volleyball coach, Laurie Haines, was willing to let every girl play in the actual volleyball games. This established a positive “work-reward” attitude for the players. Cassy knew she was being treated fairly.

Cassy found the course work at this new school to be pretty easy, especially coming from the very strict and serious education at The Imago School. She realized that she had been fully prepared for high school academics. She worked hard enough to get straight “A’s” in all of her classes.

Mal and I were willing, and eager, to volunteer our time at this school. We met with Cassy’s whole class to discuss possibilities for their big senior class trip. Many were surprised that we would want to discuss a trip that was four years away, (a lifetime away for teenagers) but we knew that, historically, students would usually wait until the last minute to decide on a class trip and there wouldn’t be enough time to raise whatever money was needed for it. Camping was always an inexpensive option, but after talking with the class, it was evident that they wanted something different. We suggested taking a Caribbean Cruise and the kids seemed to be excited about the possibility of this so we agreed to help them plan this trip, since we had been on dozens of cruises in the past. This seemed to be a group of fun-loving, well-behaved kids, who were willing to work hard to reach any goal set before them, and Mal and I were willing to help them.

In the meantime, I met with Brenda Carney, the other volunteer who offered her time to put on a play. We discussed the “positives” about producing “Annie.” There were lots of characters so we could allow anyone interested to actually be in the play. The play was “clean” and was acceptable subject matter for a conservative school’s involvement. It was also a play that Cassy had been in a few years before and she had played the title character of “Annie,” so I knew she’d be comfortable doing it again. We wouldn’t have to worry about the lead character and that would take some of the possible stress off of us as first-time directors. I don’t remember if we held auditions for the role of “Annie” but I do know that Cassy was right for this role for several reasons, one of course, was her small size.

The auditions for all of the other roles surprised us. We announced, through the weekly school publication, “The Newsline,” that the play was open for any students grades five through twelve. Brenda and I publicized the upcoming auditions and we personally urged several students to try out for the play, including David and Peter Groleau, Andrew Hare, and (Cassy’s boyfriend at the time) the incredibly shy Bryan Parys. We had been told that the school didn’t have much success when they attempted to produce plays in the past because there just wasn’t much interest there, so we had no idea what to expect this time around. Brenda and I were really surprised when we had nearly 60 kids audition for the play for either character roles or stage-crew! Out of an eligible student population of about 130 kids, almost half of them were interested in being a part of this play!

The auditions were great and it seemed quite simple to assign the parts to the “right” kids. Although some students who wanted the lead roles may have been disappointed that they didn’t get chosen, Brenda and I based the decisions on a combination of abilities displayed during the audition process, and physical appearance. If the kids were really tall, but the part called for a short person, they wouldn’t get that part. We eventually found appropriate parts for every student who wanted an “on-stage” role. Several of the students were satisfied being “back-stage” as stagehands and stage crew.

The principal of the school, Mr. Borchers, located a place for us to perform the play, since we had no auditorium on the school property. The “Christ Life Center” was an old theater that had been converted into a church in the downtown area of Laconia. All of the original theater seats had been removed on the first floor, but the original balcony was intact. The stage was small and there were no real “stage wing” areas to store changes of scenery or waiting performers. It wasn’t exactly perfect, but since it could seat over two hundred and fifty people and was offered to us at no charge, we would make it work.

Once we had secured the location, I needed to fill out the contract with the owners of the play indicating the location of the production, the number of seats, and the proposed ticket price. All of these factors affect the fees that eventually get paid to the owners of the play. The royalty fee could be as high as $1000 for this play. After talking with some of the school’s staff, I got the impression that it we shouldn’t expect more than a hundred people to come to this play. I was further discouraged when I was told that I shouldn’t expect that people would actually pay to see this. It just hadn’t been done this way before. I knew that the school didn’t have any “extra” to spend on a big drama production and the businessman part of me wanted to this to be a money-making event so I strongly urged the school to continue to let me try this my way.

Knowing a little bit about human nature, I planned to get the parents and relatives to commit far in advance to attend this play by selling the tickets on a “first-come-first-served basis.” If they wanted a good seat, they’d have to buy the tickets right away. If the tickets had been given away for free and something else had come up on the night of the performance, or if the ticket-holder arrived home from work too tired, they would just not show up. Even though the tickets were going to be sold at a “bargain” price of only two dollars for students and senior citizens, and four dollars for everyone else, I knew that once the tickets were purchased, the people would come because they’d feel that the money would be wasted if they didn’t go to see the show. For many months before the performance, I carried around a large envelope of tickets and a seating chart for each of the two performances, encouraging and pressuring people to buy tickets while good seats were still available. Three weeks before the show, we were completely sold out! But in the meantime, it was up to Brenda and me to make this play work.

Next chapter: The play and the school board.

My Life With Comic Books: Part # 130

The current cast of characters:
Paul Howley: age 44
Mal Howley: my wife
Adam Howley: my son, age 18
Cassy Howley: my daughter, age 14

MY LIFE WITH COMIC BOOKS: THE HISTORY OF A COMIC SHOP-Part 130

“We make a “crazy” decision.”

My son, Adam, was preparing for his high school graduation from Lexington Christian Academy and he still wasn’t sure which college he was going to attend in the fall. He had been offered a decent academic scholarship for the University of Cincinnati but he had not yet been accepted into the musical theatre program. He would need to audition for the theatre department and his confidence had been shaken because of a few unsuccessful recent college auditions. This university was recognized as one of the top schools in the country for theatre and Adam was seriously considering going there even if he didn’t make it into the theatre department. He figured that once he was there, he could keep trying until he got into this exclusive department. He was also offered a generous theatre scholarship to attend Eastern Nazarene College in Massachusetts, based on his credentials as a good student and actor as well as a good recommendation from his high school drama teacher, Chris Greco. Adam wanted a change and really didn’t want to go to a private Christian college, so he declined the offer. He also didn’t want to be separated from his girlfriend, Meridith, who had already been accepted at The Boston Conservatory in Boston, Massachusetts. With a last-minute audition and a recommendation from Adam’s private voice teacher (who was also a teacher at The Boston Conservatory) Adam was accepted into this highly acclaimed school. When we asked Adam how much the tuition was, he admitted that he had no idea. It never occurred to him that it might be more than we could afford. Our agreement with both of our children was that we would pay for half of their college expenses and the other half would be their responsibility. Any scholarships that they earned would be deducted from their half of the cost of the tuition. This seemed fair to us because any scholarships would be the result of their own hard work. Unfortunately, since Adam had waited so long to apply to The Boston Conservatory, there were no scholarships offered to him. He was just to consider himself lucky to be accepted.

My sister Sharon’s daughter, Emily, was graduating from a small, private Christian school in Laconia, New Hampshire a week or two before Adam’s graduation and we were invited to attend the graduation ceremony.

Emily was supposed to be born a few weeks before Adam but since Adam was born seven weeks prematurely, he was born first. Emily and Adam ended up in a good-natured “competition” during their youth. Who would walk first? Who would talk first? Who would start school first? Who would get their drivers license first? Now, Emily was graduating high school first.

We noticed some unusual things as we listened to the speakers at the graduation ceremony. The “special guest speaker,” Bill Broughton, was a teacher from the school and although he was a quiet, soft-spoken man, his message was an encouragement to all of the students and the audience. The principal of the school, Dave Borchers, (also known as Mr. B.) introduced each of the twenty graduates to the audience. He shared some of his personal thoughts about each student and then listed some of each student’s accomplishments and aspirations for the future. My wife and I were surprised that this principal seemed to really care about these students and personally knew so much about them. The other thing we noticed was something that didn’t impress us. It seemed as if most of these students had rather unspectacular life-goals. One girl hoped to become a secretary. One boy hoped to work in his family’s excavation business. Some expressed interest in some form of missionary work. Several students were planning to go on to college after graduation but none were accepted into prominent “Ivy League” colleges. Those that were going to go to college had chosen small private Christian universities or state schools. I wasn’t very impressed.

The next week we went to Adam’s graduation from Lexington Christian Academy. The ceremony was a formal affair with all of the “pomp and circumstance” you’d expect from a serious college preparatory school with the outstanding reputation of Lexington Christian Academy. Many of the teachers and administration proudly wore their robes adorned with sashes indicating their educational credentials. The list of colleges and universities that Adam’s classmates were going to attend included Harvard, Yale, Princeton and other top schools. Very impressive indeed. This school had certainly prepared these graduates for the next part of the educational process. If I’m not mistaken, every student in the graduating class was attending a four-year college the following fall. That is quite an accomplishment for both the school and the students. But after experiencing Emily’s graduation ceremony and comparing it to Adam’s ceremony, we couldn’t help but notice a significant difference. At the time, it was hard to put my finger on exactly what the difference was, but I knew that I wanted my daughter, Cassy, to be a part of the small school in New Hampshire instead of the school that Adam had attended. Cassy had been put on a “waiting list” at Lexington Christian Academy but we weren’t comfortable waiting any longer for a spot to open up for her. We needed to make a decision. Only half seriously, I made a crazy suggestion.

In the unlikely event that a spot did open up for Cassy at Lexington Christian Academy, we’d be paying about $10,000 per year for tuition. We loved my sister Sharon and her whole family and we’d enjoy being closer to where they lived. When Adam went off to college in Boston, the rest of us could move to the Laconia, New Hampshire area so that Cassy could attend Laconia Christian School. The tuition was so low (about $2800 per year) that we could rent an apartment or condo and pay the tuition for less money than just the tuition for Lexington Christian Academy. I was rarely needed at my comic book stores because I had a good staff of competent employees. We could keep our home in Bolton, Massachusetts, just in case this situation didn’t work out. If it didn’t work out, we could just move back to Massachusetts.

After discussing this for a few days it started to seem like a real possibility. We called the school in New Hampshire and the school secretary, Judy Downing, arranged for us to come up for a mandatory student and parent information night and interview. After a brief interview we were asked to prayerfully consider whether this was the right move for us. Convinced that it was, we called a few days later and were told that Cassy would be allowed to attend this school. This meant that we needed to deal with a lot of major issues before the summer ended, like finding and renting a place to live in New Hampshire. But first, we were leaving on our huge family cruise soon!

Next chapter: The cruise.