Perfunctory (but important) Notes

“When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it had hap­pened or not.” —Mark Twain

This story (which turned out to be a seven-volume series) was forty years in the making—thirty-seven in the womb, and three (so far) in the weaning. For many years its writing was at the top of the list of things we intended to do, when we had more time. As the years passed, we real­ized that we would never have more time. Our busy lives just got busier.

So, in the spring of 2007, we decided that the only way this project would ever get done was if it first got started. That made sense to us.

The first thing we did (to “get started”) was to go out to a Barnes and Noble and order a round of “doppio con pannas” (double espressos with whipped cream). This was our first of three planning sessions. The only decision we made that first evening was to buy a dozen spiral notebooks, which Evie did the following week. Later, however, we opted for laptops instead of the notebooks.

The next week we had our second planning session at Schuler Books and Music. We found that there, just as at Barnes and Noble, we could buy double espressos (with whipped cream, of course). The nice thing about Schuler’s is that they served their espressos in cute little cups with crystallized amber sugar swizzle sticks. I liked to stir the whipped cream into my espresso with the sugar swizzle stick, and then lick the sweet mixture off the crystallized sugar. Hey, writing is hard work; there ought to be some immediate gratification.

Before we actually started writing the book, we first wanted to estab­lish its scope. We decided that the book should start when Evie first visited me in New York (1968), and it should end four years later with our move from New York to Philadelphia. Also, it should include only matters for which one or both of us had firsthand knowledge.

Later, however, we decided to extend our story writing to include our two year sojourn in Philadelphia, and our two years in Topton (PA). We decided to terminate the project with Topton because it was while living there that we had our first child, Charity Jayne. We thought it proper to stop writing our story with the advent of our family.

We have subsequently discussed it, and are now considering an even­tual continuation of the series. As it stands right now (February, 2010), we have rough drafts for seven volumes, each between 350 and 550 pages.

As noted above, when we first started writing our story, we intended to end it at the point we moved from New York to Philadelphia. So, we started out by writing about the events of our last day in New York and our drive through the tunnel into New Jersey. In other words, we started with the conclusion.