On a much lighter note than my blog entry last night, I went to Steveston Village with Amber earlier today for about two hours. We saw the parade, viewed some bonsai trees, walked around the park, got some ice cream and went into the Steveston Book Store. We spent a good 15-20 minutes in there, as it’s probably one of my favorite stores in Richmond. Books are stacked from the floor to the ceiling and most of them are used books from eons passed. Last time I went in there was with Patrick and Doctor Ding about four years ago.
I was on a quest to find Hardy Boys’ books and Eric Wilson’s mystery books. A helpful lady next to us told me that there were some near the Nancy Drew books and BOOM! A few of them were right there. I only bought two though. One is #83, Hardy Boys, The Swamp Monster by Franklin Dixon. The other is Code Red at the Supermall by Eric Wilson. You see, back when I was still in elementary school circa 1984 to 1990, we did a lot of our activities in the library. So growing up, I loved reading books. I loved it when the teacher would give us these pamphlets to pick out the books we wanted to buy. That was really exciting for me. I heard about Eric Wilson through books I saw on the pamphlets.
One time when I was attending Mitchell Elementary School, Eric Wilson visited us and I was one of the students that got to meet him. At the end of his presentation, he told us about the Eric Wilson Mystery Club, which after reading one of his books, I again saw a small ad about the Mystery Club and I immediately signed up for it. Some months later, I got a complementary Membership Card.
Since I didn’t have a lamination machine, I put clear tape over it. LOOK AT THAT! August 29th, 1990! I was 11 years old! ^_^
So anyway, let’s fast forward to when we got home. I was sitting here at my desk thinking about when to have dinner when I decided to pick up the books and look through it briefly. I picked up the Hardy Boys book, looked at the cover and flipped through the pages briefly, put it down and picked up the Eric Wilson book. I opened to the front-inside cover and BAM! Something is written on there!!!!
It reads:
For Brook –
Thanks for your nice welcome to your school!
Eric Wilson
Prince Rupert 1990
WOW! I did not see that when I went to buy the book. I GOT A SIGNED COPY OF AN ERIC WILSON NOVEL BY ERIC WILSON HIMSELF! While I did not jump up and down in glee, I was able to briefly grab a piece of my childhood back. It brought me back to a time when I didn’t have many worries, no illnesses, was not blinded in my right eye, stuff and stuff. The car/bike accident changed me three and a half years later.
Anyway, I’m quite happy even if that happiness is a tiny part of today’s feelings.
To Mister Eric Wilson, if you’re still around, thank you for giving a part of my childhood something to look back to.
PS: the picture of this post is the Storybrooke bakery at Steveston Village. Which is actually really cool because Once Upon A Time is filmed there and is currently in its 5th season. The fictional town of Once Upon A Time is called Storybrooke. Which in some uncanny way just made me think of who Eric Wilson made the signature out to. ^_^ I know, total coincidence and not quite the same word, but still…
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