My Borders’ Liquation Reading List

Last Days of Borders

“Congratulations sir, you are among the final customers at Borders.”

That comment was made to me in mid-September as the book store chain closed its’ Turlock location as well as all its’ remaining stores.  The chain was a victim of the soured economy as well as a shift in customer tastes away from books made with paper.  Digital readers are the new big things in publishing. 

And while Borders had a digital reader, it apparently wasn’t enough to stem the tide of red ink.  The company filed for bankruptcy well over a year ago, and made the decision to end its’ business this summer.

 40 percent off

I shopped at the Turlock store shortly after the bankruptcy liquidation sale was announced.  Everything was 40 percent off.  I didn’t buy anything then.  Week after week, the discounts kept getting bigger and bigger. 

The last week the store was open, I received an email-shopping reminder from Borders.com. saying everything would be discounted 90 percent.

 So I went back to the store and bought a bunch of books.  Many of them I would never have purchased at anywhere near the normal 20 to 30 percent discount rate. 

Some I might have considered checking out at the library or borrowing from a friend.  Some I had never heard of.  But I figured, what the heck, the books are on sale.

 Here’s a brief synopsis of from I call Steve’s Borders’ Liquidation Reading List:

Harry Truman’s Excellent Adventure by Matthew Algeo was the first book of the batch that I read.  It’s about a road trip the former President and his wife Bess took from Independence, Missouri to New York City and back in 1953. 

They had no Secret Service and no media advance team; but they had plenty of press attention and from all accounts, a pretty good time.

Where Have All the Leaders Gone, by Lee Iacocca.  This audio book attempted to reinvigorate the flame the former head of Chrysler created with two books he wrote in the 1980’s.  While he has some good leadership ideas, it was clear he and his ghostwriter had an ax to grind with the Bush 43 administration.  Without the politics, it’s not bad.

Failure is Not an Option by Gene Krantz.  The former Mission Control head at NASA, made famous by the Apollo 13 movie performance by actor Ed Harris, shares his perspective on crisis management and problem solving.  I haven’t started it yet, but I hope it is a satisfying book.

How Starbucks Saved My Life by Michael Gates Gill.  This is about a guy who had a great job, lost the job, and ended up working at the coffee shop.  I remember hearing about it when it came out a few years ago.  I’m sure I’ll like it.

Remembering Denny by Calvin Trillin.  I remember Calvin as a guest on the Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson back in the 1980’s.  This book is about Calvin and his friend Denny.  It’s a personal account of how things worked out for Calvin but not so much so for Denny.  I look forward to reading it.

Rough Justice by Peter Elkind.  This is about the scandal that brought down former New York Governor Elliott Spitzer and how he rebuilt himself following the mess.  That’s the only real political book in the bunch. 

As I lived in New York with Spitzer was Attorney General (and saw him a handful of times on his rise up the ladder), this should be an interesting read. 

These books, along with a few others, cost me a little over fifteen dollars.  I probably wouldn’t have bought any of them had I paid anywhere near the full price.  But bargains sometimes make for a good motivator.  Borders’ misfortune has brought many readers some good fortune.

That’s all I have to say for now.  I’m nearing the end of Scout, Atticus, and Bo by Mary McDonagh Murphy, an essay compilation centered on the classic Harper Lee novel To Kill a Mocking Bird.  

I have to get back to the book.

I have a lot more reading to do.

Steve Newvine lives in Merced

9-11 at Ten Years

We’re all looking for words to describe our feelings as the September 11th tragedy is marked at tenth anniversary ceremonies in New York, Washington, Pennsylvania, and many communities such as Merced.

I was still looking for words as I prepared this column.  What I found were memories of that day that are just as fresh in my mind as they were ten years ago, writings from a source dating back exactly ten years, and an old American Flag.

On that day in 2001, I was at my upstate New York office when a friend of a co-worker called to tell us what had happened.  We immediately turned on our radios and began searching for details on the internet. 

We did not have television service at our office, so our only real connection to the outside world was through radio and the web.  The first image I saw of the plane hitting the second tower was a still image on the CNN website.

Our staff sat around in shock as we saw more pictures, heard more details, and began talking with friends and business associates coming to our office. 

I was the lead staff person for a committee that was meeting during the lunch hour.  None of us at that meeting felt like working or eating.  Somehow, we got through the meeting and somehow we got through that workday.

I was also teaching a college course part time and September 11 was a class day.  My class would meet in the late afternoon after my regular workday was finished. 

I called my department chair Joe Bulsys at the college to ask whether the class would meet. If it did meet, I needed some guidance as to how to handle the students who were most likely seeing a day that would be etched in their memory for a lifetime.

Joe told me that the college President had not formally cancelled classes and that I should go to the classroom with no plan to teach that day’s lesson.  He suggested I tell the students they could leave if they wished, and invite them to remain there and watch the television news coverage along with me in the classroom. 

About half of the class showed up, and about half of those chose to leave at the beginning of the class period.  I stayed with the others for the next hour as we watched the network coverage on television.

When I got home at the end of the day, my two teenage daughters were watching the coverage from our living room.  My wife Vaune and I sat with them quietly as the broadcasts continued.

I began keeping a journal in the months following my Mother’s death in 2000.  I intended to use the journal to write my memories of her and to help me deal with the loss.  I located that first journal over the weekend and found that I had an entry dated September 12, 2001.

From my September 12, 2001 entry:

A day after the tragedy in NYC and Washington.  Everyone is shocked by the events.  Vaune and I went to church last night where a very beautiful prayer service was held.  They burned incense in a pottery bowl throughout the service.  To me, it represented the ongoing stream of sadness and pain so many of us were feeling….

Why was there so much pain inflicted on so many people? .. This is a time of “why us, why now?”  

I know I don’t have an answer and probably will never get an answer.  I ask God to help me through this, ..and to touch each family dealing with the loss of loved ones in the bombings.

We have an American Flag handed down to us by my wife’s grandmother. She came to this country as a young woman from Italy.  Her husband worked the coalmines of Pennsylvania and would eventually die before his time from lung disease.

The flag is worn and has some mildew marks from being stored while wet during the years she would fly it in front of her Pennsylvania home.  It has forty-eight stars. 

The reds and blues are not as brilliant as the synthetic flags that are manufactured today. 

The white has long lost its’ sharpness. 

But my wife and I wouldn’t think of putting any other flag in front of our house on those special days when we display it so proudly.

We fly our family heirloom American flag on special occasions every year such as Memorial Day, Flag Day, and Independence Day. 

In recent years, we’ve added September 11 as a day when that cherished family heirloom is displayed on our front porch.

We will never forget.

Steve Newvine lives in Merced

Castle Air Museum

It's hard to believe that Castle Air Museum in Atwater is celebrating thirty years in the community.  I've been in the Central Valley for seven years and it seems the time has, pardon the pun, been flying by.

I got to know Museum Executive Director Joe Pruzo and some members of the team at Castle a few years ago.  We were part of a group trying to organize a car show at the museum with the Greater Merced Chamber of Commerce. 

I left the Chamber in 2007 but continued to keep in contact with the organization.

Last summer, I reached out to Castle for a book I was writing on unique things along highway 99.  Castle Air Museum, while not on highway 99, was close enough to the roadway and significant to my telling readers about things they shouldn't miss when traveling up and down the valley.

Joe told me how museums such as this one have been a primary source for keeping the history of America's military aviation alive.

"Back in the years following World War, II, the military was begging cities to take a wartime aircraft and put it on display," Joe told me.  "Some did, and many now wished they had."

Aircraft not claimed by communities in those early post war years were headed for the scrap metal heap.  Many planes made it on that journey of no return.  But thanks to the dedication of volunteers and the cooperation of military installations such as Castle Air Force Base, many planes were saved.

For the first fifteen years of its’ existence, Castle Air Museum could count on a watchful benefactor helping the museum preserve these historic relics.  That benefactor was the Castle Air Force Base.  "The Air Base was extremely helpful in taking care of the Museum's immediate needs," Joe told me in the interview I did for my book.

When the Air Base closed as part of the Base Realignment and Closing Act (BRAC) in the 1990's, it was time to see whether appreciation for the aircraft was indeed part of the fabric of the community.

It was.  Some years were a struggle, but the Museum continued to pay some bills, acquire more aircraft, and perhaps more importantly, create greater awareness among volunteers, supporters, and the community at large.

We may take such events as Open Cockpit days, Halloween Fright Night, Christmas Plane Lane, and the recent thirtieth anniversary open house (held March 20) for granted.

These events raise money to keep the program going.   Each is important to build on the brand that is Castle Air Museum.

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How many times are you asked what is there to do in Merced County?  And how many times does Castle Air Museum become part of your answer to that question?

And now, the sixty-four dollar question: have you taken the time recently to visit the museum?

The next time you get a chance, go to the museum indoor history area and look up the display for Operation Power Flite (yes, the Air Force spelled flite that way when they named this historic mission).

You'll read about an incredible milestone reached in military aviation more than fifty years ago.  And it all started right here in Merced County at the Castle Air Force Base.

You'll be proud of the folks who have worked so hard to preserve military aviation history so that it can be shared with the rest of the world.

You'll learn about an event so historic, it made the cover of Life magazine.  And you'll be proud to live in Merced County, California.

Steve Newvine lives in Merced.