Visiting Normal---Walking Where Time-Jumpers Have Trod
My wife and I drove 261 miles, north by northeast, more or less.
Including a quick stop for dinner, it took us just over 4 hours.
But we actually traveled about 58 years...into the past.
We had come to walk where time-jumpers had trod...we had come to visit Normal.
Unlike Denver Collins, lightning had nothing to do with our arrival, and we were thankful that the first person we met was a hotel night clerk, and not the Chief of Police.
This is a trip that had been on, then off, then on, off, rinse, repeat. But now, just about three weeks before the official release of Back to Normal: Paradigm Rift--I am here.
I have several objectives for this mission. First, I am planning to spend Saturday morning visiting with local businesses in the uptown district of this college town. I want to let them know about the book and TV project, and to get a feel for the local culture.
Next, I am scouting for possible book release locations---right now the Normal Theater (photo on the left) is my first choice. There is also an uptown book store.
But now that I am here, I am sensing another opportunity. The integration of the University is positively pervasive, with wifi-filled coffee shops, tattoo parlors, and sidewalks jammed with nationals and internationals in groups of two to twenty-two. I am thinking that maybe a popular collegiate hotspot or campus locale may bode better for this endeavor.
My third goal is to try and spend time with locals who lived here in the mid to late 1950s. I would be thrilled to hear the tales, to get a real sense of daily life in a place that would have been a quintessential Midwest town during the rise of the Cold War.
Finally, I want to walk the streets, and to see the buildings, and to get a feel for the layout and scale of this town, or at least, the Normal that once was.
Rest assured, the Normal that witnessed the arrival of Phil Nelson in 1946, and Denver Collins in 1956 is still here. Like an old stone wall in the forest, covered in moss and mostly hidden by brambles, the Normal of yesteryear still peeks out. Though masked by the emergence of growth and technology, glimmers and glints of her past are still present, and will be noted for stories yet future.
As I tour the town, as I study, photograph, interview, and share--I am not merely researching for books 2,3, and 4 in this series. I am a detective on the trail, an investigator seeking to walk in the footsteps of that brave and desperate alliance of time-jumpers whose tale has been wonderful to craft and a pleasure to share.
Corner of Main and West Virginia. Important spot for the seriesWho knows--perhaps tomorrow I will catch a glimpse of waitress Katie Long as she leaves the diner, or Howard Ross as he mercilessly pursues his prey.
Wait--did I just see Darkstar down that alley?
Including a quick stop for dinner, it took us just over 4 hours.
But we actually traveled about 58 years...into the past.
We had come to walk where time-jumpers had trod...we had come to visit Normal.
Unlike Denver Collins, lightning had nothing to do with our arrival, and we were thankful that the first person we met was a hotel night clerk, and not the Chief of Police.
This is a trip that had been on, then off, then on, off, rinse, repeat. But now, just about three weeks before the official release of Back to Normal: Paradigm Rift--I am here.
I have several objectives for this mission. First, I am planning to spend Saturday morning visiting with local businesses in the uptown district of this college town. I want to let them know about the book and TV project, and to get a feel for the local culture.Next, I am scouting for possible book release locations---right now the Normal Theater (photo on the left) is my first choice. There is also an uptown book store.
But now that I am here, I am sensing another opportunity. The integration of the University is positively pervasive, with wifi-filled coffee shops, tattoo parlors, and sidewalks jammed with nationals and internationals in groups of two to twenty-two. I am thinking that maybe a popular collegiate hotspot or campus locale may bode better for this endeavor.
My third goal is to try and spend time with locals who lived here in the mid to late 1950s. I would be thrilled to hear the tales, to get a real sense of daily life in a place that would have been a quintessential Midwest town during the rise of the Cold War.
Finally, I want to walk the streets, and to see the buildings, and to get a feel for the layout and scale of this town, or at least, the Normal that once was.
Rest assured, the Normal that witnessed the arrival of Phil Nelson in 1946, and Denver Collins in 1956 is still here. Like an old stone wall in the forest, covered in moss and mostly hidden by brambles, the Normal of yesteryear still peeks out. Though masked by the emergence of growth and technology, glimmers and glints of her past are still present, and will be noted for stories yet future.
As I tour the town, as I study, photograph, interview, and share--I am not merely researching for books 2,3, and 4 in this series. I am a detective on the trail, an investigator seeking to walk in the footsteps of that brave and desperate alliance of time-jumpers whose tale has been wonderful to craft and a pleasure to share.
Corner of Main and West Virginia. Important spot for the seriesWho knows--perhaps tomorrow I will catch a glimpse of waitress Katie Long as she leaves the diner, or Howard Ross as he mercilessly pursues his prey.Wait--did I just see Darkstar down that alley?
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