I clearly remember the first time I saw Marty. It was in P.E. class. I was standing against a wall, trying my best not to look too bored, when I noticed this guy trying his best not to get involved in the physical activities. He noticed that I was looking at him, and managed to stammer out a "hi".
After a few days of this, we managed to introduce ourselves to each other. I liked Marty, sort of, but I tried not to engage him in conversation very much. You see, Marty could talk forever about practically anything. You name the subject and he probably could tell you tons to trivia about it.
A while later, I discovered Marty was the shopkeeper in the small bookstore across the hall from my parents gallery in Blue Jay Mall. So I still dropped by just to say hi and look at his books. I never purchased anything from his store, however, as he didn’t carry very many books in which I was interested.
I actually went over to Marty’s house once. It was a small, one room "bachelor" pad, about the size of an ordinary bedroom. The entire room was filled, floor to ceiling, with books. There were books on shelves on the wall, on the floor, on the table, in the bathroom. This man had more books per square foot than anyone I’ve ever seen. No wonder he loved working in the bookstore so much!
When the bookstore closed its doors forever, Marty was heartbroken. That bookstore was the perfect job for him, as he could read to his heart’s content.
Marty told me in advance that the bookstore was going to close its doors, so I was able to purchase quite a few interesting books at minimal prices. In addition, my parents purchased the bookshelves for a ridiculously low price. The shelves were cheap homemade things, but they were functional. My sister and I each took a few for our bedrooms, and the rest went down into the basement. I used those bookshelves clear up until 1984, when I finally purchased some new ones from J.C. Pennies.
After I moved away from Lake Arrowhead, I managed to keep in contact with Marty for a couple of years. We corresponded a few times, but we slowly stopped sending letters to each other. One of the shorter letters that I received is duplicated below - most of Marty’s letters went on for dozens of pages.
Do you remember when you sold me that basic set of Dungeons and Dragons of yours? Well, on page nine of volume one, Men and Magic, under the Table Character Alignment, including Various Monsters and Creatures, you’ve written next to balrogs, which was crossed out, the word "gothraels". And on the same page between ghouls and wraiths, you’ve written "Daeron". I do desire to know what be these things? By the way, Richard have you read the novel Titan by John Varley? One of the main characters in the book and the location in which the heroes and heroines make their debut is a living and sentient Stafford Torus habitat. I’ve taken the idea one step farther. For the RPG I’ve had in mind for quite some while now I’ve needed a world upon which I could stage the various events. I’ve decided on a biomechanical Ringworld of sorts, that would orbit Epsilon Erindani. Epsilon Erindani seemed the best bet as it has been reported to have a planet with six times the mass of Jupiter. And this gas giant would seem to be the bet as a source of building material. I think I’ll call this world Saglingamish. A nonsense word that would hopefully reflect an ideal of city-builder origin. The Ringworld would have quite a few more maps of the world than the one of Pak origin. As for the book, the Ringworld Engineers, there are just too many loose ends. The biggest is that of how come there is of the book Protector, evidence that there was only seventy-two protectors available to build the thing. And I’ll bet you anything that the Pak fleet were really Halrloprillalar’s people on the run. In the next book I;ll bet my bottom dollar that Roy Truesdale and his Home gang barge in on the action. Anyway. I’d kind of like it if you drop a line or a brick or something. For the past year I’ve been talking to the wall, and I’m beginning to think it’s been answering. And I still don’t know who won Nuclear Destruction! Take care. sy=c, Marty |
I believe I received that letter in 1981. After 1982, I didn’t receive any more letters from Marty. I’m not sure what happened to him as we completely lost contract with one another. My parents say he occasionally came into their gallery, but I never heard from him again.
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Unless otherwise noted, all photos and text is Copyright © Richard G Lowe, Jr.