DAY 38 - Back to the Drawing Board, Influencers: Mark & Sherlock Holmes

 

I am usually slow to make friends.

That I was shy and backward was definitely true when I was a child. It was also true throughout most of high school and early college. Thankfully, there were periods of reprieve, times when I was less self-conscious and found it easier to meet and make friends.

However, third grade was not that time . . .

Our family moved from eastern Ohio to Canton, Ohio, in late September of my third grade year, shortly after school had already started. Changing schools was a shock. My tendency to hold back from others got worse. But then a few months after the move I made friends with Mark. 
Mark was artistic, a pretty good baseball player, a fan of Star Trek™, and a reader. For those reasons, Mark became an Influencer in my life.

It was Mark who introduced me to one of his favorite books, The Forgotten Door (1965) by Alexander Key. That book may have been my first introduction to sci-fi literature and it made a lasting impact on my life. In later grade school Mark encouraged me to read H. G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds (1897 for the UK magazine serial, 1898 for the UK book). 

But I think the most influential book suggested to me by Mark was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles (UK, 1902), my first Sherlock Holmes mystery. From that point on, Holmes became a mainstay in my mystery library. I have the entire collection of Doyle's Sherlock Holmes mysteries, plus a special collection of the illustrated stories as they first appeared in London’s The Strand magazine (1891-1930). 

I have read and reread both collections multiple times. I guess that says something about me.

I am by nature curiosity driven. More correctly, I enjoy figuring things out: how something works, where it came from, who made it, why they made it, and what it’s good for. I like tracking the stories of people and their stuff from the past to the present.

I guess if someone asked if I had a mantra for my life my response would be “It’s a mystery. Figure it out!”

Mark also influenced me creatively. We shared an interest in art that persisted all the way through school. We worked on a few projects together and, later, we both attended the Canton Art Institute. We majored in art in high school. And if I remember correctly, college took Mark into an art-related pursuit of drafting and architectural design.

I am older though and memories fade -- so don’t hold me (or him) to that.

I think about Mark from time-to-time, always hoping things have gone well for him.