{"id":9504,"date":"2024-12-21T08:48:56","date_gmt":"2024-12-21T15:48:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/?p=9504"},"modified":"2024-12-27T14:09:00","modified_gmt":"2024-12-27T21:09:00","slug":"a-day-to-remember","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/2024\/12\/21\/a-day-to-remember\/","title":{"rendered":"A Day to Remember"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sometimes you CAN <\/em><\/strong>go home again, no matter what Tom Wolfe said.\u00a0\u00a0 At least for a visit.<\/p>\n

For me, home was Bayonne, New Jersey,\u00a0 just south of Jersey City, on a peninsula sandwiched between New York and Newark.\u00a0\u00a0 I was born in Bayonne in 1948, and spent my childhood there, most of it in the federal housing projects on First Street, with the lights of Staten Island across the waters of the Kill Von Kull.\u00a0\u00a0 Bayonne was my world until 1966, when I went off to college at Northwestern, the first time I ever went beyond the borders of Jersey and NYC (except in books and comics, of course, where I could oft be found wandering Middle Earth, on\u00a0 Barsoom, Trantor, or Venusport, or slinking down\u00a0 the mean streets of Gotham City).<\/p>\n

After college, I remained in Chicago for two years of alternative service with VISTA, and a couple of additional years directing chess tournaments throughout the midwest.\u00a0 My years in Dubuque, Iowa came after that, until I finally settled down in the Land of Enchantment (Santa Fe) come\u00a0 1979.\u00a0\u00a0 I spent time in Hollywood as well.<\/p>\n

I still had family in Jersey, though, so I returned to Bayonne once or twice a year, most years. \u00a0 It was always nice to come back, see my sisters and their kids and grandkids… and remember.\u00a0\u00a0 Bayonne has changed some over the years…the city has lost all its movie houses, along with Uncle Milty’s Amusement Park where I had my first job… but the projects are still there, and Brady’s Dock, and Mary Jane Donohoe School on 5th Street… the candy store on Kelly Parkway where I bought my comic books and Ace Doubles is still there, and so is the Fifth Street Deli-Ette… oh, and Hendrickson’s Corner, and Judicke’s sprinkle Donuts…<\/p>\n

And the public library remains… changed some, yes… but better than ever.<\/p>\n

I remember the library.\u00a0 I always will.<\/p>\n

And it would seem that the library remembers me.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 They have just completed some renovations, and did me the honor of naming one of the new rooms after me: the George R.R. Martin Room for Popular Fiction.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/em>To mark the occasion, they declared October 15 to be George R.R. Martin Day.<\/p>\n

That is… so cool, so, so, so…\u00a0 well, words fail me.\u00a0\u00a0 I have won a lot of awards over the course of my career: Emmys and Golden Globes, Hugo Awards and Nebulas, Lovecrafts and Stokers and Dragons. (I have lost a lot more, to be sure, but then that’s only fitting for a guy who helped found the Hugo Losers Club)… but I have never had a day<\/em> <\/strong>before.\u00a0\u00a0 Few have.\u00a0\u00a0 After all, there are only 365 of them.<\/p>\n

James (Jimmy) Davis, Bayonne’s mayor, presided over the ribbon-cutting ceremony.\u00a0\u00a0 Old friends and new attended.<\/p>\n

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Of course, we had a great turnout from the library staff.<\/p>\n

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The library also added a wonderful mosaic dragon to its decor.<\/p>\n

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I was asked to say a few words, and was thrilled to do so.\u00a0\u00a0 Given the circumstance I could probably have talked for hours.\u00a0\u00a0 So many memories, so much to say.\u00a0 But I resisted the impulse.\u00a0\u00a0 We shook a few hands, and then went down to Hendrickson’s Corner.<\/p>\n