The featured image above is of Tony DePaul and Iron Piggy. (Photo courtesy & permission of Tony DePaul.)
Last December, I traded a flurry of emails with one of my favorite and longtime friends, David Bright. David and I went to the University of Maine at Orono in the 60s. At one point, 1968-1969, we even rented out the same house on Main Street in Orono, which was literally a stone’s throw from the infamous Pat’s Pizza, a 1930s circa, pizzeria institution and legendary hangout for locals and university folks alike. The house we rented then is no longer there. Surprisingly, we are still standing.
During his sophomore year (1967-1968), David started as a part-time photographer for The Campus, UMO’s student newspaper. By the time he graduated from UMO in 1970, he had served on the paper as a reporter then editor.
Of the many distinctions, achievements and service to Maine that he has attained, he was also Stephen King’s first editor when Steve wrote a column for The Campus called “King’s Garbage Truck”. Steve even has Dave as a character in two of King’s books. In the Dead Zone 1 (1979) and in The Tommyknockers 2 (1987), as in real life, Steve has Dave as a newspaper reporter for the Bangor Daily News [BDN].
Dave worked at the BDN for twenty–six years (1970-1996), going from being a City Desk reporter, Maine Desk reporter, environment writer, agricultural columnist, assistant state editor, state editor, system editor, copy editor.
In 1996, he left the newspaper and went to work for Atex Media Solutions, a Bedford, Massachusetts company that installed computer systems in newspapers all over the world. From there, he was employed at Agile Enterprise in Nashua, New Hampshire in 2000, which was another supplier of editorial systems to newspapers.
In those two jobs, he worked at papers and magazines all over the country—Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Texas, Missouri, Minnesota, and California.
He’s also, including me, one (“To Maine in Search of Life’s Mission”, 251-264) of the 12 contributors to the nonfiction book we did for King’s (2016) Hearts in Suspension,3 which is edited by Jim Bishop, King’s first university English professor. Jim bookends the book by writing an excellent introduction, “Introduction: Echoes from Atlantis”(11-18), as well as the last chapter, “How do You Catch the Sparrow” (360-373). The book is published by University of Maine Press, and all proceeds from its sale go to the Press to further research and scholarship efforts by the University faculty.
Ironically, for the purposes of this weblog, and most likely for at least a couple more of my weblog posts, the King quote taken from Hearts in Atlantis (1999)4 below, which Jim begins at the beginning of his intro to Hearts in Suspension (2016) seems to seamlessly fit in with what I am writing about here about Tony DePaul.
“Often, I believe, it’s the sixties themselves I want to talk about, impossible as that has always seemed to me” (11).
“This may be the only Bangor Daily News era pic I have. Must be 1981, 82 maybe.I was doing investigative stories on the mistreatment of Vietnam veterans at the hospital. Togus was run by WWII guys in those days, they had contempt for Vietnam vets and went out of their way to make them feel unwelcome.”
During the mid–1980s, David met Tony DePaul, who worked as a reporter for the BDN. Back to the present, during our email correspondence in December, I shared with Dave what I was writing about in my weblog.
He expressed interest in it and said, “And while we’re talking about a writer’s blog here’s another one I subscribe to: < http://www.tonydepaul.net/ >. Tony lives about half an hour from you in Cranston, RI. He’s originally from Philly, I think, and I first knew him when he worked for me as a reporter at the BDN back in the day. For the last couple of years Tony has been the writer for the comic strip Phantom, also a good vs. evil tome, but with more medieval than futuristic themes. Tony is also an avid motorcyclist who has ridden east to west from Maine to the Golden Gate, and south to north from Mexico to Alaska.
For sure, when I first read what he emailed to me about Tony, David had caught my attention. This is definitely someone I would love to meet.
It’s important to understand that anyone David recommends me to see, I’m going to follow through and have the opportunity and honor to contact them.
He even picked the place where Tony and I could conveniently get together.
“Maybe you two should meet for beers sometime. Lucky’s American Bar & Grill in East Providence looks to be about halfway,” he cc:d both of us.
In typical literary style and with the same day alacrity of response to David, Tony wrote to him, “Thanks for the introduction, Dave. This time yesterday I was wrenching on the ’49 truck in Sullivan, Maine, in 4-degree temps. Got the vehicle home to Little Rhody last evening.
“It was a whirlwind trip up & back, I was in Maine for all of 28 hours or so. Will stop in to say hi next time.”
Over the next month, Tony and I traded emails and in the midst of two very full schedules, we made a time to meet: Thursday, January 17, 2019, at Lucky’s.
The 17th arrived. I drove over to Lucky’s and arrived early. There weren’t many cars in the expansive parking area that is in front of the place. It is fairly nondescript outside. Something you see frequently on the side of the road here in the northeast.
Lucky’s is set at almost a right angle off of the road. The back of the place literally is under the raised East Providence Expressway or I-195 West. Lots of traffic in front, actually to the side of the bar and grill, where Warren Avenue drops off onto County Street at a set of traffic lights there. Almost overhead, vehicles in an unending, collective breath of sound head to and from Providence.
“As he waits for Heloise to check in again, the Phantom considers trying to explain this whole mess to his wife. Then he decides, no, why come clean when he can go brood about how he got sidelined on the DL and their daughter almost paid for it with her life.”† (Photo courtesy and permission of Tony DePaul.) © 2018 by King Features Syndicate, Inc. World Rights Reserved.
The building is housed in a mini strip mall. Broken up by at least two entrances, there are seven windows that look like rectangles set on their ends whose cement base rests even with the sidewalk. A façade of red, brown, white and mottled bricks is on either side of the windows and doorways with seven vertical gray-brown steel columns holding up a faux roof over the sidewalk.
Walking into the place at the left of the building, I went through a set of double doors and took the lay of the land when I was inside Lucky’s. If I had gone straight I would have been to the far left end of a very long bar. I noticed a row of flat–screen televisions lined up against the wall above the bottles of liquor that stood ready for a bartender’s hand in serving Lucky’s patrons. Surprisingly, the interior room is empaneled with dark warm wood, a pleasant contrast to its gruff exterior facade.
I chose to go right, which took me into a separate sitting area where booths and tables were placed against the outside wall. A line of taller tables served as a halfway mark between the dining and bar areas. I sat at a taller table halfway down the line. Had I gone into the bar, I would not have had a clear view of the entrance. I wanted to be sure I saw Tony when he walked in.
Several people entered singly or with a companion, while others were accompanied by a group of friends. It was fairly quiet at that time of the afternoon.
Tony with Iron Piggy. Here he is wearing his cold weather gear. Outside of the Modern Diner in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.
Soon enough, I spotted Tony correctly. I noticed he carried his motorcycle helmet with him and that he was dressed quite warmly, which was understandable as it was about 25 degrees outside. I realized then that he had ridden over to meet with me on his motorcycle.
I thought to myself, This guy’s a hardcore biker to be out in this weather.
We introduced ourselves to one another and I led him to the small table for two I had reserved. I didn’t know what to expect. But Tony’s a true gentleman. Despite the tough exterior, he is a very perceptive, sensitive and engaging conversationalist. We ended up talking about Dave, of course, and how we knew him.
Later on and in retrospect, David told me the following about Tony.
“I can’t remember exactly when Tony arrived at the BDN. but I know he was there in May of 1985 because that was the year the Philadelphia Police Department bombed a building in Philadelphia housing Black activists. I mean really bombed—using C4 and Tovex TR2, a dynamite substitute, courtesy of the FBI, dropped from a state police helicopter with a 45-second timer. The resulting fire destroyed a three–block area and when it was all over 11 people were dead and 61 houses destroyed.” (https://mashable.com/2016/01/10/1985-move-bombing).
We talked more about Dave, Tony’s experience working at the BDN, Maine, Stephen King and the sixties.
“Rode to Seattle after that. The love of my life flew in for a week and we split our time between Seattle and Vancouver, British Columbia. Hadn’t seen her for five weeks. My bride flew in to see this sun-baked scruffy type with the road miles on him.” (“The 2009 Trek Redux,” April 13, 2019). (Photo courtesy and permission of Tony DePaul.)
Tony talked about where he was from. In a former interview with Steffan Hope5 he shared the following information about himself:
“I’m a Pennsylvanian by birth, born in Philadelphia in 1954. I met the love of my life in 1972, at college. She was sitting on a stone wall reading a book. I told a buddy of mine, ‘See that girl over there? I’m going to marry her someday.’ Immediately I faced three obstacles: I didn’t know her name, she already had a boyfriend, and she was a little on guard against crazy looking bearded guys. But we were married four years later and raised three lovely daughters. As for career, I was a newspaper reporter for 26 years. Now that my kids are grown I write on a freelance basis instead of sitting in a dreary newspaper cubicle every day. Truth be told, I mostly goof off and ride motorcycles.”
“Rainbow! Didn’t see any houses flying over it” (“The 2009 Trek Redux,” April 13, 2019). (Photo courtesy and permission of Tony DePaul, somewhere in Kansas.)
As in the quote above, Tony talked about his soul mate Pam and their three lovely daughters. He said that after he and Pam were married they had moved into a place in Orono, Maine that he ended renovating by himself from the ground up.
He talked about his motorcycle travels, which are extensively undergone throughout the country on his motorcycle, which he has dubbed the Iron Piggy. You can also read about his travels in his blog, “The Nickels of the Man”. I think it is one of the best–written blogs on the internet.
His explanation about his beloved bike was subsequently shared with me as follows, particularly why he gave his bike such a moniker:
“Piggy because Harleys are generally dubbed hogs, and iron because she’s heavy. Stupid heavy, if you were to ask anyone who rides a really refined motorcycle, something engineered to be as powerful and light as technology will allow.
“Touring Harleys are heavy and underpowered for the weight, but I like everything about them. The heft, the sound, the way they rumble down the road. There’s nothing like touring the blue routes on a Harley V-twin. There are 6-cylinder German and Japanese tourers that run whisper-smooth, you can set cruise at 100mph, be perfectly comfortable, cover 1,000 miles a day, but so what? You don’t see anything. To me, there’s nothing like seeing America on a Harley, on the backroads at 50 or 60, it’s just the perfect machine to have under you.
“Look at that cluttered-up Iron Piggy dashboard . . . Rode up through the passes east of Sheridan, along the Bozeman Trail. It was nice and dry. Had my jacket open, wore blue jeans with no long underwear under, no rain gear over. It felt great to get out in the air again.” (Photo courtesy and permission of Tony DePaul. “The Fall Run to Montana, September 2-23, 2010.” November 7, 2010.)
“Iron Piggy’s a 2004 Road King Classic, 105,000 miles on the clock, and fully two–thirds of that is a long haul, over the road, touring for distance. In traveling trim she weighs 950 lbs. Quite a handful on gravel! She’s seen plenty of it.”
From what I have learned about Tony and his Iron Piggy he knows this rig inside and out and has incredible expertise and experience in not only taking care and maintaining it but overhauling it inside and out. This is a good thing because it avoids a lot of mechanics’ bills, especially the way he rides it all over the here and yon.
Then we talked about writing. And as the conversation spiraled through its arc of development, he talked about his experience with journalism. Referring to the BDN, he said that he worked there from 1980 through the fall of 1986.
David describes Tony’s experience there as follows:
“Tony and another guy who worked for me, Joe Turco, were both Philly boys and followed the story closely. Turco was a wicked sharp copy editor, Tony was a do-anything-you-asked reporter. He came to us as a freelancer, and with no beat reporting assignment, we could send him anywhere any time. I’m not sure how he ended up in Bangor, but since his wife has people here (she might even be a Bangor girl), I’m guessing that had something to do with it.
I’m not sure that Tony ever made it to the actual weekly payroll before he departed for the ProvJournal.
“I do know that after a year of freelancing in which he never had any withholding taken out of his checks he discovered he was going to spend a lot of his earnings to help pay for the U.S. adventures in the Persian Gulf (and probably other places we’ve yet to hear about). Hoping I could help him reduce his tax burden I told him to go to three different accountants to get his taxes done, see how the results compared, and then hand me the bills. Not sure if I saved him much money but he got a pretty timely story out of it.”
“Seattle, Washington, to Navajo Dam, New Mexico. 4 days, 1,800 miles. Canyon lands as far as the eye can see.” (“The 2009 Trek Redux,” April 13, 2019). (Photo courtesy and permission of Tony DePaul, somewhere in Kansas.)
From working at the BDN, Tony went directly to The Providence Journal and worked there for almost 20 years.
We talked about having this sense of overpowering wanderlust. This sense of adventure is aptly described by Robert Louis Stevenson (1879). “I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.”6
I talked about my experience working at the university level. I was tenured twice and could have attained it again but never tried to do so as I took another position teaching graduate school out west. I mentioned the goal of almost every faculty member I have known in attaining the golden handcuffs—a phrase typifying the largesse of achieving lifetime tenure.
Tony said that at Projo the phrase used was the velvet coffin.
He had a similar gut reaction as me to this phrase and what it represented to him. “I took the job at the Providence Journal in September of that year, did not quite 20 years at the Projo, until that day in 2005 when I ghosted them, didn’t go back after lunch. Went motorcycle riding around North America, instead.”
He has also described the work of newspaper writing as something that “can make you feel old, old, old . . . you’re always writing about something tragic or outrageous or unfortunate” (see footnote5: Steffan Hope interview).
In April of that year (2005), he took the path towards a more fulfilling daily life and a better future, one far less restrictive than he had known. “Afterwards,” he shared with me, “I did the same thing I do now, eke out a half–assed living as a freelancer. Tough game: everybody thinks writing should be free.”
Like I said earlier, he’s a resilient, rugged hombre. Unlike Cervantes’ character of Don Quixote, Tony did not lose his sanity; he restored it to his life, family and professional literary career. Move over hidalgo, you have to share the road now with another chivalrous spirit. You’ll tilt at windmills, he’ll drill away at the notions of finding enchantment in an uncharitable, postmodern age.
Writing independently, for Tony, “teaches one to economize, turn time into money you don’t need to earn. Nail up your own roof, work on your own vehicles . . .”
I believe that Tony understands the soul and spirit of storytelling. It rolls out of him as though you are biking with him on the open road. Instead of the road going by underneath, and the wind of your passage buffeting against you as you sit astride your bike, you’re fully immersed in the sources of inspiration carrying you past the landmarks of his memory, experiences and imagination.
A totally incredible conversation unfolded around me in my first meeting with him. I admiringly realized a Heinlein7 quote I loved was fully in effect with Tony:
“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”
— Robert Anson Heinlein (1907–1988)
Notes:
The featured photo is courtesy and permission of Tony DePaul.
Quotes from Robert M. Pirzig are taken from Pirzig, Robert M. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values. New York, William Morrow and Company, 1974. Print.
† The comic strip of The Phantom is a stand out representation of his collaborative work with artist Mike Manly. Here, the Phantom is in his Skull Cave. Devil is lying down next to him.
Footnotes:
1King, Stephen. The Dead Zone. New York, Viking Press, 1979. Print.
2King, Stephen. The Tommyknockers. New York, Putnam, 1987. Print.
3King, Stephen. Hearts in Suspension. Orono, ME, University of Maine Press, 2016. Print.
4King, Stephen. Hearts in Atlantis. New York, Scribner, 1999. Print.
5Hope, Steffen. “Interview with Tony De Paul.” Fantomey.org, Kjell Steen, the phantom Norway and Karl-Johan Lien, 27 Sept. 2007, web.archive.org/web/20070927211338/fantomet.org/hele_nyhet/id/142/. Accessed 21 Feb. 2019.
6Stevenson, Robert L. Travels With a Donkey in the Cevennes: An Inland Voyage. Forgotten Books, 2017/1879. Print. Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes (1879) is one of Robert Louis Stevenson‘s earliest published works and is considered a pioneering classic of outdoor literature.
7Heinlein, Robert A. Time Enough for Love. New York, Ace Books, 1988, p. 248. Print.
Heinlein, Robert A. The Notebooks of Lazarus Long. Paperback edition, New York, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1978. Print.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. As the sole author of the Penitent – Part I, and the Penitent – Part II, and as the sole proprietor of Copper Beech Press, I have a material connection to these books, as well as to the publishing press, I have just listed. Other than my previously stated novels and publishing press, I have no material connection to the brands, products or services that I have mentioned here. I am disclosing this information in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
© 20 February 2019 by A. Keith Carreiro
For information about my series, The Immortality Wars, please go to my home page: https://immortalitywars.com/