Signed Book Offer And The Anniversary Of A Milestone In My Life by BJ Neblett

 Signed Book Offer And The Anniversary Of A Milestone In My Life by BJ Neblett

Check below for a special offer!

2021 marks the 5th anniversary of my memoir about growing up in the early 1960s being published. Ice Cream Camelot was a labor of love and cathartic cleansing which took a lifetime to come to fruition. The result reached far beyond my expectations, a touching, funny, poignant profile of a young boy struggling to come to terms with the turbulent times in which he lived. But my high school friend Doug stated it better in a review he penned for me.

Words Fail Me… Almost

by Doug See

 My last contact with Billy was in 1973 if memory serves me. I found Ice Cream Camelot quite by accident and never dreamed BJ had this wonderful talent for expression. I grew up three blocks from his boyhood home and shared the same Little League field, rode my bike on the same streets, but did not connect with him until the 9th or 10th grade when he began going to public junior and high schools. We shared many of the same passions: guitars, girls, records, and the same fears: nuclear devastation, getting caught skipping school, losing friends—all a part of growing up in the ’50s and ’60s. Senior year, we cruised to high school in his old convertible, the leather and chrome glistened as we listened to Bob Dylan, the Stones, and The Doors. The floor of his father’s garage was a minefield of auto parts. And he never shared the pain of the event from a couple of years earlier that occurred in our idyllic little subdivision. Billy had more demons hiding behind his cool sunglasses than I ever imagined.

I bought the Kindle version of Ice Cream Camelot after rediscovering BJ through an on-line high school connection site. It never occurred to me that my high school hometown buddy would end up writing the 50’s and 60’s version of The Catcher in the Rye. Actually, BJ’s book has it all over that tired old tome in my greatly prejudiced opinion. It’s an amazing childhood story that most guys, and women, in my generation will relate to. It gripped me immediately and held my senses so tight that I could hardly put it down. I felt like I was back home in Lawrence Park reliving my own pre-adolescent feelings, pains, joys, wonders, unanswerable questions, and sensations as we all faced the looming future. The writing is powerful, descriptive, no punches pulled, just brilliant.

Billy, I lay awake nights with so much guilt for not clearing out the used razor blades in the wall behind the medicine cabinet. Maybe one day, we can go back and make that right….

 Thanks for the kind words, Doug. 

If you haven't had the chance, check out Ice Cream Camelot on Amazon or anywhere books are sold. It is available in print as well as all popular ebook formats.

If you would like a personal sign copy of Ice Cream Camelot, simply head over to my website bjneblett.com click the Contact Us button at the top, and let me know. I'll send you info on payment and collect your mailing and other info.

By the way, 2021 marks a few other anniversaries in my life... but you'll have to read Ice Cream Camelot to discover them!

Some (Not So) Random Thoughts While My Country Still Allows Me To Have Them by BJ Neblett

Some (Not So) Random Thoughts While My Country Still Allows Me To Have Them by BJ Neblett

Where: Writing den, Ballard, WA

Music: ZZ Top’s Greatest Hits

When: July 4, 2020

Happy Independence Day to everyone!

To all of this country’s dilettante leaders in politics, health care and education:

THANKS FOR RUINING MY COUNTRY!

So why did I include education? Simple. How many out there even know the meaning of dilettante?

“The goal of education is the advancement of knowledge and the dissemination of truth.”

            John Fitzgerald Kennedy

The Boston Tea Party December 16, 1773

Humm…. The Great Seattle Mask Party

Nah…. Just doesn’t have the right ring to it.

From October 1, 2019 to April 1, 2020 (considered to be influenza season) between 35.5 million and 60 million people in the US contracted influenza, with some 16.5 million seeking healthcare, 490,000 hospitalized, and 34,000 deaths.

            Source: cdc.gov

Did anyone wear a mask, close their business, or hide out in their houses?

As of today, July 4, 2020 there are 2,784,452 Covid-19 cases in the US, and 129,393 deaths. According to many, the recent uptick in cases is due at least partly from the increasing number of testing.

            Source: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/cases-in-us.html

“Protests don’t appear to be driving coronavirus surge in Seattle area or elsewhere, researchers say.”

            Source: Seattle Times June 30, 2020

“COVID 19 virus particle size is 125 nanometers (0.125 microns); the range is 0.06 microns to .14 microns,” the post said. “The N95 mask filters down to 0.3 microns. So, N95 masks block few, if any, virions (virus particles).”

In other words, the post (Facebook post, no citation) asserts the virus is smaller than the filter on the N95 mask, so the N95 mask doesn’t work.

Experts say this claim flies in the face of numerous studies and reflects a failure to grasp fundamental principles of how viruses behave and how face masks work…

…But the physics involved don’t work like that at all.

The COVID-19 particle is indeed around 0.1 microns in size, but it is always bonded to something larger.

“There is never a naked virus floating in the air or released by people,” said Linsey Marr, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech who specializes in airborne transmission of viruses.

The virus attaches to water droplets or aerosols (i.e. really small droplets) that are generated by breathing, talking, coughing, etc. These consist of water, mucus protein and other biological material and are all larger than 1 micron.

“Breathing and talking generate particles around 1 micron in size, which will be collected by N95 respirator filters with very high efficiency,” said Lisa Brosseau, a retired professor of environmental and occupational health sciences who spent her career researching respiratory protection.

            Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/06/11/fact-check-n-95-filters-not-too-large-stop-covid-19-particles/5343537002/

University of Edinburgh test results

Your choice. And that is the point: It should be YOUR choice. Is a cloth face mask the hill where you want your individual freedoms to die?

"I think we have to figure out how to honor people who have done things that are beneficial to society, and if they did things that were not beneficial to society, that we can examine in the lens of having a broad view of what we believe as Americans represents the best attributes of our national identity, then we should look at that," Crump told Fox News host Neil Cavuto on Saturday.

"Whether it should be a situation where, if we keep statues up like that, we tell the history of that individual so people will know the whole story," he added.

"I'm not sure pulling the statues down is the right thing if we now don't get the lessons to understand how we can learn from those things, so we don't repeat those mistakes of the past. You know, they say history -- if not studied -- we will often repeat it."

            Ben Crump attorney for George Floyd’s family

            Source: https://www.foxnews.com/media/floyd-attorney-crump-confederate-monuments

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

George Santayana (paraphrased by Winston Churchill in a speech to the House of Commons, 1948)

“We are not the makers of history. We are made by history.”

            Martin Luther King Jr.

“I went down to the river

I set down on the bank.

I tried to think but couldn’t

So I jumped in and sank.”

            Langston Hughes in part from Life Is Fine

“When all of our history is removed, there will be no history from which to learn.”

            BJ Neblett

Final note:

There once was a magnificent hotel in Atlantic City, NJ, called the Marlborough-Blenheim. It was constructed in 1902 and soon became a show piece of the famed boardwalk city, known worldwide. In October 1978, a large portion of the luxurious hotel was imploded to make room for gambling casinos. I remember covering the demolition for a small local radio station where I worked. A very large crowd of spectators had gathered, and the event was even cover on TV. But after the ear shattering explosions, the crashing of concrete, the settling of the dust, there wasn’t the enormous din of cheers from the onlookers. Rather an ominous silence permeated the heavy air. The once magnificent edifice, historical marker, and proud symbol to many, lay in ruin. As the crowd began to slowly disperse, mumbled thoughts could be heard. “There goes another piece of history.” “I can’t believe it’s gone.” “How will we remember now?”

But one overheard statement has remained with me to this day. One that remains just as appropriate today: “Damn. What the hell have we done?”

Don’t shoot the messenger.

Happy Fourth. Enjoy it while you still can.

Peace,

BJ

Excerpt From Ice Cream Camelot by BJ Neblett

With the 50th anniversary of president John F. Kennedy's assassination upon us, I have been honored by being asked by the Kennedy Library to contribute a short memory of JFK. Below is an excerpt from Chapter Two of my historical memoir Ice Cream Camelot which will be on display and available for reading in a few days. My sincere thanks to the Kennedy Library not only for this great honor but for all of their tireless assistance in the writing of Ice Cream Camelot.
BJ
Click here for: The Kennedy Presidential Library And Museum

Excerpt from Ice Cream Camelot by BJ Neblett © 2013

 By 1960 it was becoming increasingly evident that the order of the day would be change. No matter how desperately Americans longed to cling to the peace and sameness of the past decade, the world was in flux. The Russians were in space, Castro was in Cuba, and civil rights and integration were quickly becoming the catch words of a new era. In addition, another war lurked just around the next corner. Even my life had taken some drastic and unexpected changes. My beloved aunt had passed on, the family had moved to the suburbs, and I was spending less and less time running the streets of South Philly. I never saw Dominick again. A generation of backyard barbecues and bomb shelters had been born out of old fears and new threats, both real and imagined. This new, younger generation was ready for a change in the guard, and John Fitzgerald Kennedy was their choice, describing himself as a man “born in this century,” keen to explore “the New Frontier.”

With the limited understanding of my age, I followed the 1960 campaigns, proudly displaying a Kennedy/Johnson button on my school jacket, much to my conservative Republican father’s dismay. Try as I may I didn’t fully understand the mechanics and methods of the political scene, including the newly popular catch phrase “racial equality.” Here ten-year-old reason faltered.

Growing up in ethnically diverse and divided South Philadelphia, I witnessed firsthand the real and imagined boundaries that separated Italians from Irish, Germans from Polish, the poor from the wealthy, and black from white. Through mute acceptance, my parents and teachers alike instilled in me the belief that this division was normal. My background people were neatly and logically ordered. Thanks to TV news, I also witnessed the heart rending, often violent struggles for racial equality, especially in the South. The simplistic logic that all men were created equal seemed to me a no-brainer. We were taught it in school, preached it in church, and lectured on it in the news. And yet the girls sat behind the boys; wives were subservient to their husbands; and blacks lived separate from whites. I had always been taught to treat everyone with equal respect. But it never occurred to my young mind that everyone I came into contact with was of the same race. I sympathized with the struggles of black Americans and witnessed the inequality of my own existence, never once equating the two.

What I did understand was that young Americans all across the country were drawn in by the Kennedy charm and magnetism. The rhetoric was too loud, the momentum too strong, and the bandwagon too exciting to resist.

Following the conventions, the fall campaigns kicked into high gear. This time my Twilight Zone and Ozzie and Harriet and Untouchables were preempted by terse political updates and tense political debates. All the while the country grew more divided: the segregationists vs. the integrationists; the established vs. the new order; the right vs. the left; the young vs. the old. Lines were tightly drawn and Election Day found the dissimilar pair in a dead heat.

Tuesday, November 8, 1960, brought confusing and conflicting news feeds:

“Uncertain Election Results Favor Kennedy”

“Fighting Erupts in South Vietnam”

In Hyannis Port, Mass., Sen. John F. Kennedy watched his early lead over Vice President Nixon narrow as the evening progressed and refused to claim victory before Nixon conceded defeat.

Nixon watched the returns come in at his suite in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles and later “virtually concedes,” according to a report written to appear the next day.

In California, with 32 electoral votes, Kennedy maintained a lead over Nixon. Nixon, however, remained confident of winning his home state once absentee ballots were counted.

In Illinois, Kennedy maintained a slim lead.

Despite the uncertain returns, New York Times reporter James Reston prepared a story for tomorrow's edition of his paper saying it appeared Kennedy had won election.

Another story prepared for the next day’s paper said, “... in the final hours of Election Day we do not collectively know what we have decided.”

The agonizing election night dragged on into the next day without a clear winner. Finally, 43-year-old Kennedy was declared the victor in one of the closest presidential elections of the 20^th century. Kennedy managed to carry the popular vote over Nixon by just two-tenths of one percent. In the Electoral College he won 303 votes to his opponent’s 219. And in a portentous sign of troubled times to come, fourteen electors from Mississippi and Alabama refused to support Kennedy because of his support for the civil rights movement.

Friday, January 20, 1961, I sat in my desk at St. Pius X Grade School, watching with the rest of my class as Kennedy was inaugurated the thirty-fifth president of the United States. During his acceptance speech, the compelling leader boldly stated that we were “on the edge of a new frontier,” letting “the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans…”

 Feeling a part of that new generation, I had unwittingly found an idol and hero.

Ice Cream Camelot Off To Publisher!

Taking time off from posting stories to do a bit of bragging. My second book, Ice Cream Camelot is finished and off to my publisher Brighton Publishing. We are hoping for an early spring 2013 release. There is a short synopsis below. Your feedback and comments are always welcome. I'd like to thank Ballard artist Emily Gussin for all of her hard work on the book's cover. The layout and artwork is worth the price of admission by itself. Also, I'd like to again thank everyone for their continued support, both of my first novel Elysian Dreams, which continues to sell well, and here with my blog site. You keep reading and commenting and I'll keep posting. And for those who asked: Yes, The Most Dangerous Pitch, last week's post, is a true story, and aside from occasional sparks and flashes, my eye is doing fine, thanks. We won last week's softball game 34 to 5!

Ice Cream Camelot by BJ Neblett

            Ice Cream Camelot presents the history of the Kennedy administration within the funny and touching memoir of a young boy coming of age during those significant years. But this isn’t the Wonder Years revisited, and Billy Neblett isn’t your typical eleven year old. His family has recently moved from his beloved South Philly, and shy young Billy is repeating the fifth grade while struggling to stay out of trouble, make new friends and deal with a growing dependency on alcohol.  All the while, Billy is attempting to find his own identity in an increasingly confusing and frightening world. Amid school bullies, killer nuns, the race for space, peaceful sit-ins, violent race riots and the growing threat of nuclear war, Billy finds his heroes in the most unusual places. Legendary rock n roll DJs Hy Lit and Joe Niagara take Billy under their wing, mentoring him and fostering a love of radio. But it is or 35^th president, John F Kennedy from whom Billy finds hope and inspiration. Painfully aware of the irony in his life – there are no blacks in lily white suburban Lawrence Park, and girls are treated as second class citizens at St Pius X Catholic Grade School – Billy looks to the charismatic JFK as the savior of Camelot for himself and his first love Amy. Ice Cream Camelot is a unique, engaging and entertaining look at one of the most important eras in American history.

Let It Bleed by BJ Neblett

First let me thank everyone who has been following my blog. I hope you have enjoyed the short stories and rants and ramblings. I'll continue to post my stories here, you continue to comment and sent you feedback. In case you didn't know (why would you) almost all of my short stories and my first novel Elysian Dreams were written the old fashioned way...by hand on legal pad. As you can imagine, it takes some time to transcribe them on to the computer. Next week I hope to have a short story/essay up about the day I took a hard line drive to my right eye. (Aside from writing, baseball/softball is my other passion/vice.)
This week's exciting news is that I just finished my second book. Ice Cream Camelot is a memoir about my growing up during the Kennedy era. It's a look into my early life as well as a brief history lesson on the crazy early '60's. With the fiftieth anniversary of Kennedy's assassination coming up next year, we are shooting for a late winter/early spring release. I'm sure there will be thousands of stories, articles, books, TV specials and such during 2013 about that portentous day. Ice Cream Camelot attempts to show the every day life of a young boy coming of age and greatly influenced by our youngest president. as we get closer to publication I'll probably post some excerpts here.
I've been asked several times how it feels to write such a personal and telling memoir. Ice Cream Camelot pulls no punches. It's not the Wonder Years revisited. I was no saint growing up. Writing it wasn't the easiest thing I've ever done, that's for sure. The best way I can describe writing Ice Cream Camelot is this: It was like finding my deepest artery, cutting it open, and just letting it bleed. And it all did come out as you'll read. I am extremely pleased with the way the book turned out and am anxious to get your feedback.
Till next time, as i used to close my radio shows... The message is in the music!
Peace,
BJ

Working Hard

Taking a week off from posting stories. Please scroll down and enjoy any of the short stories you might have missed. And don't forget to leave comments and tell your friends about my blog and home pages.
The reason for not posting this week is I am frantically trying to finish up my next book, Ice Cream Camelot to send off to my publisher. Ice Cream Camelot is a memoir about my growing up during the Kennedy administration. It gives a window into the history of those times as well as my coming of age, first girlfriend, friends, school, etc. We are shooting for an early 2013 release which will be the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy's assassination. I'll keep you posted here.
Also be sure to check out the interview posted on the Ballard Writers Group web page and Kate Brauning's review of my first novel Elysian Dreams. Links to both are posted on this page above. There is also a link to Secrete Garden Books which still has some copies of Elysian Dreams signed by me available.
See all next week with a new story, and thanks to everyone for your support.
Peace,
BJ

A Little R&R/Special Posting

Talking a week off for some rest and relaxation. Check back next Sunday for a very special posting for Memorial Day.
I've been getting some serious writing done. My Historical Memoir Ice Cream Camelot about my growing up during the Kennedy administration is moving along well. We are shooting for an early 2013 release. I have some deep research to occupy my time. Thanks to everyone who has enjoyed the blogs and those who have left comments. Keep those cards and letters coming!
See you next Sunday,
BJ
PS: Don't forget to leave your e mail address to receive updates and notifications about new posts. We NEVER share your e mail address!