The Hall of Fame

  When this author visited the Palmer Homestead back in 1994, I did so with a hidden agenda. Little did I know that I would spend so much time there, no, not in person, not physically, but in the heart and soul of Larkin Palmer the protagonist of the first two books of my series. To tell the truth then, my agenda was not really to visit the Homestead with Shirreen's Uncle Walter, but, to visit the baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown!

  The trip from Walter's home to the Homestead was about an hour, but the side excursion to Cooperstown would take just about as long and Walter figured that we may as well kill two birds with one stone. Little did he know...

  I had gone to New York to pick up some materials and tools Walter had no use for after he retired. I gladly accepted his invitation to go up there to retrieve them as I had just begun in my plumbing business earlier that year. Walter had been retired for a few months and had poured his heart and soul into completing the renovations of the Homestead farm house. Naturally, he wanted to show me the place and introduce me to the last Palmer to permanently live there, Harry Palmer. I went along only because of my personal agenda. Old selfish me!

  For you see, just like Larkin Palmer in Curse of the Eraser, I wanted to play professional ball just like millions of other boys with dreams. It had also been my dream to visit Cooperstown, but life had gotten in the way and I just had never made it. As it turns out, that has been my one and only chance, which thanks to Walter became reality.

  Ironically, also through Walter, even though Curse has not yet been published, it has taken me and the 50 or so people that have read it on a greater journey than I could ever have imagined. And for that, the tools, and an excursion through four books, Walter Clark, I am grateful for the trip- not to Cooperstown, but to Brookfield, NY.