he makes me look like a piker

when i was a kid, a new family moved into our town. the bordines were very familiar. the oldest son was my age, next came a boy the same age as my brother, their sister was exactly the same age as my little sister. we lived at the top of the hill, and they lived at the bottom. their family was deeply religious, as was ours. each of the kids were at least moderately intelligent, so we all shared classes with the kid of the same age. the only big difference was that the bordines didn't have a father in the house. in point of fact, their move to wimberley was precipitated by the self-inflicted death of their dad. i can only guess that a fresh start thousands of miles away seemed like a good idea.

paul was the oldest boy. he was about 11 when they moved in and he had problems. the events of his life had caused such stress and trauma in his psyche that he had developed a bleeding ulcer. somehow, his mom found out that we lived very close to them and she asked my parents to encourage me to befriend her son and help him fit in so he would relax and his health might improve. from this inauspicious beginning was born a long lasting friendship. we were close friends for the next 7 years even up to the point that we drove to our high school graduation ceremony together.

paul and brad were also like us in that they loved to read. some days, we would walk down to their house, and all four of us would just lie around reading to ourselves. i think it was one of them that introduced us to the great brain and all of his adventures.

this series of 7 books were written by john dennis fitzgerald and published beginning in the late 60's. they are all written from the perspective of j.d. who is the younger brother of tom, the title character. tom, or t.d., is smart, conniving, honest, loyal, and greedy. go figure that personality. these stories all tell the tale of their turn-of-the-century, southern utah, catholic childhoods. that they lived in the center of the mormon universe was of particular interest to neil and myself. we read these books over and over until they were falling apart.

one of the reasons i enjoy the harry potter books so is that they vaguely remind me of these books from my adolescence that i love so much. both series are sweet, innocent, full of mischief and adventure, and are funny. the great brain books were a direct contrast to the horror novels that i was also immersed in at that age. perhaps the incongruity of the two subjects is what endeared them to me so strongly.

i was reminded of them recently while in salt lake city. neil asked me if i had found the old catholic academy where the brothers in the stories spent their secondary educational years. i hadn't even thought about it,; but, after the phone call i was very enthused to find this evidence of the real lives portrayed in the books. unfortunately, it is no longer surviving. well, what are you going to do?

if you're me, you will pull out your copies of the great brain books and start re-reading stories as familiar as if i had lived them myself. they are still funny and interesting. i discovered that mr. fitzgerald was actually born in price, utah, which is a little more than 3 hours south east of salt lake city. adenville, utah and the adjoining mining town of silverlode are fictional towns. i did a little research on the internet (for what that is worth) and found that "great brain" students (i find it odd that such persons exist) postulate that these towns were based on the real utah cities of leeds, utah and silver reef, utah.

i've begun reading some of the stories to my son. i am glad to hear him chuckling and seemingly enjoying that which is so dear to me.

thanks, paul.

p.s. i found that a movie was made in the 70's using the first book as the storyline. i'm not sure what it might be like since jimmy osmond played the role of t.d. fitzgerald. i'll begin looking for it nonetheless. i also discovered a claim that t.d. died while serving in WWI, though i have no idea where this information is said to originate. interesting, though. another source (with the state historical society) claims that t.d. was still living in price when j.d. died in 1988.