My Visit to St. Raphael's

On June 25 I met at St.Raphael Academy with Brother Thomas, Mr. Terry Murray, teacher and co-director of the Drama Club, Darby Castigligo, Vice President of Operations, and Laura Loffredo, Director of Development, to donate my book, Friends are Thicker than Water, to the school library.

It is amazing how Saints always has such qualified and dedicated people working at the school. Brother Thomas has done a great job as producer of the Saints newsletter. He will be leaving Saints this summer and will teach in September at a school in New Jersey. New Jersey's gain is Saint Raphael's loss. Brother Thomas is the last brother teaching at Saints. Lay teachers will now carry the teaching torch.

In 1955, most of the teachers were Brothers with only a few lay teachers. The school is now co-ed, starting in 1974. Brother Thomas' duties will be taken over by the capable Mr. Murray who is also the renowned theatre arts teacher and play director at Saints.

Don on "An Hour With Bob" and a note from Judy

I appeared on "An Hour With Bob" this past week and the segment was aired three times last week. I had a good opportunity to talk about the book. I will also tape a segment to be shown on CATV, Channel 8 that will be shown throughout Vermont and New Hampshire.

I got an email from Judy who wrote, "I recently finished reading your book 'Friends are Thicker than Water Tales of a Misspent Youth.' I wanted to drop you a note to say I enjoyed it. It was both funny and nostalgic. What Pawtucket teenage girl didn't attend St.Ray's and Tolman's Thanksgiving Day Game with a chrysanthemum pinned to her coat?

You captured your main character perfectly. I think George was lucky to have you for his friend. I loved the way you ended your story. Upon finishing the book, I said a prayer for Ralph McGreavey."

Welcome to my new website and blog!

"Friends are Thicker than Water" was written over a period of years after I learned that my best friend in high school died. I started to jot down some of the fun times we had together and eventually decided to write this book. Many of the incidents are not the way they happened and some of them never happened in real life. But it was a lot of fun and laughs putting all of these tales together.
The book is enhanced by original poetry written by my son, Patrick.
Step back to 1955 on our journey of friendship, funny bone first into that time of innocence not so long ago.
I look forward to all comments on this blog.