On the Sunny Side of the Street: Hello Neighbors!

Since I'm planning to write a weekly post for the Patch about my experiences as a Manassas resident, I thought I ought to introduce myself first.

I've lived in the Washington area since I was a year old and in Manassas since 1973. I was a high school English teacher for over three decades and retired in 2003. Since then, I have been involved with choral and handbell music since my wife is the music director at our church. She is also Artistic Director of the Manassas Chorale and I am a second tenor in the Chorale and the smaller Ensemble.  (Shameless self-promotion: come hear us in one (or both) of our Christmas concerts on December 8 at 5 and 8 PM at the Hylton Center on the Prince William campus of George Mason University. We're pretty good, even if I am a part of the group.)

I enjoy all kinds of music and am a HUGE fan of Gordon Lightfoot, who is still doing concerts after a music career spanning 50 years and over a thousand songs. I also play guitar and since I haven't gotten any better the past 30 years or so, collect instruments I like, particularly Gibsons and Martins.

I have read ever since I can remember and still read widely with tastes that can best be described as "eclectic." I also have written for a long, long time, press releases, columns and about 500 stories and essays (very few published). Currently I am producing a blog called Biscuit City (after an obscure song by the aforementioned M. Lightfoot) which runs each weekday and consists of my thoughts on whatever pops into my head. Today I wrote about acorns, for example. I also have finished a 300-page novel about a young German-American boy who becomes a B-17 pilot in World War II. The novel is currently in revision, but I hope to have it published by next spring.

I wanted to do this blog after my wife and I spent an enjoyable Friday evening last week walking around Old Town Manassas on the Gallery Walk, where various artists display their work in businesses. Manassas has any number of events and festivals, and I want to write about that, but I also want to write about what happens to an ordinary suburbanite in the second decade of the twenty-first century in a small city outside the national capital. I hope you'll follow me in this, and I hope you enjoy what you read.

I'm calling this blog "On the Sunny Side of the Street" because 1) I like the song, 2) our house faces the sun whenever it shines and 3) I hope to convey an optimistic attitude toward events and life. And so, let's get on with it!