Ol' Peeps
For years my father grew the best plants and put out at least two editions of the growing guide. His first love however, was writing. He found a way to do both. One of the most popular features of the paper catalog was his "Peeps Diary". Peeps was his alter ego, his way of expressing himself. Readers were given insight to his world through his prose. I hope you enjoy these reprints.
Ol' Peeps is Back
2002
When the Ol’ boy disappeared from the greenhouse, it was not to cavort on sand and sun in some warm Cuban retreat. Instead, he planted his posterior in a sturdy chair and began scribbling, a book in mind.
To tell the story of the disease that haunted him was quick and easy. He sat every day in a chair and typed, describing daily stumbles and shaking night awakenings, trying to understand the way Alzheimer’s acted. Anger and bewilderment exploded as the words poured out day by day. He called the book Losing My Mind.
A literary agent was enlisted and he quickly found a publisher, in this case one of America’s finest, The Free Press, a branch of the well known New York house of Simon & Schuster. The book was written in eight lonely, hectic months.
The preparation of the book in New York was slow and careful, all the better to fit it with care. Even little things like publishing a book takes time, so many hands are involved, so many things to make perfect.
While New York fiddled, Ol’ Peeps continued to type. In another eight months, a follow-up book of Alzheimer’s pain was finished. With hardly a breath, the Ol’ Boy began another, this one an amazing, true story of politics in the sixties and a man named Austin Burton who left an insane asylum and ran for Vice President of the United States. He didn’t make it to the top of the political pile that year, but he won the New Hampshire Vice Presidential race and surprised pundits and politicians. This book, full of laughter and wit will soon find a home and a place on book shelves. The Ol’ Boy spends some part of each day tickling the keys, dreaming another book will spill from his declining brain.
Copies of Losing My Mind are on the way to bookstores. Signed copies of the book will be available at the greenhouse. Tom spends Saturday and Sunday at the greenhouse. Please stop by and keep him busy signing books, otherwise he will be sent to a lonely greenhouse to transplant, something he thought he left behind when he shook the dirt from his shoes and started serious writing
[*Note: this was written back in 2002. Signed copies of Tom's books are no longer available. Tom is no longer able to visit the farm-Francesco]
--Tom DeBaggio