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Luzerne County restaurant inspections June 12-15: Gas-powered equipment stored in food storage shed

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Annual Briggs Farm Blues Festival to take place in Nescopeck July 6 to 9

<p>In the summer of 1977, I had a paper route delivering The Daily News in the Bronx to almost 100 customers, many of them older.</p><p>One of them was Mr. Norton, a tough-talking, grizzled New Yorker who frequently sent me to the deli to get him a six-pack of beer.</p><p>He was a shut-in and an avid reader of The News, so when the papers started to pile up outside his door, I grew alarmed.</p><p>It took a while, but I finally got the attention of the security service that patrolled our buildings and was there when the officers broke into his apartment.</p><p>In what was an appalling lack of discretion, the officers asked me &#8212; a 12-year-old &#8212; to come inside and identify his dead body.</p><p>Mr. Norton was on his back on the floor, his face a frozen grimace.</p><p>I remember it distinctly to this day.</p><p>That was one of several events that summer that yanked me from my protected cocoon of school and home and forced me to confront the realities of death, violence and the ugly side of human nature.</p><p>Up to that time, my exposure to death was fleeting. I had lost a grandmother and a grandfather, neither of whom I knew very well.</p><p>But that summer taught me that death could be immediate and unpredictable.</p><p>It saw the continuation of the reign of terror of the Son of Sam, a serial killer who used a .44-caliber handgun over a year to kill six and wound seven.</p><p>I was too young to date or drive (he targeted young couples in cars), but the idea that some madman was killing people at random was hard to comprehend.</p><p>Even more disturbing was a young couple on my paper route who had a toddler son. Outwardly nothing seemed amiss, but one day the husband apparently snapped and killed his wife, their son and himself with a large knife.</p><p>The brutality shocked me, but I was even more upset by the disconnect between how I perceived him and the reality of what must have been going on behind closed doors.</p><p>And then there was the citywide blackout of July 13 to 14, 1977.</p><p>Plenty of neighbors helped each other and people banded together during the crisis, but that kind of altruism was eclipsed by arson and looting that felt like something out of an apocalyptic movie.</p><p>Though my neighborhood was spared the worst of that property damage, I recall feeling disappointed and confused that people could act that way.</p><p>Coming of age &#8212; when you cross from childhood into young adulthood and your worldview is reshaped &#8212; conjures up movies such as &#8220;The Breakfast Club&#8221; (1985) or &#8220;Stand By Me&#8221; (1986).</p><p>But my coming of age did not happen in after-school detention or with a bunch of buddies on a trek to see a dead body.</p><p>Real life &#8212; not Hollywood &#8212; burst my insulated bubble that summer, 40 years ago.</p><p>My Pollyannaish ways became a thing of the past.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Christopher Mele Mele&#8217;s Musings </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/web1_mele-3.jpg</photo0><caption0>Christopher Mele Mele&#8217;s Musings </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/web1_StandByMe.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Crossing into adulthood didn&#8217;t happen in the idealistic ways portrayed in films like &#8216;Stand By Me.&#8217; </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/web1_StandByMe.jpg</photo1><caption1>Crossing into adulthood didn&#8217;t happen in the idealistic ways portrayed in films like &#8216;Stand By Me.&#8217; </caption1><photoCredit1>Google image </photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Christopher Mele</p><p>Mele&#8217;s Musings</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Christopher Mele is married and dad of two sons and two stepchildren. His childhood in the Bronx defined his friendships, which endure today. A career newsman, writer and editor, the Lords Valley resident is glad to share stories and insights about the challenges that the modern-day middle-aged guy faces. Reach Chris at seaosprey22@gmail.com.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Mele’s Musings: Coming of age meant confronting darker side of human nature