He devoured The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings Trilogy (very upset over the “death” of Gandalf until he read the second book), and wanted more. Randy remembers his older brother introducing him to J.

She was amazed at the number of books he zipped through and stood aghast when Randy was upset with the librarian over the checkout limit of five books at a time! Her solution: start bringing her young son there weekly! By the time he was eight, his mom was taking him to the local library twice a month. With his older brothers’ and sisters’ influence, he grew to love books and reading. Randy attended kindergarten in New York, but the rest of his school days were spent in Michigan. Several other memories: being stung for the first time by a hornet (a brother had stirred up the nest and then told him to run around in circles!) sleeping on the front porch during a hot summer night and the house being struck by lightning, sending a shower of broken glass onto everyone lying on that porch picking oodles of wild berries that grew plentiful on the farm watching Dad and brothers turn over some large concrete slabs from an old sidewalk and then spending hours watching the ants scurry everywhere hearing about but not understanding the dreadful accident his oldest brother had suffered (the only survivor of a head-on collision-before seat belts!) moving from New York to Michigan when only five years old because Grandpa Smith was no longer with us and Dad was taking over the hardware store. When he came out, everyone was hidden, including Randy under the drum! He got there when the brother who was “it” had to run into the house to use the bathroom. The drum was actually the “home base” for the game.

Hide-n-seek was the most popular game, and Randy can still laugh at the time one of his brothers couldn’t find him because the older brother had hidden him under an old 55-gallon drum. Playing with his two older brothers and two sisters was a normal afternoon and evening pastime.

Some are quite comical, while others are a little more “catch your breath” type of events for a very young man. At that time, the family lived in upstate New York on a 127-acre farm, and he has several memories from his younger days. The transformation that takes place… Meet Randy Massey!īorn the fifth of five children, Randy Massey was the “surprise” child of his parents Homer and Beatrice Massey. I thought it was interesting to see the way a writer becomes a writer. This article is from author Randy Massey.

The Summoner by Randy Massey