"Motherhood truly softened me." Seattle mom Kathleen talks about the choice to stay home.

Kathleen, 43, hiking with her children.

Kathleen is unlike most of the stay-at-home moms I interviewed for this biweekly series, Who Am I Now: Honest Conversations with Stay-at-Home-Moms.
Most struggled with their post-career identities, unaware of the toll the social isolation would take on them.
Kathleen, who lives in a Seattle suburb, worked as a nanny for seven years before she had kids, and then in a private preschool for eight years.
She was accustomed to the lifestyle.
Staying home is important to her, she says. Her parents divorced when she was young and she spent much of her time in the care of sitters.
She didn't want that for her children.
I spoke with Kathleen, 43, five years ago. Her children are now 11, 9 and 7. She is thinking about going to school and getting a job, but she  keeps herself busy now volunteering at school, caring for her household and her kids and keeping the whole family physically active.
This and all interviews in the series can be found in their own blog: Who Am I Now: Honest Conversations with Stay-at-Home-Moms. 

Here is Kathleen's story in her words:

We’d always said what you say when you’re dating. (I was nannying when we were dating.) When we have kids I can always work with the first one and by the time you have two, you stay home.
Really I was working at a daycare that was quite elitist. It had infant massage every day. This place was very, very fancy. I don’t know how I got a job there, but a lot of people wanted their kids in there, so to be able to have my child go there was really, I thought, kind of a blessing. We were glad to have it.
But, the problem was, they kept adjusting my hours, you know working the latest shift that you could have. The place closed at six thirty, so I was there until closing. Technically, I could see my son on all breaks, but that was when he was sleeping. I would get home. He would fall asleep on the commute. I never saw him. He was pretty much just there to get me in the carpool lane back and forth.
It was really, really depressing.
Then on the weekends, he was just pretty much going through withdraw from being in pretty much the most glorious daycare. I wasn’t happy with my job. They wanted me to work more and more hours. Half my paycheck was going into his daycare. I was getting a fifty percent discount, but being such a fancy place, it was a very expensive program.
He started at four months and by the time he was eight months old, I quit. It kind of all blew up in my face. All of a sudden, I just couldn’t stand it anymore.
It was great to stay home but, to be honest, it was really hard because I had to get to know this baby that really didn’t want to be with me. He really wanted to be with the other people.
That was hard.
He did and it felt lousy.
They did baby sign with him there and I didn’t know what he was saying. I had no idea what he wanted. I just really never got to spend that much time with him, which was a terrible thing. He was my first child. I’d been with other people’s children more than mine own as a newborn nanny.
That was hard. I think.
It was so depressing and so I gained a little weight and then I finally really had to get myself out there and start doing things, because that wasn’t good. It wasn’t really a big paycheck in the first place. It wasn’t like we went through this monumental change. It was literally like if we cancelled the diaper service and I washed diapers and we didn’t go out to eat as much and I wasn’t really buying a lot of wardrobe… He (her husband) always had a good enough job that he could have supported us. We always knew it was coming. I don’t think we intended for it to come that fast.
And then I got pregnant again right away, so it worked out.
I’ve thought about going back and getting a different kind of degree. I actually don’t have a degree, but getting it in just a completely different field, getting a degree in nutrition because I got really into eating healthy and stuff like that.
But it was just one of those things where it would have had to have been after my youngest was out kindergarten before I could even start going back. In reality, it’s really important for us to have somebody at home. I was raised by a single mom without supervision and that was not a good thing. When you think kids are more independent, that’s really, really when I want to be home.
So I think we just kind of focused on having somebody here or, if I did go back it would just kind of be a hobby. But we don’t really need it. My husband’s a tightwad and I’m pretty much a hippy and those two things actually can really work out well together. We’re pretty tight with money, but I think it’s more that that’s how our lifestyle is.
Our lifestyle is unusual. I make ninety percent of what we eat. We grow a lot of our own food. We have goats. My husband is from Europe, so we still go back to Europe. He doesn’t really have a big bling-bling job or anything like that, but we are pretty tight with what we spend it on compared to other families. He works in IT and he does well enough to support a family of five in the city and everything. So I guess being at home really did put the focus on living more of a natural life.
I don’t think my social life changed intensely. I stopped going out, but I did that years before I had kids. I gave up my theater tickets. That was pretty much the only big switch. It was hard to get my husband to come home early, so I could go to the theater. My husband, I think he likes it. He has somebody here. Somebody is looking after the animals and somebody is with his kids. He really likes that and I think it’s nice to come home and smell dinner.
My friends, I think they really think I lucked out. I mean, they know we are not excruciatingly wealthy, but a lot of my friends were single moms most of the time. Like I said, they’ve raised their kids already or maybe they were working moms. I think they were not necessarily jealous, but I think they definitely think I lucked out. I feel sad that they missed out on everything that I have. I think it would have been really nice for them to be able to stay home and have that kind of a bond with their kids. I can imagine that some of them feel a little remorseful because they just weren’t able to do that.
I came from a divorced family and I’ll tell you my parents have the utmost respect for it. I was raised by a single mom. I think it’s really healing for my parents to see—my husband and I have a very strong, very loving marriage—to see us raising children in a way that my parents weren’t able to do for whatever reason. I think it’s really good for them. I guess I have a lot of admiration from my friends and my family for that. I am very supported and I guess I’m just really lucky.
I’m really happy with it (her decision). Coming from a divorced family and being raised by a single mom, my main goal as an adult was to have children and be able to stay home with them. I didn’t suffer. It wasn’t like I was beaten or anything like that. My mom worked very hard and she’s a really good person. It’s just that, you know, she wasn’t home and I really, really miss that. I’m just so grateful to be able to do that, to stay home with my children.
My oldest, he is in kindergarten now and he had a cold and it was just a cold and it was a slight fever, but I got to stay home with him. I was so grateful to be able to do that. Whereas, when I was a kid you had to be vomiting for my mom to be able to take a day off from work.
I’m very happy with the position I’m in.
I’m very happy about the life I lead.
I feel really good about it.
I don’t think I could be this happy about anything if I was working a job. It would never give me this kind of satisfaction.
His family? I think the hard part is that his older sister isn’t married. She never married and she really would have been a wonderful mother and she would never have children in her own or anything like that. They are a different generation and from a different country and you just don’t necessarily go out and adopt children on your own. There is probably not a lot of hope in her marrying at this stage, which just breaks my heart to even say.
His second sister doesn’t have any children either. She and her husband have tried and tried for years and have gone through IVF, I think, four times, They’ve been on an adoption waiting list for a few years now. You can’t adopt Irish children. You have to go out of the country. So I think that they see me as very blessed and I’m sure I do have a good relationship with his family, but I would like to think that they see me as being appreciative and grateful for what I have.
I would never, never complain about staying at home with the kids or anything like that. Neither of them have children and I know they want them. There are really not a lot of people I can bitch to about it. A lot of my friends are going on the same boat as my husband’s sister. They are going through IVF so you can’t really complain.
I don’t complain that much.
I do a lot to my husband.
Going out? I don’t know what to do by myself. I really don’t. My husband will be like okay why don’t you go off and do something, and I don’t have anything to do. I’ll say okay, I’ll just take so and so, one of the kids, and he goes, don’t take one of the kids or it’s not time for yourself. It’s really nice actually for me to have one-on-one. So I do enjoy taking one of the kids. It’s nice to go with that one person and talk to them. I don’t have like a gaggle of girlfriends just waiting for me.
I think it would be very presumptuous of me to tell everybody that they should be Becky-Home-Eccy. I think there are some people out there who are just meant to work and there’s nothing wrong with staying at work if you really want to work. God knows, my OB is a mother and my pediatrician has children in school. I would never judge someone for that.
But I think if you go to work and decide you would rather stay at home, there’s a lot that you can do to do it. There are so many cutbacks and things like that. So I think it’s nowhere near impossible. It’s how much you’re willing to give up. Just find your own groove and find something that works and stick with it.
Motherhood truly softened me.
Like an emery board, it just sort of smoothed out the rough edges.
I can’t remember who my mentor was before, but now it’s Mr. Rogers.

Who Am I Now? Honest Conversations with Stay-at-Home Moms

Five years ago, I had an idea.
A great idea, according to several agents and publishers.
Who Am I Now: Honest Conversations with Stay-at-Home Moms was supposed to be a collection of interviews with mothers of all ages from all over the country who discussed, entirely in their own words, the sociological, the financial, the psychological and the physical impacts of their decisions to remain home with their children.
No condescension from the experts, no supermoms held up as role models: only candid interviews with real women of all ages.
More than a dozen women, strangers at first, gave selflessly of their time, their hearts and their souls to make this book happen.
Their motivation was not money.
There were no promises of compensation.
They spoke to me because they wanted to help.
They were no longer strangers by the time we were through and I am forever grateful that I had the opportunity to know them.
I couldn't wait to share their experiences, their raw honesty, their wisdom with the world.
But then came reality.
Pull a parenting book off the shelf.
Chances are the author is a celebrity of some sort -- a talk show host, an already well-known writer, an actor, a nationally or internationally renown doctor. The publishers who were interested in Who Am I Now? wanted that same status from me.
They wanted me to freelance for national parenting magazines, speak at conferences, blog on parenting sites -- do anything I could to become a "parenting expert" before they would consider publication.
But I am not an expert and I never will be.
I am a stay-at-home mother of four who was once a journalist and is now writing fiction. I am a woman who struggled with staying home, who took comfort in the voices of others and who wanted share that comfort with others who were struggling. I was to be the compiler of Who Am I Now?, not the writer, not the expert.
It has pained me to think that those women wasted their time, their energy and their honesty.
So I had another idea.
Every two weeks for the next several months, I will publish one of those interviews on this blog.
I will promote the blog wherever I can and I will count on the interviewees to share as well.
Together, we'll get the word out. We'll reach those moms who need us, those mothers who are struggling with their new roles and with the identities they left behind, who are searching, sometimes through eyes swollen with tears, for the answer to that question: Who Am I Now?

Once published, each segment will be available on a new blog: Who Am I Now? Honest Conversations with Stay-at-Moms.

Author Mark Pryor on serial mystery: the choice and the craft

Mark Pryor, author

When I first spoke with Mark Pryor, I was impressed.

In one phone call, I could tell he knew his stuff -- the law, the streets, human nature. He even had a sense of humor. Throw in the fact that he is an English guy living in Texas, and he had all the ingredients for a great mystery writer ... if he could write.

No doubt, he proved that with his debut mystery, The Bookseller: the First Hugo Martson Novel, already climbing the best-seller lists and recommended by Oprah. 

Hugo is an intriguing character, an ex-FBI profiler working as head of security for the U.S. Embassy in Paris. He's bored, debating what to do with his vacation time, when his friend Max, an elderly bookseller is abducted. Hugo watches, forced to stand helplessly by.

The Bookseller on Amazon

With no help from the Paris police, Hugo enlists his semiretired CIA buddy, Tom, to help him find Max as  bookseller bodies begin surfacing in the Seine. Soon, Hugo becomes the target of unknown assassins himself, unsure whether former Nazis, who were hunted by Max, or drug lords fighting  violently for control of Paris' streets are behind the guns.

The novel is fast-paced and suspenseful with rich characters and the perfect setting.

I even learned something of Parisian history.

But Mark didn't even pause to take a breath after its October release. 

The second book in the Hugo Martson series, titled The Crypt Thief, will be released in May of 2013, and the third in October.  Mark's first non-fiction book, As She Lay Sleeping, will be published this coming January and is the true story of a 'cold' murder case he prosecuted last year.

With his freshness to the publishing scene, his early success and the experience he already is building in writing serial mystery, Mark seemed like the right guy to ask about the genre of serial mystery, the craft it demands and the choice to pursue it.

Thankfully, he agreed to answered a few questions.

First, just a little more about the author: 

Mark is a former newspaper reporter from England, and now an assistant district attorney with the Travis County District Attorney's Office, in Austin, Texas. He is the creator of the nationally recognized, true-crime blog D.A. Confidential. He has appeared on CBS News' 48 Hours and Discovery Channel's Discovery ID: Cold Blood.

Now, here we go!

You write book-length fiction and nonfiction. Which was your first passion?

Mark: Fiction.  My imagination has always pushed me to take a real life situation and say, "Yeah, but what if this happened next?  And then this…?"  I remember once in primary school in England, when I was six or seven.  We had two notebooks to write in, one was for  actual stuff we did  and one for made up stories.  My teacher once asked us to write in the "news" notebook about what we did over the weekend.  So I wrote about the haystack I'd played on with my best friend, and how it had suddenly floated out to sea as we were being attacked by crocodiles.  Now, I'm pretty sure that didn't actually happen but what stuck with me the most was the fact that my teacher never said a word about it that I recall--perhaps she liked the story?!

Did you set out to write serial fiction?

Mark: Yes, I think I did.  Or at least, create an enduring set of major characters.

If yes, why?

Mark: I've always wanted to have a character I could run with.  Someone interesting who I could develop and plonk into different situations among different good guys and bad guys.  I think back to my favorite books they were always the ones I could get to know and appreciate over time, starting with the Hardy Boys and moving on to Sherlock Holmes, to my modern-day favorites like Harry Bosch and Harry Hole.  When you pick up a book with a familiar character it's like sitting down for a chat with an old friend, and so that's something I'd really like to be able to create.

When you sat down to write the second Hugo novel, which has yet to be released, how did that differ from writing the first one? Did any particular issues surprise you?

Mark: It differed in that I tried to plan it more carefully, to outline it.  I created a notebook with ideas and characters, sketching out scenes and events.  I did a lot before I sat down to write and guess what?  I think it's fair to say that zero percent of those people or events made it into the book!  Turns out that as long as I know who does what to whom, and why, I can pretty much push the start button and get writing.  Now, I did think more consciously about pacing, about making sure the reader bites and then (hopefully!) keeps enjoying.  I suppose it might be fair to say it's closer to a thriller than a mystery, although those distinctions have always eluded me to a large degree.  Anyway, one thing I'm sure of, I won't be outlining again!

In serial mystery, authors must consider the main character’s potential for growth and development. What kind of future do you see for Hugo? Which type of reader would be most intrigued by Hugo’s development?

Mark: I agree, that's important.  I always thought of Hugo as a little detached from those around him.  He's led an interesting life but a fairly testing one.  He has built walls to protect himself and his own personality make him, as I say in The Bookseller, a watcher not a player. But like in a real friendship, I hope that over time these walls come down, that the reader gets glimpses into what makes him tick.  I never wanted to create someone you felt you knew after the first few chapters, or even the first book.  After all, if you want someone like that you can enjoy Tom Green who isn't shy about laying it all out there from the get-go.

As for who will enjoy him?  I think there's a little something for everyone.  He's a man's man to some degree, in the sense that he's very practical and pragmatic about solving problems.  He's not particularly emotional or sentimental. . .  and yet he has that softer side.  He's playful with Claudia, and has an old-fashioned charm that is sincere and makes him appealing to women.  At least, I hope so!

How well do you know Hugo and the other characters who will likely return (I hope!), such as Tom? How well do you feel writers should know their characters in serial mystery before they get started? Should they map it all out, or discover as they go?

Mark: I think for the writer as well as the reader it's a journey of discovery.  Some things happen in the second book that I didn't plan out but that developed because they seemed consistent with the actions and personalities of the characters.  Sorry to be so vague, but I can't very well spoil my own novel, can I?! 

The bottom line is that all people grow and change over time, all relationships and friendships do.  I can't pretend to know what Hugo will be like two or three books from now because I don't know what wonders and evils he will encounter.  I like it that way, because if it's a little unpredictable, if it's a fun journey of discovery for me, then hopefully it is for the reader, too.

Hugo has quite an interesting resume – former FBI agent turned head of security for the U.S. Embassy in Paris. What inspired you to choose this career path for Hugo and what are its benefits for you as a writer?

Mark: I actually went to law school with the idea of becoming an FBI agent myself! True story.  And I have known a couple of FBI agents and even profilers, through my personal life and my job as a prosecutor.  And those guys have stories to tell, I can assure you, fascinating people.  In some ways it's a fairly obvious choice for a main character but on the other hand there aren't really many repeat novel characters who have that job, are there?  And yet it's something, behavioral analysis, that just about everyone on the planet has some interest in.  It also fits Hugo's character as a 'watcher,' as I talked about before -- it just wouldn't be right to have him as a former Navy SEAL or retired ninja!

As for the US Embassy job, well, I needed him to be in an English-speaking environment, where he gets to carry a gun (I checked on that point), and can move around the city, the country, even Europe pretty easily.  His job fills those criteria very nicely, and lets me put him in contact with visiting Americans (see book two) and dignitaries (see book three!) alike.

Why Paris? How important is setting in serial mystery?

Mark: Great question, in fact I just wrote a guest post on this topic for my local indie bookstore's blog.  And I hope it's obvious from reading The Bookseller that setting is very important to me.  Paris has so much to offer, as a writer, a reader, and even an imaginary character.  It's such a walkable city that Hugo (or I) can stroll around and find adventure anywhere.  It's a beautiful city, no one would argue with that, and it is subject to the whim of the four seasons, which are always helpful in creating mood.   (Maybe I'm not good enough to write a book set in Texas, where nine months of the year it's nothing but hot!) 

I also see history as a part of 'setting,' and that's going to be a huge part of the Hugo Marston series.  Obviously, the unique bouquinistes and France's World War Two history feature in The Bookseller, but history and place continue in the next two books: the cemeteries in the next, and Napoleon and the Revolution in the third. 

As much as I love Paris, and always will, I must confess to looking forward to having Hugo explore other places, though.  Because, as mentioned, that means I get to as well!

Early in the novel, we learn of Hugo’s traumatic romantic history. He eventually begins a relationship in through which a more personal side of him is revealed. How important is the romantic plot to serial mystery? Should all serial mystery contain some element of romance or lust?

Mark: I wouldn't dare to pronounce a rule for all mysteries!  But it's an interesting question because if one is to have a successful series there's no question that the main characters must be fully rounded, or at least must be working towards being fully realized people.  And if that's true, then it seems to follow that the parts of their lives that matter will reflect the parts of our lives that matter.  Romance, health, work, money, spiritual fulfillment, I suppose all these have to play a role in some way in a series.

Now, how those appear must be left to the author, of course.  Some will focus on health as an area of conflict (drug and drink-addled detectives) and some may focus on work or money.  But romance is an intriguing area because it lets a writer play with his hero's softer side.  Hugo's a red-blooded Texan in that he's not afraid of an adventure and he willingly chases bad guys down blind alleys, but he's also a big softie in some ways.  He's old-fashioned and a little out of his depth with the savvy, confident modern woman.  I don't intend (I don't think!) to linger on his romantic adventures or to make his pursuit of love any kind of significant sub plot.  But as an attractive, single man with needs and desires, it does let me find conflict for him, and it allows me to show the reader another side of him, which is important to make him a fuller character.  Plus, when they make it into a move and let me play Hugo, I might get to kiss Angelina Jolie. . .

What do you suppose has made your debut novel such a big success so soon? What elements does it offer readers that some of the less success serial mystery does not? Any sage advice for budding writers bade on your experience?

Mark: Now you're being too sweet -- I don't know whether it counts as a success, though one can hope.  But I'm always happy to give advice.  I think the first thing is to make sure you know the nuts and bolts of writing, to make sure you learn the craft of it.  Things like showing v. telling, using strong verbs instead of adverbs, going easy on the dialog tags.  Learn those, and practice them until they are second nature.

The second piece of advice is to remember what you're doing.  I've been asked my opinion on sample chapters, or entire novels, and it seems to me that the writer is too aware they are writing a novel, they are trying very hard to be a writer.  Sometimes it helps to step back and remember you're not writing a novel, you're telling a story.  That may seem like a strange distinction but it does exist, I've seen it with my own eyes.

The final piece of advice kicks in when you have the craft of writing under your belt (as much as anyone can) and you have a story down on paper.  Don't give up!  Sadly, writing the book is sometimes the easy part.  Finding an agent, and then a publisher, can be frustrating, dispiriting, exhausting.  You'll get more rejections that a spotty teenager who smells like Gruyere, but that's the nature of the business.  I'd tell you how many I received, from agents and publishers, but I lost count long ago.  Be patient, persevere, because if you have a good story and it's well told I really believe it will find a home.

Who is your favorite serial mystery author if you have one? Why?

Mark: Conan Doyle.  Sherlock Holmes is such an icon, such a brilliant character, and the stories are so intricate and fun, that I doubt they will ever be replaced for me as the greatest series. I love the interplay between Holmes and Watson, too, and I'm sure that had a strong influence on my creation of Tom as Hugo's friend.

In memory of Carmen Basilio

I am not a big fan of boxing, but I am a huge fan of Carmen Basilio.
The former world welterweight and middleweight champion died Wednesday at age 85 in a Rochester, N.Y., hospital near his home, a home he welcomed me into 20 years ago to share stories of his life.
Together with photographer and friend Frank Ordoñez, I experienced his kindness, his humor and his frighteningly close fake jabs. At the time, a film production company had planned to make a movie of his life story. It never happened and that's a shame.
I am sadden by his death and my heart goes out to his wife, Josie, and the rest of their family. But I am honored that I had chance to know him.
Rest in peace, Carmen Basilio.

Here is the article, which appeared in the (Syracuse, N.Y.) Herald Journal on May 18, 1992:

BASILIO'S STORY STILL INTRIGUES

THE CANASTOTA NATIVE'S RISE FROM THE MUCKLANDS TO WORLD BOXING CHAMPION COULD BECOME A MOVIE.

 Promoter Herb Stark sat at a picnic table in his client's family room, rifling through papers strewn before him. Which actor should portray his client in a television movie? 

"Tony Danza or Robert De Niro," Stark said.
This provoked a nod from his 65-year-old client, Carmen Basilio. Out came a recent photograph of Danza with his arm around Basilio's shoulders. Danza, an ex-fighter, sought out Basilio when word spread that he was eating in the same Las Vegas diner.

It's that kind of reaction that makes the former world welterweight and middleweight champion movie material nearly 31 years after his last fight.

"People haven't forgotten me so I guess I'm one of the lucky ones," Basilio said, squinting through his swollen eyes. "There's so many things that happened in my life. We didn't have much money. Times were tough. It'd make a good movie, exciting."

Basilio and Stark, an agent for former athletic champions, have talked for years about making a film or documentary on the retired boxer's life. Lou Buttino who, like Basilio, grew up in the Madison County village of Canastota, is working with them.

"I think it would break new ground, to show how Carmen Basilio has been able to adjust after the glory days are over," said Buttino, a journalism professor at St. John Fisher College in Rochester. "He has a real appreciation for life."

Their chance came last summer when Michael Derrick, president of Film Producers International at Universal Studios in Orlando, Fla., attended a charity banquet in Rochester. Derrick was impressed.

He sees Basilio's rise from the mucklands to world welterweight and middleweight champion as a made-for-television movie or film for the international video market.

"Enough with the naked women and the drugs and blood and that stuff," Derrick said during a telephone interview from his Orlando home. "He's the kind of guy that can give us the ... story people want."

No contracts have been signed, the film has no title and no actors have been cast, but production should begin this summer, he said.

"It's very conceptual now," Derrick said. But "it'll happen one way or another. These things just take time."

They haven't talked money yet either, but Basilio said he isn't concerned.

"Ah, I got what I need," he said.

Parts of the $7 million to $8 million movie probably will be filmed in Canastota, Derrick said. Buttino hopes Derrick will let him write the screenplay. He will be contributing editor and creative consultant for the movie.

"There aren't many people who have the opportunity to write about their heroes," Buttino said. "Usually when boys meet their heroes they become disappointed. I was never disappointed with Carmen Basilio."

Buttino already has started piecing the film together in his mind. He imagines a black and white opening, set in the 1930s and staged in the onion fields, where Basilio worked with his eight brothers and sisters.

Ordered to bed each night by 8:30, Basilio remembers Fridays when his father would wake him up at 10 p.m. to listen to the fights on the radio. He remembers his first pair of boxing gloves, ones his father bought for the family.

Because Basilio fell between his two brothers in age and weight, he boxed one after the other. But the brothers were featherweights compared to the sisters.

"If you want to be a fighter, all you have to do is have five sisters older than you. I learned how to defend myself,” he said, exhaling a gruff chuckle. "We didn't box. We fought."

The film is Basilio's chance to boast of his determination. Ask him who deserves credit for his boxing success. The pessimists, he'll say. Many doubted the power of his 5-foot, 6-inch frame. Each punch he packed was fueled by stubbornness.

"Just tell me I can't do something," he said.

Everybody told him he was too small to box. At 13, he had his first and only high school bout when another school finally dug up another 80-pound boxer to fight him. He won.

"I used to dream about these things, being a world champion," he said. "The teacher, she'd ask a question. I wouldn't hear a thing. I was busy dreaming."

After his high school match, World War II forced Canastota to cut the sport from its budget. Soon after, Basilio dropped out of high school. He boxed for fun around the neighborhood.

His next refereed bout was in the Marine Corps in 1947, where he was paid $10 a fight. Basilio turned pro in 1948 after he left the military and won the Golden Gloves amateur tournament sponsored by the Herald-Journal. He supported himself, his then-wife, Kay, and two adopted children by assembling generators at a Syracuse Autolite plant.

"I worked my way up to $150 a fight," he said.

The dream was threatened in 1950 when Basilio was stricken with mononucleosis. He told no one but his doctor and his wife. During the six months he spent recovering, the pessimists returned. They told Basilio his glory days were over.

Enter trainer and friend John DeJohn, the man whose coaching landed Basilio in the ring with reigning welterweight champion Tony DeMarco at the Onondaga County War Memorial on June 10, 1955. The two fighters gave the audience its money's worth. Basilio was badly hurt, but he pounded on, knocking DeMarco out in the 12th round.

Here the picture fades to Canastota, where Buttino, his two brothers and his father gathered around the radio in the family's living room. The fight was over. The announcer's words triggered the village fire alarm.

"From Canastota, New York. The welterweight champion of the world, Carmen Basilio."

The high school band began its march down Peterboro Street. Tavern owners gave out free beer and soda in honor of the Italian onion farmer's son. Proud villagers shouted, "We did it! We're the champion of the world."

"People were coming out of their houses," Buttino said. "Everybody was really celebrating. That night had a tremendous impact on my life."

Flash through two years of matches and rematches - victories and defeats - most of them against DeMarco and Johnny Saxton. Basilio was gaining weight. Though he tried to sweat it off, he was finding it more and more difficult to remain a welterweight.

Weak from dehydration, Basilio left the ring and headed for Alexandria Bay. There he trained for the most important fight of his career - a match against reigning middleweight champion Sugar Ray Robinson.

Fade to Sept. 23, 1957. Basilio stands in the center of a packed Yankee Stadium. The match between Basilio and Robinson would be the first non-heavyweight match to gross more than $1 million.

Robinson danced and Basilio stalked. Every chance he got, Basilio took an inside jab. Basilio won.

Flash to 1958. The onion farmer's son takes the $10,000 Hickock belt, the Pulitzer prize of athletics. The Boxing Writers Association names him "fighter of the year." His picture appears regularly on the cover of "Ring" magazine.

His second wife, Josephine, keeps the covers with the photographs, the plaques and the gold ring Basilio received in 1989 when he was inducted in the International Hall of Fame, located in his hometown.

"She likes all that stuff," he said.

Basilio ended his boxing career in 1961 after tendinitis set in, preventing him from fully extending his right arm. He was 34 years old and Le Moyne College was building a new field house. The administrators would be honored to have the former world champion on their staff, they said.

At Le Moyne, Basilio quickly earned a new title, "the toughest physical education teacher on campus." The boxer was as hard on his students as he was on his opponents in the ring, said Athletic Director Richard Rockwell, who was hired as the college's physical education director in 1967.

"It became almost a status symbol if he slapped you around," Rockwell said. "If you tried things like that now you wouldn't have any kids here. The 60s and 70s were different times. The things we did then, we'd get fired for now."

Rockwell wasn't surprised to hear about Basilio's fondness for his Le Moyne days. The students respected him, he said. Basilio frequented their dorms with reels of his championship fights tucked beneath his arm. The films drew standing-room only crowds, he said.

“The best times of my life were when I was teaching phys. ed.,” Basilio said. His elbows rested on the picnic table. “Yeah, those were the days.”

Basilio retired from the school in 1981 to become a district sales representative for the Genesee Brewing Co. in Rochester, where he has worked part-time promoting the company’s products since 1981. He moved to Rochester in the mid-1980s when he divorced and remarried. That’s when Buttino ran into the boxer for the first time since Buttino was a teen.