As the fear of the coronavirus drives people into an orgy of buying, hoarding, and generally acting rude and panicky, I can’t help but be reminded of my favorite Stephen King novel, The Stand. With the world’s economy slowing down drastically and businesses, restaurants, and sporting events shutting down voluntarily or mandatorily, it might just be a good time to curl up with a good book! If like me, you first read The Stand many, many years ago, it might be time for a reread of the new expanded version of the book which adds an additional 400 pages to the original 800 plus pages. If you’ve never read it, now is a great time as we all hunker close to home for the next couple of weeks.
Without divulging too much of the story, The Stand is an epic tale about how a man-made plague or virus of some kind wipes out most of the human race as well as most of the animals. A small group of survivors make their way to Boulder, Colorado to begin life anew. Boulder is a scant 25 miles from where we live today! One of the few animal survivors is an Irish Setter. You know how I love my Irish Setters!
Most people don’t know that Stephen King and his wife Tabitha lived in Boulder for a while in the 1970’s. A trip to the spooky and supposedly haunted old Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado provided the inspiration for my second-most favorite Stephen King novel, The Shining. If you haven’t read the book, you have probably seen the scary movie version with Jack Nicholson. Even today the Stanley touts Room 217 where Stephen and Tabitha stayed on their visit, and of course, you can take one of the Ghost Tours if you like!
We lived in Bangor, Maine for four years in the early 1990-s when I was a senior executive at the medical center there. A good friend of ours lived across the street from the Kings and was a good friend of theirs as well. We had the opportunity to meet them socially on a few occasions at his house. Stephen always seemed somewhat quiet and reserved. I remember Tabitha wearing high top button style boots and their daughter having long straight hair. Remember Elvira, the hostess on the late-night movies? The whole family was very pleasant, but somewhat reminiscent of the Addams Family. Our friend had twin sons, and according to him, his sons provided Stephen with the inspiration for his novel, The Dark Half. I can’t vouch for that, but interesting!
The King’s home is large Gothic-looking old house; it reminds you a bit of the House of the Seven Gable by Hawthorne! The property is surrounded by a black wrought iron fence adorned with gargoyles, bats, and metal spider webs. I suspect it was always a favorite stop for the neighborhood kids on Halloween! Stephen and Tabitha, who is a very talented novelist in her own right, have always been always great philanthropists for the community. They have funded ball fields, community libraries, and supported the hospital very handsomely!
Our sons mostly grew up in Greeley, Colorado during the ‘80’s where I was a senior-level executive at the hospital and Bill was the Graduate Dean at the university there. Thinking about Stephen King reminds me of a humorous story. Late one evening, our older son, Chris, was lying on the sofa in our basement rec room reading Salem’s Lot, not a book to read by yourself late at night! Bill and I, of course, had already gone to bed since we have always been the early-to-bed types. Younger son, Greg, had been out with some friends and forgot his housekey. Seeing the basement light on, he tapped on the window right by the sofa where his brother was reading. With that tapping Chris jumped several feet into the air! If his hair wasn’t already light blond, it probably would have turned white on the spot. If you have read Salem’s Lot, you know exactly what I’m talking about, and if not, I won’t spoil it for you!
Anyway, back to The Stand. Some of the survivors of the plague head from Boulder to a dark and deserted Las Vegas for a final dramatic confrontation between the forces of Good and Evil. Think something along the lines of Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita. Interestingly, our younger son Greg and his wife were in Las Vegas this past weekend for their annual trip to the PAC-12 basketball tournament, which ended up being canceled of course They said Vegas was pretty quiet with more and more of the hotels, restaurants, and casinos shutting down over the coming days, leaving a dark and deserted Las Vegas. Sound familiar?
Let’s all hope that Stephen King wasn’t too prophetic in The Stand!
©The Eclectic Grandma, 2020
