"Come On-A My House" is the fourth effort in my Lawrence - My Hometown series. Like the last three, this book contains varied anecdotes about the old neighborhood and the old gang. In it I try once again to create a picture of a time and a place and a neighborhood that once was but is no more. On the front cover of this volume I have a picture of the old tenement where I was raised. This is a very old picture of the structure at 32 Chelmsford Street in North Lawrence. It is the house as I remember it as a kid. Most of the folks in the photo are my relatives - grandmother, grandfather, uncles and aunts. This old homestead stands as another icon of my hometown as I remember it. My grandmother owned the building and it was passed down to one of her children, my Uncle Ray. But the song title, "Come On-A My House," is equally significant. The song was written by William Saroyan and a nephew of his while traveling cross country to visit a much beloved aunt. It was a nostalgic song reminiscent of all the ethnic foods and shared childhood delights that William and his nephew were lusting for upon arriving at auntie's house. This is a very common feeling for all of the folks raised in "The Immigrant City," my hometown of Lawrence, MA. One of the first books I ever read was written by William Saroyan and it was titled "My Name is Aram." It was a book very much like this Lawrence series of books that I've been putting together, ethnic in tone yet universal in its message. It has been my inspiration.
About the Author: Richard Edward Noble was raised in Lawrence, Massachusetts. He attended St. Rita's grammar school in Lawrence, Central Catholic high school also in Lawrence, Northern Essex Community College in Haverhill and Merrimack College in North Andover. His mother and father and grandparents - on both sides of the family - were Lawrence textile workers. Richard lived in Lawrence until the age of twenty-seven and then migrated to Fort Lauderdale, Florida where he met his wife Carol. Richard and Carol have been a team for over thirty-five years. Richard has been a truck driver, a butcher, a beef boner, a beef breakdown man, a dishwasher, an oysterman, a fruit picker, a restaurant manager, a chef, a small butcher shop owner, a Kirby vacuum cleaner salesman, a fry cook, a broiler man, an expediter, a restaurant line boss, a hole digger, a swill collector for a pig farm, a raw bar man, a sous-chef, a tomato sorter, a sander in a spray paint factory and the owner/operator of an ice cream parlor and sandwich shop in Carrabelle, Florida. These experiences and many more were published in Hobo-ing America - A workingman's tour of the U.S.A. and other works by this author. Richard is now retired and working as a writer. He writes fiction, non-fiction, creative non-fiction and poetry. He published a column in a local newspaper. In 2007 he received a first place award for humor from the Florida Press Association for this column. Richard has a variety of interests - philosophy, history, politics, the American and world labor movements, economics, poetry, music, biography, autobiography and the unique history of Lawrence, Massachusetts.