Finished My Lucky Life in and Out of Show Business: A Memoir by Dick Van Dyke. There has always been something so familiar about Dick Van Dyke to me. I grew up watching reruns of The Dick Van Dyke Show and films like Mary Poppins and Chitty-Chitty, Bang-Bang were often televised around the holidays. When I saw that this memoir had been published I was immediately drawn to it. The cover photo is fabulous. This tall, funny man who pretends klutziness, but who has an easy grace is so appealing to me. He seems like such a nice guy on TV, and the book supports my concept of this. It's a comfortable read with a good bit of humor. His personal standards and his politics made it even more enjoyable. Something that stood out to me was how his wife Margie would come to the set and watch him be Rob Petrie, and tell people he was the same person at home. This really comes through in the book. I have an old friend who has always reminded me of Van Dyke. We've been close for 35 years and he is a huge fan of classic television shows. Somehow the two are inextricably linked in my mind. This past summer I spent a rare afternoon in the garden of my favorite library, chatting with this very friend. Then, this fall, every time I sat down to read the book with my breakfast, the image of the garden was always hovering nearby.
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