During my childhood my father worked the third shift, meaning he went in at three in the afternoon and came home at eleven at night. Being in the single digits, I was of course fast asleep by eight p.m. Some nights, though, I’d wake up to go to the bathroom or get a drink of water and hear my father down the hall. I would always get excited because my father was usually eating dinner and watching TV.

Most people can’t wait to get out of their parents’ house. They want to get away from their families and start a life of their own. Then, they want to get a bigger and better house; they might not need it, but they want it. It becomes a thing of prestige, who has the biggest house? Who lives in the better neighborhood? Look, my house is huge, I’m successful! When it comes to celebrities, it’s even worse. Typically, they try to move into the high class areas in L.A., and buy houses that are ten times the size they need, just because they can. This is why Tom Savini’s house was more than surprising. It was in a normal neighborhood in Pittsburgh and an average house, while the inside is anything but (see the entry Tom’s House for more on that. I was intrigued that Tom lived there; hell, I was surprised he didn’t live in L.A. like most other actors.

When I was about six years old, my parents took my brother and I to Disney World for the first time. At such a young age, I experienced a magic and awe that has no comparison. Walking through the park, going on the rides was like being in an amazing movie. I even got to meet Mickey Mouse in his dressing room after a show. The picture I took with him hung on my bedroom wall until I was fifteen. While we went back when I was ten and since I was an adult, I never thought the magic I experienced that first time could be matched again. That is, until I got to visit Tom Savini’s house.

While it was just a sheet of paper, like any other in the world, the piece in my hand had Tom’s signature on it; a signature that made our book deal official. My journey with yet another horror legend was about to begin. After going out to dinner with my wife to celebrate, I tried to let the excitement wear off so I could get serious and think about the work I had ahead of me. With Kane’s book, we worked for over a year together. I now had another long road ahead of me, but an amazing, fun-filled road at that. With this in mind, I started to work with Tom on planning a trip to meet up and talk about the book and how we wanted to approach it. After throwing around some dates, we settled on meeting in a few weeks at his home in Pittsburg, PA.

I’m not sure when the name, Tom Savini, came into my lexicon of words. Growing up in the eighties, the name just always seemed to be there. Being a child at the time, I didn’t really have the understanding that “Savini” was a person. I just remember the older kids talking about how “Savini” did that movie, so it was “going to be awesome”!