Making Other Plans: A Memoir Review

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Making Other Plans: A Memoir ReviewMake Plans to Read This Memoir!
By Karen Zautyk
It was just my second day at The Observer, on whose feet I had landed after retiring from the Daily News in New York. Publisher Lisa Pezzolla called me into her office to show me a book she was considering for a review. A Kearny resident, JoEllen Maher, had just brought it around, explaining that it was written by her uncle, who had been raised in town and who mentions Kearny and The Observer in the book.


I glanced at the author's name on the cover. And squealed. "Tom Mackin? Tom Mackin!"
Talk about coincidences and karma and small worlds. "Tom Mackin," I said, "gave me my first chance to have something published in a newspaper."
I was a wet-behind-the-ears college-student "newswoman" who had clawed her way up from copygirl to clerk-typist in the entertainment department at The Newark Evening News. Tom Mackin was the TV critic, one of those staffers who existed in the rarified world of actual journalism. For some inexplicable reason, he offered me the opportunity to compile a little column of blurbs highlighting some of the night's TV shows.
This was long before cable and 894 channels, so there were only about three programs worth highlighting on any given evening. But I was being published! He also gave me the chance to write an actual column, a review of a Walt Disney TV movie. I can't recall the title, and Googling didn't help. All I remember is that it was set in Pennsylvania Dutch country. And that "Mr. Mackin" rewrote me, to my chagrin and eternal gratitude.


I remember something else. One of Mackin's own columns dealt with a contest the TV show "Lassie" was sponsoring. Lassie had given birth to three puppies, and viewers were being asked to submit names. The pups - I remind you - were collies. Tom's name suggestions were: "Fornia," "Flower Ears" and "Come to Me, My Melon." This was imprinted on my brain. Four decades later, it still makes me laugh.
I'm giving you all this background in the interest of journalistic ethics, since I am hardly a completely objective reviewer in this instance. But I can tell you, in all honesty, that Mackin's "Making Other Plans: A Memoir" is a delight. And a heartbreaker.
The title comes from John Lennon's quote: "Life is what happens while you're making other plans." And life certainly happened to Tom Mackin, who will turn 90 next month. Born in County Antrim in Northern Ireland, he came to this country through Ellis Island and grew up in Kearny - graduating from Kearny High School, Seton Hall and the Columbia University School of Journalism.
During World War II, he was in the Navy, enlisting immediately after Pearl Harbor, and "Making Other Plans" includes accounts of his service and shipmates. Among them were fellow Kearnyites George Willoughby and Adrian Cahill, both of whom were to serve aboard the USS Juneau, "launched 1940 at the Federal Shipyards, Kearny, N.J." with engine-room equipment produced by Worthington Pump in Harrison. In 1942, the Juneau was torpedoed by the Japanese off Guadalcanal with the loss of all but 10 of her 700 crewmen. The five Sullivan brothers were among those killed. So were George Willoughby and Adrian Cahill.


Mackin also mentions sailor John Langhirt, an 18-year-old from from Devon St., his wartime interview with whom had run in The Observer.
Postwar, Mackin joined The Newark News, the demise of which in 1972 is recounted in the chapter "A Death in the Family." I can relate. I was there when that once-great publication bit the dust.
Mackin went on to spend two decades with the ABC Television Network, retiring asvice president of program information. During his time there, he had been in charge of media at seven Olympics. These included the 1972 Summer Games at Munich when Palestinian terrorists murdered 11 members of the Israeli team. Mackin's first-person account is told in the chapter "They're All Gone," which is how ABC sportscaster Jim McKay famously told the world of the massacre.


"Making Other Plans" deals also with more personal tragedies. Read the chapter "I Buried My Daughter Today," the title of which thankfully touches the heart of the matter because I would be unable to write about it without crying.
Whether he's writing as a devastated father or someone who has lost a friend ("The Empty Orchestra Seats") or someone who has lost a stranger ("A Commuter and His Shadow"), Mackin summons up the deep emotions of the reader.
However, lest you think the book dwells on sorrow, please note it does not. It can also be hilarious. It's the sort of book you can pick up anytime and open to any chapter, since each offers insight into a little world of its own. There are encounters with celebrities, vignettes of life at ABC, character sketches, etc. I can guarantee you will read it cover-to-cover, but not necessarily in that order.


Mackin has not lost his comic touch. Learn about the fine art of headline-writing (Mackin topped a Newark News fishing column with the gem "Catch at Shore: Porgy and Bass"), be enlightened by an analysis of the New York Times' obsessive-compulsive corrections, share Mackin's memories of having been named Kearny's Irishman of the Year and toasting the Hibernian dinner guests with: "They say the only difference between an Irish wake and an Irish wedding is that there's one less drunk at the wake."
After all these years, Tom Mackin can still make me laugh out loud. I'm betting he will have the same effect on you.
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