Words to live by Son captures father’s philosophies in ‘Happiness on 7 dollars a week’

Without even blinking an eye, Al Bernstein recalls the exact date he began penning his personal manuscript: Jan. 30, 1954.

Escaping to the early-morning solitude of his Bangor home’s furnace room, he would sit at a folding table, under a single light bulb, and pour out his unique thoughts and philosophies until it was time to go to work.

By 1997 his book, titled “The Art of Living,” had swelled to more than 4,000 pages. The rigors of marriage, rearing three sons, even a two-story fall down an elevator shaft, hadn’t kept the well-known Bangor salesman from his daily writings. But feeling the still unpublished book had become too cumbersome, he resolved to destroy his life’s work and start another book.

“Had he lost his mind?” wondered his youngest son, Harley, who persuaded his father to box up the pages and mail it to his Vienna, Va., home.

“Harley doesn’t have time to be a writer,” recalled the elder Bernstein who at 76, is retired from a long career of selling televisions at Viner Music Co. and furniture at other companies. “But he used to say, ‘Dad, someday I’m going to put your book out and have it be a best seller.’ You know what he did with my book when it arrived at his home? He threw it in the closet!”

The 34-year-old businessman was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of paper.

Everything changed in July 2000 when Al’s beloved wife, Rhoda, was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. During her difficult convalescence, and after her death, Harley read his father’s writings and worked to get them published. That entailed taking a year to hone his writing skills, and searching, in vain, for a publisher after he had added his own personal touches, including his own memories of frequent walks with his father where they discussed life’s many challenges.

Fortunately, Harley Bernstein connected with some important people, including Miriam Bass, who had run Crown Books’ West Coast distribution business. She phoned young Bernstein, in tears, late one night after reading his new, improved book, titled “Happiness on 7 Dollars a Week: A Formula for Living,” a reference to his father’s indomitable spirit and focus on the spiritual, not material, things in life.

“It’s better than ‘Tuesdays with Morrie,'” Bernstein recalled her saying, referring to the best-selling memoir of a young man who makes weekly visits to an ailing former college mentor.

Bass introduced Bernstein to Booth Media, publicists for the hugely popular “Chicken Soup” book series, which accepted the book that Bernstein published himself under the Barstin Books imprint. Soon he will set out on a nationwide 15-city promotional tour of bookstores and media outlets where he’ll discuss his love and respect for his father.

Many readers may devour the 164-page testament in one sitting, savoring the father-son take, in 14 concise chapters, on living, dying, healing, life after death, and why bad things happen to good people.

Al Bernstein stresses the importance of self-esteem and a strong self-image. Born in Bangor to a Jewish family, he learned early the meaning of change, and a tearless form of carrying on, after his father disappeared, and was presumed dead, while traveling by boat from Boston to Philadelphia in 1939.

On one of their walks around Bangor’s east side, father turns to son and sums up his philosophy of life:

“When experiencing loss, why should I punish myself by harboring resentment? Anger is punishment. It’s a poison that crowds out the good things.”

Al Bernstein’s philosophy is not easily summed up in a few words. Reaching far beyond his Jewish roots, he draws on Christian, Buddhist and other religions to fill his life with contentment. Through it all, he has repeated this motto, based on words he said came to him after his 1965 elevator-shaft accident, which he survived with only bumps and bruises: “Relax, everything is going to be all right.”

“Happiness on 7 Dollars a Week” is available at area bookstores for $19.95. Harley and Al Bernstein will sign copies of “Happiness on 7 Dollars a Week” at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 24, at Borders Books, Music & Caf? in Bangor.