NORWICH – The Norwich Merchant’s Association is always looking for ways to bring more people downtown, and this summer they plan to do so by offering events and entertainment one Friday of every summer month.

The “Summer in the City” promotion will begin this Friday. Participating businesses will be staying open until at least 8 p.m. and offering an array of special deals for customers choosing to come out.

To kick off the “Summer in the City” event, First Edition Bookstore will be holding a book signing from 5 to 7 p.m. tomorrow. Sibling editors John Buchholz and Christine Buck of Smithville will be signing copies of their book, “The Orphan Home: The Memories of Laurence K. & John H. Buckholz.”

In “The Orphan Home,” John and Christine retell the experiences of two of their uncles as young boys. In the book, Larry and John, who were then six and eight, are forced to live in an orphanage after their mother dies of tuberculosis and their father is unable to keep the family together. Three of the children in the family of five are placed with family members, but Larry and John are sent from their home in Geneva, New York to an orphanage in Flat Rock, Ohio, where they remain for over six years.

“Twenty-five years ago or so, our uncles visited us at Echo Lake. Someone turned on a tape recorder as our uncles reminisced about their time in the orphan home,” John explained. Christine thought the stories were important to her family, and so as a Christmas present, she transcribed the audio tapes and gave them to family members. What started as a Christmas present, was added to and edited into a 96 page, 16,000 word manuscript.