About Us
About Us
About My Book
PROLOGUE
Similar to most people of my age and generation, I remember many of the good times connected with my past. It is my hope that by sharing these memories I am sharing some of the happiness, joys and laughter that I’ve had during my lifetime. I also hope that in some way the reader will relate to the experiences described in these stories. I’m certain that several of these tales are similar to the experiences of some readers. If so, I hope these stories will help them relive the love, happiness and joys experienced in their own lives.
My wife Maria tells me that this is a work of fiction. I know that she’s not entirely wrong. She has greatly different memories. She strongly insists that her recollections, that are worlds apart from mine, are far more accurate. After hearing her description of what happened in the past I realize that I may have somewhat embellished some of these stories. But I know that my memories are much funnier than hers. Her sense of humor varies from mine. I have always been able to see humor in situations. She, like many women, reacts differently from me and many men. While she is emoting and sympathizing with some poor person or victim I am rolling around on the floor laughing my head off. She doesn’t even laugh if the poor loser is me. I can only affirm these memories are real to me. And I stand by all that I have written here.
The stories about my family life before I married reflect good memories. As I have gotten older I realize how fortunate that I was to be raised by loving parents. My Dad had a unique, unusual sense of humor. I recognize that my sense of humor is very similar to his. I now know that this is more of a curse than a blessing. Like my Dad, I am more inclined to laugh at a situation than to feel sorry for the person with dog poop on their shoes. My Mom had the patience of a saint with my Dad and with all of us. Similar to many Moms she provided the loving glue that held our family together.
I never remember my Mom laughing at my Dad, even though he gave her plenty of reasons to laugh at him. She has passed on, but her love lives on in us and with us. And, like the Moms of most families, the love she provided to us continues to hold our family together. Thanks to her I believe that every life lived should be a life remembered.
My children will be aghast when they read some of these stories. The real life situations described show that my wife and I were victims of parent abuse. Parents always have a different version of the story than the child who did the deeds. My children won’t understand that the actions they did when they were children give me a great deal of delight to remember. When children grow up sometimes they lose their childhood ability to laugh at themselves. Since I never grew up I don’t seem to have that problem. I laugh at myself all the time.
If I have hurt anyone’s feelings with any of these stories because they remind you of events in your life that were unhappy I’m truly sorry. How you feel and react to being reminded of past events doesn’t change the memories. But what we all can do is contain and control our emotional reaction to the memories. And I believe we all have the ability to change our own attitude towards our sadness. My memories shared in these stories are intended to bring you happiness. If I give you a chuckle when you read my stories about the inane things I did, and there have been plenty of them, it would give me happiness. We all need to learn how to laugh as often as possible. I think that’s one of the secrets to a happy and long life.
The food recipes I’ve shared come from what I’ve learned in my 75+ years. Bear in mind that I am a man and only claim that what I cook will be edible. They are provided for you with lots of warnings. If you try them I offer you no guarantee that you will be pleased with the results. Each of them was passed on as if they were deep dark secrets. People I have shared them who have prepared them with tell me they are deliciously different. I’m always pleased with my results, but my wife swears that I have no taste buds. I don’t keep secrets since I believe that if something brings joy it should be shared. So prepare the recipes if you have a daring and adventurous spirit. Expect to be pleasantly surprised!
Bear Encounter In Alaska.
“I opened the car windows and I … listened to hear for running water. I drove several miles that way until I finally heard a loud roar of running water off to the right side …. AHA! I… parked ….grabbed my trusty fishing gear and started …. walking into the woods and expected to see running water pretty soon. The sound of the water was quite loud, so I continued to walk towards where the sound was coming from. The more I walked the louder the sound …became. …
After walking into the wilderness about a quarter of a mile …I arrived at a small, open clearing in the woods. Looking straight ahead between the trees I could see a small stream …
Looking to the left of the clearing on the other side of this stream I noticed a very large and shaggy, brown colored bear! The bear was looking at the ground, picking up stones … and looking under them. …. the bear seemed to be eating what was found underneath the stones…. Perhaps the bear had found edible insects, worms or larva of some kind. I froze and remained as still as possible while I silently peed in my pants. One thing for sure is that I know hunger when I see it having been as hungry as a bear …. This bear was hungry. Why else would he eat larva or insects? I didn’t want to … become a meal. … As quietly as possible I turned to back away, to put as much distance as I could between me and the bear. Once I was out of the clearing … I broke into a quiet run. ….. After having placed reasonable distance between me and the bear, I ….realized that “if there’s one bear in this woods over near the stream picking up rocks to find food, more than likely there may be other bears in this woods, probably being attracted by the stream waters the same way I was.” Shit
happened. I might actually run, or walk, into a very hungry bear or two. I decided I had to stop running.”
