Most of it has been posted here as I wrote it. I sent copies to most of my family I thought might want to read it and here, with her permission, is what my Baby Sister had to say...........(I made sure to leave in all the purty compliments you'll notice!!)
CJ
My Daughter and I chatted on FB yesterday about your memoir's book and we both agreed about how much it meant to us, personally. At the time, I wasn't aware that she'd sent you a letter (we were both at the part where you were living in Phoenix) but I did mention to her that I hoped I could somehow convey to you how much it meant to me, too. I think she did a great job summing it up with her letter.
I can't remember a time when I've enjoyed reading so much! You have a natural talent, brother! Your detail of situations has brought me to tears and I have laughed out loud! Of course I am prejudiced but even if I didn't have personal knowledge of the people in this book I would still have been enthralled! I remember a lot of it from my own memories and reading the stories from the website you posted on for so long but it is still hard to stop reading when I know I need to or should get something else done!!! lol I knew you were intelligent but your knowledge of cars, guns, and airplanes are far from what I will ever know or ever wanted to for that matter but you make it so interesting that I almost wish I did know more about those things.
I am also thrilled and amazed at how wonderfully you portrayed our father! Without making him out to be a monster, you somehow made him to sound like a close to normal human being with (issues?) shall we say for lack of a better word. I can think of a million ways to describe Dad and yet he was none of these things and he was all of these things. Does that make sense? Having had a love/hate relationship with him almost made him illusive but yet at the same time he dominated my life. Anyway, I'm sure you know what I'm trying to get at. The way you described him though was wonderful and I thank you for that!!! He was a character for sure!
I too, remember so many of the get rich, quick schemes he would come up with although, I was more on the end of the selling of the products. Mom and I would go to Vanvleck, Texas and sell coons to poor people for one dollar a piece. They would come running out of their houses like we were selling something good and I've often wondered why we never ate coon. For heaven's sake we ate everything else at one time or another. I remember Dad having Mom fry up some chicken feet one time. I thought they were ok, I think. Mom said well they weren't what your Dad thought they would be. For some reason, I have remembered it all of these years. The other day, I was in a local grocery store that sells a lot of Mexican food. Looking through the meat department, there was of all things, packages of chicken feet!!! I guess Dad was on to something, after all! Maybe the next time I go in there I will ask about them!
Dad worked with a lot of Mexicans at Alcoa and one time he brought one of the guys and his wife to our house to show mom how to make hot tamales. They brought a whole hog head over and the woman proceeded to show mom how it worked. Mom had other ideas though because she never used a hog head again. She would just go and buy a pork roast and use that. I'm sure it was a lot less work. At Dad's insistence Mom tried making, homemade mayo, ketchup, and cottage cheese among many other things.
Dad and Uncle Drew would talk for hours on whatever get rich quick scheme Dad had dreamed up at the time and I have to admit they sounded good even to me! However, like engineers, talking about it and doing it are two different things! At one point Dad and Uncle were going to go to Nicaragua (sp) I believe for gold?? If nothing else, I got a geography lesson out of it.
When Dad was living with me in Nevada a couple of years before he died, he convinced me he had a system to beat roulette! I don't remember the formula or how he came about knowing it but if he came up with it himself he was definitely smarter than the average bear! We sat at the kitchen table for hours and played with a little roulette board game or something to that effect. I remember it included writing numbers down in a pad and it made perfect sense!!! Well, the day finally came when he was ready to go to the "LION" (Red Lion Casino) as he called it and try this system out. He had managed to save $600 on his meager income. My husband and I took him over there and he and I proceeded to play and win!!! Now mind you this was not really very lucrative to begin with because it took hours to win. However, we did and about to the point to where we had doubled our money I asked Dad if he was ready to leave. He'd had several (a lot) to drink by this time. Oh No! He was not ready to leave. I felt that we had pushed our luck already and people were sure watching us with our little notebook and the numbers I was busily writing down. Not to mention the looks and snickers we were receiving from the dealers and pit bosses. Although, it must not have been illegal or they would surely have stopped us. Anyway, it wasn't long before things went south and after the hours we spent winning, it went south in a real, quick hurry! Dad sat there, broke once again. And he sat there and sat there with his head down with snot dripping off the end of his nose and he would not respond to me. My husband and I were getting nervous that he was going to have a heart attack or something. People were watching us and him. I was starting to panic and he finally lifted his head and said,
CJ
My Daughter and I chatted on FB yesterday about your memoir's book and we both agreed about how much it meant to us, personally. At the time, I wasn't aware that she'd sent you a letter (we were both at the part where you were living in Phoenix) but I did mention to her that I hoped I could somehow convey to you how much it meant to me, too. I think she did a great job summing it up with her letter.
I can't remember a time when I've enjoyed reading so much! You have a natural talent, brother! Your detail of situations has brought me to tears and I have laughed out loud! Of course I am prejudiced but even if I didn't have personal knowledge of the people in this book I would still have been enthralled! I remember a lot of it from my own memories and reading the stories from the website you posted on for so long but it is still hard to stop reading when I know I need to or should get something else done!!! lol I knew you were intelligent but your knowledge of cars, guns, and airplanes are far from what I will ever know or ever wanted to for that matter but you make it so interesting that I almost wish I did know more about those things.
I am also thrilled and amazed at how wonderfully you portrayed our father! Without making him out to be a monster, you somehow made him to sound like a close to normal human being with (issues?) shall we say for lack of a better word. I can think of a million ways to describe Dad and yet he was none of these things and he was all of these things. Does that make sense? Having had a love/hate relationship with him almost made him illusive but yet at the same time he dominated my life. Anyway, I'm sure you know what I'm trying to get at. The way you described him though was wonderful and I thank you for that!!! He was a character for sure!
I too, remember so many of the get rich, quick schemes he would come up with although, I was more on the end of the selling of the products. Mom and I would go to Vanvleck, Texas and sell coons to poor people for one dollar a piece. They would come running out of their houses like we were selling something good and I've often wondered why we never ate coon. For heaven's sake we ate everything else at one time or another. I remember Dad having Mom fry up some chicken feet one time. I thought they were ok, I think. Mom said well they weren't what your Dad thought they would be. For some reason, I have remembered it all of these years. The other day, I was in a local grocery store that sells a lot of Mexican food. Looking through the meat department, there was of all things, packages of chicken feet!!! I guess Dad was on to something, after all! Maybe the next time I go in there I will ask about them!
Dad worked with a lot of Mexicans at Alcoa and one time he brought one of the guys and his wife to our house to show mom how to make hot tamales. They brought a whole hog head over and the woman proceeded to show mom how it worked. Mom had other ideas though because she never used a hog head again. She would just go and buy a pork roast and use that. I'm sure it was a lot less work. At Dad's insistence Mom tried making, homemade mayo, ketchup, and cottage cheese among many other things.
Dad and Uncle Drew would talk for hours on whatever get rich quick scheme Dad had dreamed up at the time and I have to admit they sounded good even to me! However, like engineers, talking about it and doing it are two different things! At one point Dad and Uncle were going to go to Nicaragua (sp) I believe for gold?? If nothing else, I got a geography lesson out of it.
When Dad was living with me in Nevada a couple of years before he died, he convinced me he had a system to beat roulette! I don't remember the formula or how he came about knowing it but if he came up with it himself he was definitely smarter than the average bear! We sat at the kitchen table for hours and played with a little roulette board game or something to that effect. I remember it included writing numbers down in a pad and it made perfect sense!!! Well, the day finally came when he was ready to go to the "LION" (Red Lion Casino) as he called it and try this system out. He had managed to save $600 on his meager income. My husband and I took him over there and he and I proceeded to play and win!!! Now mind you this was not really very lucrative to begin with because it took hours to win. However, we did and about to the point to where we had doubled our money I asked Dad if he was ready to leave. He'd had several (a lot) to drink by this time. Oh No! He was not ready to leave. I felt that we had pushed our luck already and people were sure watching us with our little notebook and the numbers I was busily writing down. Not to mention the looks and snickers we were receiving from the dealers and pit bosses. Although, it must not have been illegal or they would surely have stopped us. Anyway, it wasn't long before things went south and after the hours we spent winning, it went south in a real, quick hurry! Dad sat there, broke once again. And he sat there and sat there with his head down with snot dripping off the end of his nose and he would not respond to me. My husband and I were getting nervous that he was going to have a heart attack or something. People were watching us and him. I was starting to panic and he finally lifted his head and said,
