Ever since my Madeleine was born, I’ve thought a great deal about, but somehow never quite gotten around to, putting together for her a sort of quasi-biographical compilation encompassing but not necessarily limited to:
- My stories of the rock ’n’ roll road life and the many musical icons, actors, painters, authors, and other such notables and quotables I’ve rubbed elbows with along the way
- Other enduring interests of mine such as riding and wrenching on custom go-fast Harley Davidsons and vintage beater Fords
- Shooting, full-auto subguns in particular
- Aviation and aircraft, both military and civilian
- Reading and/or writing, both fiction and non-fiction
- Website design, construction, and management
- US history, Civil War v1.0 in particular
- Philosophy, logic, and Western literature
- Rockabilly, blues, bluegrass, trad country, classical, swing, and early (ie, pre-bebop) jazz
- Composing, recording, and performing my own original music
- My years in NYC
It would be a fine thing, I think, to be able to pass this stuff on to my daughter for purposes of self-explanation, a way for her to know who and what her Daddy was to the fullest extent practicable. And now, thanks to AoSHQ’s scampydog, I’ve found what looks to be a handy dandy kick-in-the-butt motivator for getting started on this admittedly daunting project at last. Namely: Your Father’s Story.
About this item
✨YOUR FATHER’S STORY: Have you ever wanted a more in-depth look at your father’s life? What he valued most from his parents or maybe a funny habit that he had as a child? This journal will uncover all of the little things you might not know about your father.
✨DOCUMENT HIS LIFE: The Your Father’s Story journal is filled with prompts for your father to write his memories and knowledge to pass on to you, give you more insight into his live and experiences that have helped shape him and in turn, help shape you.
✨CHERISH THE MEMORIES: Strewn throughout the journal are inspirational quotes as a reminder to treasure the moments, to remember what was and have the courage to pass it forward.
✨LAYOUT: Prompts are divided into six chapters with one to two questions on each page. Gift our journal to your father and discover new details about his journey through life.
✨PREMIUM PAPER: Let his story unfold on premium cream-colored writing paper. We care about preserving your memories, our “Acid-free” paper resists the yellowing and crumbling that comes with age.
✨YOUR STORIES SERIES: Get to know your family history with our new guided journal series. Click the blue “Piccadilly” button under the title to find all our family journals, sketchbooks, guided journals, notebooks and more!
Pretty cool, no? Next time I get my hands on a few spare shekels, I’ma look into picking one of these things up. A bit too rich for my po-ass blood on Amazon, but they can be had on eBay at a more reasonable tariff.
Update! The above mention of full-auto subguns reminded me of my personal all-time favorite pic of Madeleine’s mama, to wit:
Snapped by Yr Humble Hoste at Shooter’s Express in Mt Holly, immediately after the ex had popped off an entire thirty-round stick magazine at full auto for the first time in her life, using the über-righteous H&K MP5 chambered in the venerable Europellet 9mm. Her beatific, rapturous smile should tell any deprived soul who hasn’t experienced the deliriously pulse-pounding thrill of full auto pretty much everything he/she will ever need to know about how much fun it really, truly is.
Man, I seriously LOVE that photo, it’s a real gem. Like I always say: you haven’t really flown until you’ve flown an open-cockpit biplane, and you haven’t really shot until you’ve shot full auto. Trust me, that’s the truth, the whole truth, and nuttin’ but the truth. Oh yes, I knew that huge grin was coming, so I stood behind her waiting for it, digital camera in hand (what was that little thing anyhow, Sony, Canon? Can’t remember now, but it’s still around here someplace), prepped, aimed, and ready to capture the moment.
A cpl of other MP5 snaps, then. First up, my dearly beloved NYC partner in crime Rachel, now tragically deceased:
God only knows how Rachel managed to find a range in NYC where she’d be allowed to shoot an MP5, much less the MP5 itself; she emailed me that pic with no further explanation, and insouciantly laughed me off every time I asked about it, which was just like her. Then again, knowing that wild, wilfull, and wanton woman as well as I did, it must be acknowledged that if anybody in the world could pull off such an extraordinary feat, it would have to be her. Could ONLY be her, actually.
6 feet nothing of mostly long, shapely legs, thick, stick-straight black hair, and big giant titties; eternally sarcastic; unfailingly cheerful, confident, and socially adroit; the snappiest dresser you ever did see, whether in a lovely vintage dress and heels or her preferred black jeans, T-shirt, and scuffed-up engineer boots—verily, Rachel was in a class of her own. They broke the mold and threw away the pieces the day that girl was made. Of all the multitudinous Pyrsynzz Of Vagina I’ve known over lo, these many years, I never met another quite like Rachel Gudera, bless her big ol’ heart.
Rachel also happens to be the naughty little girl who once sent me the best Christmas card I ever received. It’s on the hard drive somewhere, I think; I’ll see if I can dig it up and post it in an update.
Of course, I simply MUST throw in a snap of little ol’ moi firing SE’s rental MP5, right before I reloaded and passed the sweet-shooting little beastie along for the ex-wife to get her projectile-weapon rocks off on.
Good times, folks, good times indeed.
Not nice update! A-yup, found the aforementioned Xmas card. CAUTION: definitely NSFW, this one. Delicate, less-worldly sorts are hereby advised to avert their eyes. I’ll tuck it below the fold so as not to spook the horses, frighten the children, or offend the aged and infirm.
Heh. Oh, how I do miss that saucy wench. The hilariously over the top dildo-seat raises another burning (!!) question as to how the hell she ever managed to find such an oddity, then talk its owner into letting her drape her fine self over said oddball item for…a fucking Christmas card photo, no less. No way she bought it to enliven her lower-First Ave pad just above Allen St.
Rachel’s place was a legit one-bedroom, not a studio, which was always tidy and well-kept but spare and at best sparsely furnished and/or decorated. Like most young New Yorkers active in Downtown’s thriving, throbbing nightlife scene in the days of its long-gone glory, Rachel regarded her apartment not so much as a home but merely a convenient place to shower, sleep, get out of her work duds and slip into something more comfortable to go out barhopping, no more. Be all that as it may, her abode was WAY too small for the gargantuan dildo/chair thing.
Once more, with feeeewing: nobody but Rachel.
Although, having been gainfully employed for several years before I met her as manager of the fabled Pink Pussycat in the Village (one of only two upscale lingerie and “adult novelty” shops I’ve ever been in, the other being Body Worship on E 7th in the Lower East Side), I suppose Rachel had her sources, or at least would’ve known where to look and/or who to ask about (s)exotica along those lines.
- Entries
My kids got me a subscription to Storyworth for the same reason. After the year, you could have actual books printed up.
I’m about to renew it and start another book about my life without evil nana.
I’ve been journaling for decades. So they’ll have a handwritten one as well. Good for the grandkids to learn what was.
Consider setting up MediaWiki. It’s the most powerful tool for organizing knowledge. You don’t need to do things in any particular order or commit to any particular scheme; you just keep adding records to the database and re-organizing them at will, without limit.
The usage is strange and may be off-putting at first, but once you get used to it, it’s genius. If you’re already used to the idea of markup language, you’re halfway there. The method for creating new pages is so easy it seems wrong: just type the new page name, click on it and write it. It beats the shit out of any blog or (gag) word processor.
I’ve known forever that it was best that my children did not know too much about dad pre-marriage. As my dear late mother commented once, “they were wild, not bad, but they were wild”, this regarding me and my friends.
Several years ago my oldest expressed an apology for “all the trouble caused while growing up”, to which I laughed and told him something true – every thing you did including the things I don’t know about, and adding in your two brothers and sister, will not come close to your fathers level, so think nothing of it. All of you were a joy.
I do have a book though. No one can read it until I’m gone 🙂
I just found out about this today, and contacted my friendly neighbourhood book guy to enquire appropriately.
My father died suddenly (at his own hand) thirty years ago, and I have been left with many, many questions I would have loved to ask him had I been afforded the opportunity, especially as I have grown older.
My own children shall have a different experience. I will obtain, complete, and hide away this documentation of my life etc for them to find after my demise. Hopefully, it will provide them with some insights into why their daddy was…. well, the way he was.
They will deserve to know how much they were loved.
Mike in Canada
“They will deserve to know how much they were loved.”
Good for you!
Mike, your amazon wishlist link returns a “page not found” error.
Huh, I’ll have to check into that, Barr. Been so long since I did, I couldn’t tell ya for sure if Amazon even DOES the “Wishlist” thing anymore…;)
Okay, should work now, I think. SHOULD. Ahem. 😉
It does. Add that to your wish list because I can’t seem to get it to work otherwise…
Done and done, B. At least, I THINK that worked…
Looks like it did. Expected delivery is – gasp – Friday the 13th 🙂
Thanks, Barry! Much appreciated…
Merry Christmas!