Family Cars Trigger Memoirs
Write Your Memoirs by Thinking Small! Share Your Life Experiences Before They Are Lost!
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An excerp from the memoir " My White Light Experience in Year 2000:" My white light experience was dissimilar to regaining consciousness in that I was somewhat detached from my body. I could not move any part of my body, and only my mind and my senses seemed to be functioning. I was aware of brilliant white light filtering through fog, telling me to not open my eyes, but there was no light at the end of a tunnel, and the light was not coming from a single source, like a light bulb. I realized that an operation had taken place, but I was not an observer. I desperately wanted to know the outcome of the operation. There was no feeling of pain or panic at this point. I asked myself if I had survived the operation. I felt very calm, and yet, I felt a bit of frustration when the female voices that I heard did not provide an answer to my survival question. It seemed that I could hear sounds from hundreds of miles away, and I felt that my mind had never been more alert and energized than at that very moment. The duration of my white light experience is unknown to me, perhaps lasting seconds or minutes, but it ended when I sensed that the brilliant light was no longer present. I then opened my eyes to find the surgeon standing next to me in the recovery room. The surgeon assured me that I had indeed survived the operation, and he wanted me to know how fortunate I was to have lived through the experience. He pointed out that I had been hit by four aneurysms, all on the aorta, and three had been treated. He decided to pass on the forth aneurysm because I was too near death to continue. He said the typical aneurysm he repairs is about 2 cm in size, the width of the little fingernail, but that my largest aneurysm had been 10 cm in size. My odds of survival had been less than 5%. At this point, the surgeon said: “Somebody up there had to be watching out for you!” His words caused me to gulp, and they convinced me that I had truly undergone a “white light experience.”
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About the Book
In 1963, Dr. H. Kenneth Shook attended an auction just four doors down from his apartment in Westminster, Maryland, to buy a typewriter—and instead returned as the home’s new owner. As a photograph is snapped of his wife and son sitting on the tailgate of the station wagon that would be used to transport their belongings just a short way down the street, Shook has no idea that one day, that simple photograph will trigger him to write compilation of memories.
In his second volume of memoirs, Shook shares true accounts of his life inspired by his many memories of family cars. Beginning with his first recollections at age four, Shook provides a glimpse back into a time when mothers stayed home with their children, televisions did not have a place in the home, and fathers parked the family car on Main Street on a Saturday night to watch the world go by. As he details his coming-of-age journey through childhood, college, military service, and adulthood, Shook chronicles not only his life experiences, but also the purchases of vehicles that accompanied him on his journey through life that included retired police cars, a Dodge Dart, and a beloved station wagon.
Family Cars Trigger Memoirs offers entertaining anecdotes that illustrate the important role that family cars take in one man’s journey through life.
The final portions of this book include memoirs triggered by distant travels and memoirs triggered by other people’s memoirs. The author also allows two memoirs from his first book to return for an encore performance.
About the Author
Dr. H. Kenneth Shook served as a college dean of admissions for eighteen years and ran the Maryland State Scholarship Board for ten years. Now retired, he focuses his time on inspiring others to write their own life stories and is the author of Getting Hooked on Memoirs. Dr. Shook currently lives in Westminster, Maryland, with his wife, Carol, and their dog, Shadow.