Create an Autobiography of my Dad's life

I have been receiving reminders on this goal for a year now. When I created the goal, I had more time. I had a vision & all the tools to complete it. Now, I am strapped… and since my move, some of the informaiton & photos have been misplaced.

While visiting my dad in California last weekend, he expressed the desire to write a book about his childhood friend. Now deceased, his friend left lasting memories of comical situations and adventures as children growing up in the mid-west.

I was quite taken aback by his excitement toward the project, and willingness to have me direct the writing. I’ve given him a weekly paragraph deadline & we’ll be working via mail (he is not email equipped). I can see him now, pounding away at his “Royal” manual typewriter that he loves so much, with feverish ambition toward his dream.

It is good to breathe some new life into this goal!

I have finally completed another draft for my dad to proof. He has added more information that will need to be transcribed, but once this is complete, I can begin to add the pictorials. I have compiled some classic photos and memorabilia to complete the book, so I am excited to have finally gotten to this point. I have found a fabulous new publishing company that looks fairly simple to work with and the cost is affordable.

I had the tapes made into CD’s to go along with the finished product, so I am going to give them back along with the transcribed dictation for him to proof-read. My dad doesn’t know I’ve done this yet, nor does he know my future plans for this project so I know it will come as a big surprise. I’ll have him edit everything and add more to it when I go visit him tonight.

I am now partially through the tapes… transcription is so daunting. This will be the most challenging part of this project. Since there are so many tapes, I am splitting up each side into two parts. There is nothing easy about stopping and starting a tiny device to catch up with his sentences. However, I have figured out how to slow the voice, making it easier to catch up to the dictation.

As a birthday gift, I gave my dad a recorder as an attempt to pursuade him into speaking an overview of his life on tape. A lifetime of memories and stories passed on from his generation to mine, there are too many to remember when the inevidable happens. Since he is the last in his family, I am looking forward to keeping his legacy alive in a family book.

To my surprise, he has just gifted ten tapes back to me full of his life. They have been documented with his childhood, young adulthood, Army days, single life, new marriage, children, career, travel, loss, and finally retirement years.

I intend to make this project one of my priorities with a deadline in time for Christmas. I would like to compile the tapes into chapters of a book by transcribing, adding memorable family photos and then publish it myself as Christmas gifts for the whole family.