Marilyn Em
Born into a rich mix of European and Native American heritage, the author shares what her modest and loving father taught her about making the most of life's lessons/opportunities. By sharing a smidge of his role in his birth family, the CCCs during the Depression, as well as WWII and beyond, Lee Em sends his descendants, especially his daughter into unforgettable adventures only a will and spirit like his and his in-laws could bring to pass.
(Ch 4:
I'm sure their (my grandparents) habit of heading to their house as the sun would go down might have been partly because of their failing vision, but there was never any arguing about it, they would pile into their 1963 GI green Ford Falcon and cruise about 30 mph around the corner stretch to their house, local traffic and coal trucks trailing patiently behind. Grandpa sat about a foot taller than Grandma, so any local would know who they were just by that fact. And when I got a scholarship to try my hand at pre-veterinary courses at Purdue University, I was allowed to pack that little Falcon to the gills with my things, including a dozen pints of canned peaches that both my grandparents always pitched in to do.
(Ch 6:
Frequently when Dad did his morning shave, I became a priviledged bystander. Dad only used aerosol lather in his retirement years, so I was fascinated with the way he created his shaving foam from the brush and shaving soap cup method when I still lived at home and was quite a bit shorter than Dad. Somewhere my parents had found a yellow plastic "shaver" for me to scrape off the lather Dad would smear carefully over my "whisker line" on the days I was available for the honor. It certainly did wonders for my self-esteem, call it what you like!
