Still on day 4 of the Armchair Genealogist‘s writing challenge. I finished off the letters that my Dad wrote to my Mom in 1956. The story that I forgot about in this batch of letters shows my Dad’s giving nature. There was a couple from church and the husband got into trouble before they moved to Key West, forging checks. His past caught up with him and he was thrown in jail. My Dad was willing to give the wife $100 to help get him out of jail so they could run their business. But it turned out that since he actually broke probation the $100 wasn’t any help. He didn’t really know the husband. The wife was a regular at church and he knew there was a good chance that if he gave the $100 he might never see it again. I have no idea what happened to the couple but it sure shows generosity of spirit for my Dad. Plus doing it with the right attitude that it is a gift that my not be repaid.
Tag Archives: sharing family stories
Writing Challenge: day 23
My parents are in town so today I spent some time chatting with my Dad for the Armchair Genealogist‘s writing challenge. We talked about his character and values and if they have changed since he was in his 20’s. It was a time of transition for him, I think. He was gaining confidence after being away from a negative home life for several years. He had completed his GED a couple of years before but had failed a test of some kind for a college freshman equivalency. Not sure I understand that. I learned that he and the two other single instructors at the school lived in the barracks with students but in a different area. They felt like brothers to him. His only brother died when he was a year old. These men where older than my Dad and I think they might have been mentors but they certainly where more than just co-workers. One of them died a couple of years later in a drowning accident. He is still bothered by the explanation of what happened to him.
I mentioned to him about the running story I shared yesterday and he remembered a different one where a civilian who was watching my Dad run laps around a block or something decided that he must be tired so he started running with him thinking he would be able to beat him. But he didn’t. My Dad stayed a head of him the whole time. I’m thinking that maybe my competitive side was inherited from my Dad. I didn’t know this about him.
My short-term goal is to start working on a story and try to get a handle on they style of writing that will work for me and for this project. My Dad remembered that a student shared a story in the Underwater Swimmers School newsletter a few years ago about my Dad. He is going to find that. With a short story in good shape we will send it to the UWSS newsletter along with a request for students and instructors memories of my Dad. I don’t think he has a very good understanding of how others viewed him. A few stories could really help me to have a better understanding of his character.
Writing Challenge: day 22
I didn’t do well on my goal of following the Armchair Genealogist‘s writing challenge. I got no writing done at all. Just one of those days, I guess. I did spend a couple of hours listening to “The Glass Castle” by Jeannette Walls. That counts at least some because it is a memoir of Jeannette’s family. I really amazing book. I’m almost finished. If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it. If I can handle my Dad’s history with half the grace the Jeannette does, it will be miraculous.
Writing Challenge: day 21
My Dad with his first car in 1954
Today was more of the same from yesterday. I’m still working on Day 4 of the Armchair Genealogist‘s writing challenge. I’m about two-thirds of the way through his letters from 1956. I found a few passages in letters that I think will work well in the history. Here is one I really enjoyed.
Hey, let me tell you how I fixed a couple of guys here. Anyway, Friday I checked in and went to work, and these two guys kept bragging about the good time they had made running a one-mile course. And they had been running it every day so they were in condition to do it. So I said let’s go out at noon time and run it for fun. They kept riding me about how they would slow down and not run too fast for me. So I just said to myself I will just show these two birds who will have to slow down. Anyhow, I ran them into the ground and best them both by several hundred yards. No more remarks from them then it was my turn to give them a bad time.
Here are a few things that I gleaned from today’s reading:
- friends make life fun
- being busy helps pass the time
- he had the same pair of loafers for 5 years
- he likes to buy and listen to records
- likes miniature rose better than full size roses
- called is car “old junk” it was built in 1948
- embarrassed about his childhood nickname
- reliable
- responsible
- realistic
- private
- respects others
- caring
- helpful
- service minded
- needs some solitude
- likes cold milk
- desires self-improvement and goal oriented
- knows his weaknesses
- his friends tease him too
- thought of himself as “just a sailor”
- protective
- competitive
- athletic
- confidence in teamwork
- learns from experience
- not very close to his family
- honest
Writing Challenge: day 20
My Dad with his first car in 1954
Trying to get back on track with daily writing after my vacation. I’m still working on Day 4 of the Armchair Genealogist‘s writing challenge, with developing the character of my Dad. While driving this past weekend, it occurred to me that reading my Dad’s letters during his time at Key West might help show more of his character. So that is what I worked on today. I made some notes and copied sections out and put them into Scrivener for future reference. No major revelations in my reading so far. After all, I’m the one who transcribed these letters several years ago. But it gives me more confidence in my perceptions of my Dad and the kind of person he was in 1856. Here are my notes from today’s reading:
- gratitude
- lonely
- longing for a family of his own
- tender-hearted
- kind
- bashful
- self-doubt in social situations
- didn’t like Navy housing
- looking for new experiences
- love of music
- frugal and willing to sacrifice for financial reasons
- lack of confidence in social situations
- reader
- good imagination
- hopeful
- sense of humor
- tease
- willing to ask others for information
- plans ahead
- humble
- challenges with expressing himself
- enjoyed complements
- likes to dance
- bashful with strangers
- bothered by things that go wrong
- visual teacher
- kind-hearted
- wants to help others who are lonely
- empathy
- others saw his worth
- bad handwriting
- man of faith
- observer
- goal setter
- self deprecating
Writing Challenge: day 19
My Dad with his first car in 1954
Now I’m working on Day 4 of the Armchair Genealogist‘s writing challenge. Day 4’s email is about “Creating Authentic Ancestors” or character development. I learned I need to get to know my Dad better and the kind of person he was before I came around. They are coming down for Father’s Day so I can ask him some more questions, but I thought I’d see what kind of list I could come up with today. I’m not sure what he would think of this list. I think I’ll ask him to make a list of his own to describe himself when he was 24.
Description:
24 years old
6 feet 4 inches tall
Lean
Strong
Tan
Crew-cut
Sailor for 8 years
Explosive Ordnance Disposal
Diver
Dark Reddish brown hair
Hard worker
Leadership (don’t ask someone to do something you aren’t willing to do)
Fear of heights
Heavy eyebrows
Brown eyes
Quick smile
Helping hand
Caring
All around good guy
Healthy
Shrapnel in his shoulder
Loves SCUBA
Claustrophobic?
High school drop out
Alcoholic father (a mean drunk)
Shy with women
Brave in service to others
Willing to try new things
Good with mechanical things
Strong swimmer
Reliable
Dependable
Casual
Dry humor
Tease
Self deprecating
Athletic
Willing to learn
Willing to change
Dyslexic
Struggled in school
Thought he was dumb
Writing Challenge: day 18
My Dad with his first car in 1954
I finally got most of an hour in on my writing goal. Leaving it for this late in the day is not a good plan. I need to make it higher on my list, right after weeding and watering the garden. I’ve progressed on to Day 3 of the Armchair Genealogist‘s writing challenge. Day 3’s email was written by a guest author Linda Gartz. She focused on how to get the first draft written. There is no one right way but gave some ideas of some possible approaches.
- create an outline
- you can start before you know exactly what the story is about
- write unself-consciously
- add footnotes to your first draft
- use your own voice
- start with a vivid personal event
- write as you research
So I decided that I better just jump in and start writing. I thought I’d try writing as me talking about my Dad. So, trying to be unself-conscious about my writing here is what I wrote:
It is hard for me to imagine driving from coast to coast all alone at 24. I drove from Brooklyn, New York to Provo, Utah by myself (other than our 100 lbs. Dog) when I was almost twice that age and my parents weren’t very comfortable with it. But my dad did it and talking to him it doesn’t seem like it was that big of a deal. I hope that I can get details from him and memories of what it was like in 1954. How many days did it take. I know it was before they started the interstate project so all the roads must have been little two lane roads. I wonder how fast he drove. It certainly wasn’t 75 miles an hour. He was driving his first car, purchased in Hawaii, a dark green Chevrolet convertible that at least later he and my mom referred to as the bug. But not the Volkswagen Bug that is commonly referred to with that nick name. Ray was young and single and returning to Key West, the place he started his Navy career in 1947. Because he enjoyed the town when the opportunity came to return he put in for it. He was also drawn by the opportunity to be a Plank Owner at the first Navy School to teach underwater swimming with SCUBA. Up to this point there was no formal training in the use of SCUBA for Navy personnel. They just figured it out or went to the manufacturer for training. Ray had just such an opportunity in 1952 with a Navy assigned trip to US Divers. I’m sure this training helped him to qualify for his dream assignment in Key West.
The opportunity presented itself in the form of a letter sent out to by the Navy in the spring of 1954. Ray’s tour of duty in Hawaii was almost up and the opportunity sounded interesting plus he good buddy Demofonte was also interested in going. So the two of them applied and they were accepted. The next step was instructor training school in San Diego, California. For four weeks the learned the art of teaching in the general sense. Not how to teach underwater swimming but how to teach anything with a hands on kind of approach. One of the assignments was to teach the other students something. Ray learned a skill that has used the rest of his life from one of the other students presentation. He learned how to tie a tie. To this day it is the only tie tying knot that he knows more than 50 years later. I wonder if that student has any idea was an impact that assignment had on my dad. I had no idea that was where he learned to tie a tie. I don’t know much else about instructor school yet. I hope to find out more soon.
After successfully completing instructor school, Ray had a month of leave. Remarkable his parent now lived not far away and Ray spent the month of August with them. I wonder if his mom was as worried about his cross-country adventure as my mom was about mine? I wonder what he did with his time. I can imagine that he probably did odd jobs around the house. My dad has never been one to sit around and do nothing. I can’t imagine him not finding something productive to keep himself busy. But maybe that was something that he learned later in life.
Writing Challenge: day 17
My Dad with his first car in 1954
Day 2 continued of the Armchair Genealogist‘s writing challenge and the focus is first lines. Lynn suggested reading first lines from some favorite books but I googled “first lines of books” and found a sight with “100 Best First Lines from Novels.” As I started reading them, I decided I would use them as inspiration and see how many first lines I could write for my book. I came up with 41. It remains to be seen if one of these will actually get used but it was an interesting exercise. If you want you can read them below.
- “Call me Red,” he said.
- The dark green bug convertible wound it’s way across the southern United States in the hot late August sun of 1954.
- Many years later in the face of retirement Ray Hoglund would remember his first drive from coast to coast.
- It was a hot summer night in August as the dark green convertible chugged it’s way across the barren landscape of Texas.
- I am an actual Navy Instructor, he thought. When he dropped out of high school at 16 he never imagined what his future might bring.
- He would never forget the first time. The freedom, the ease of movement and oh, the possibilities.
- He must have done something right to have the privilege of going back to Key West.
- The sun shone unceasingly on the dark green hood of the car, made tolerable by the advantages of a convertible.
- Twenty-four years of life proceeded this point when we pick up the story of Ray Hoglund. You may think you want to know how the choices of his life lead up to him driving across the country in an green convertible but that isn’t the point of this story, so we won’t go into it here.
- Tall, lean and tan, Ray Hoglund sat at the wheel of the dark green convertible, the wind failing to ruffle his crew-cut reddish hair.
- Hot sun and dry winds were the norm on the week-long journey across the southern Untied States, relieved only after nightfall, that was his favorite time to drive.
- “Fill her up.”
- The late afternoon sun made the shadow of the Chevy convertible race ahead of him on the road.
- 1954 was turning out to be a good year.
- Somewhere in west Texas in a town he hadn’t noticed the name of, Red stopped to fill up the gas tank of he green Chevy convertible.
- Everything changed the day the letter came. His whole future shifted down a new path.
- Every time he visited his parents while on leave he was glad to be going.
- “What is the next town?” he asked himself, as he study the map with his dark thoughtful eyes.
- Just another 100 miles and he would call it a day.
- “Can I drive myself?” he asked.
- This is just the way it happened, or as close as Red can remember.
- From the moment he took his first SCUBA dive his life changed.
- Twenty-four, single and making his first solo drive across the United States.
- To be a Plank Owner in a the US Navy Underwater Swimmers School. That was a dream come true. To be a part of it from the beginning. To help set things up right. Was it really happening?
- In a convoluted way all the decisions of his life had lead him to this point. From his childhood in the suburbs of Chicago to dropping out of school to join the Navy to volunteering for EOD to get off the U.S.S. Macon to the first time he put on SCUBA gear, it all came together here.
- There was a sailor named Raymond Walter Hoglund, Red to his friends and he was a newly certified Navy instructor on his way to Key West, Florida.
- Ray Hoglund was exhausted. He had driven 300 miles today and still had more to go.
- He took pleasure in the solitude of the long cross-country drive.
- Let’s pick a time to start this tale. While any point will do, let’s pick this one.
- In the beginning sometimes he woke to a sick feeling in his gut.
- He looked like a sailor with his lean body, tan skin and crew-cut hair.
- He loved it from the start.
- This is the life. If you have to move from Hawaii, then what could be better than Key West?
- When Ray Hoglund was in the Navy, they called him Red.
- In the late summer of 1954, Red found himself driving from San Diego to Key West.
- He was a few inches over 6 feet with tan skin and lean muscles from his time in Hawaii.
- From High School drop out to Navy instructor and Plank Owner. That was a nice change of scenery.
- Down the last few miles of road with ocean on either side of the road, the dark green convertible sped.
- The long straight road stretch out before and behind the little green Chevy convertible.
- On September 11th 1954 he rolled into town. Who knew that date in about 50 years would have a very different meaning. But today it was the beginning of a new a better opportunity.
- The heat of the day was reluctant to let go to the cool of the night as the miles of road slipped slowly by.
I failed at my goal yesterday. I hope to make up for it later in the week. Life got away from me. I have to keep this as a high priority in my life and not think I can always squeeze it in at the end of the day. That is too risky and yesterday I just couldn’t make it work.
Writing Challenge: day 16
image from mappery.com
On to Day 2 of the Armchair Genealogist‘s writing challenge today. I thought I’d start writing today but just ended up making a few notes. Today’s assignment was on the exposition or back story. There are five areas that you want to cover in this:
- main ancestor
- setting
- conflict
- theme/focus
- tone
The first one is easy, my Dad. The setting for the start of the book is somewhere on the road between San Diego and Key West in the late summer of 1954. As I was thinking about the setting, I found a map that I used for my Mom’s Europe trip to show their cross-country bus trip. It is from 1955 and will provide some good information.
The conflict at this point is getting to Key West no later than 2400 hours on September 11, 1954. The theme/focus of the book is setting up the Underwater Swimmers School in Key West.
The tone, I haven’t really thought about this part at all until today. I’m thinking not too serious even though some dangerous stuff goes on. I know my Dad doesn’t want it to sound like he is bragging. As I’m writing this I’m reminded that my Dad has always been a tease with a rather dry humor, so maybe that will be the tone of the book.
There are lots of things learn and think about in writing. I never thought that writing was easy but I had no idea of all the different things to consider when writing a book. This has been and will certainly continue to be a major learning process for me.
Writing Challenge: day 15
I’ve followed my challenge for three weeks now. Yeah! I’ve been almost perfect with just one day that I had to do some make up last Saturday. I think I’ve finished Day 1 of the Armchair Genealogist‘s writing challenge today. I spent an hour reading first chapters to get a better sense of hooks and inciting incidents. It was kind of fun. I’ve never looked at books that way before. I read from Half Broke Horses by Jeanette Walls, Foundation by Isaac Asimov, The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien, Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card and Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling. Half Broke Horses is from the library the rest are from our own collection. You can see what kind of books I tend to read, though I’ve expanded my choice through our neighborhood book club but I haven’t purchased any of those books.
Anyway, back to the writing challenge. At the moment I’m going to start with the cross-country drive as the hook and the letter from the Navy as the inciting incident. Don’t be surprised if this changes as I learn and work through the process but I have to pick something and go from there. See you back here on Monday. I’ll probably have to actually start writing by then.
telling family tales 