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Double click cover for larger image.
See James Bernard Kaiser Search Engine Listings for Google, Yahoo, MSN Read More on Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Acknowledgments Introduction Preface
Thanks to my wife Bonnie for her encouragement To my family, the best investment I ever made. Son Steve
Welcome to my world. I never had any thought or ambition to write about my life, because I had lived it like most people live their lives and created the illusion it was normal. Bonnie, my wife and lifelong companion, knows my story. When I shared some of these events with my family, I realized even my loved ones knew little about my past. For example, my grandmother, two aunts, and an uncle raised me in a strong Catholic environment. What made this unusual was my parents and brothers lived only ten miles away. My buried-deep emotional struggle over not knowing where I fit finally caught up with me and caused me to make mistakes. Fortunately, these mistakes helped build character and prepared me for the years ahead. Now I have decided to unravel some of these mysteries and disclose some hidden secrets. Little did I realize at the time that this decision would awaken so many detailed and vivid memories. An entire world opened up and I felt I was there reliving these events, some funny, some joyous, and some very sad. This journey allowed me to write a detailed account of earlier years, how they looked, developed, and shaped our world. I am proud of my life and thank those who have contributed so much to my success and happiness. Over the years, I found an interesting dinner topic to be: If you could select a few people through out history to join you for dinner, who would you choose and why? Some of the obvious selections were: Jesus Christ, Mark Twain, Socrates, Einstein, Noah (and maybe his flock.) Because of my interest in World War II, my favorites used to be, Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin, and Adolph Hitler, all at the same table. Wouldn’t that be a hoot! But not anymore. Because writing this book has been such a wonderful, educational, and emotional experience, my dinner guests are now chosen from a select few people that influenced my life. They are in this book and, as you meet them, I will let you guess who the important participants might be. If you engage in this assumption, notice one of the place settings at the table has an empty chair. I am not an accomplished author by any standard, so I ask you to look past my technical, spelling, and grammatical failings. (I purposely left a few as a reminder of the mistakes I made during my life.) My desire is that you enjoy the stories and share the emotions that influenced my life, and were the building blocks that motivated this 70 year old to take on this challenge. I knew this book would never be a best seller, so I made the decision to give it away. I hope as you read it, you consider it worth the price.
When a senior person passes on, a small library of information also dies. This is a tragedy. Recorded history should not be just for the famous people. Yes, knowing the details about the father of our country is important. But knowing the details about our ancestors is precious. My ancestors are no longer here and I hardly knew them. Because my grandfather died when I was two, I have no memory of him, and I know little about my grandmother prior to the time I met her. I cannot put words in their mouths, nor can I read their minds. But if I could, I would want to know what their childhood was like in the 1870s. Who were their ancestors, what stories could they tell? What were the ordinary events that shaped and ruled their lives? These things were never recorded in written word or stories and now they are gone forever. We all live different lives with unique events we may not see as unique, but simple everyday things become fascinating with passage of time. People engage in discussions of their respective family tree going back hundreds of years. My family tree consists of a stump. But even an old stump can manage a new small green shoot. I want to be that new shoot. Maybe, with the contribution of future generations, it will grow into a handsome full-leafed tree. My story starts in an era before TV, credit cards, artificial body parts, computers, dishwashers, clothes dryers and cars with automatic transmissions. When boys dressed up, they wore ties, and girls wore dresses. If these items were purchased before the parents had the full cash amount, it was bought on the "lay away plan." The merchandise was held by the store until you made final payment. There were no childproof lids on medicine bottles. Only 55% of the homes had indoor plumbing. The minimum wage was 43 cents and the average annual wage was $1,289. Radio time was filled with Big Band music including Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, and Tommy Dorsey. Jack Benny, Bob Hope, and Fibber McGee and Molly were weekly comedy programs. We rode in cars with no air-conditioning, seat belts, or air bags. If you did take a vacation, it was almost always by car, and getting there without a problem was the biggest part of the adventure. If you could not afford a vacation, a favorite outing was just going for a ride. We never thought hitchhiking was a risk and drinking from a garden hose is what you did when you were thirsty. Selling water in a bottle would have been a failed venture. We would leave home in the morning, play all day, and come home when the streetlights came on. No one could reach us all day, but they knew we were okay. We walked or rode our bikes to friend’s houses. There was no organized baseball, basketball or hockey; and we played and enjoyed those games as much as any generation. Parent participation in our activities stopped at buying us the used equipment. If you got in trouble, the chances were the parent would side with law. We had freedom of responsibility. There was success and failure and we learned how to deal with it. Doctors and music teachers made house calls. The family-owned grocery store was smaller than today’s average garage. There was no frozen food section. You purchased what was in season or you canned it and put in the fruit cellar. Going to the movies on Saturday afternoon for 10 cents was considered a luxury. A drug store without a soda fountain was behind the times, and if you were fortunate enough to have another 10 cents after the movie, you bought an ice cream cone. I would like to take you on a journey of my life. It starts when these things were commonplace. So jump in my wagon and. . . "COME WITH ME"
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