Okay the folks you see here are... Mom and Pop Spencer with little Dan-Dwayne. I couldn't have been but maybe 18 months old here. But, this blog post is really not about me... it is about Mom and Pop. My father was a mechanic, and I believe that he was the first of his immediate family to go to college. After WWII he took his GI bill and went to Paris Junior College where he studied auto mechanics. They say that reading is essential to being a good writer... Well, Mom bought me book on all kinds of nonfiction subjects. That's the reason today my head is full of useless information, however, I can't remember one time that my mother or father read me a story (bedtime or other wise.) I do remember my father reading a lot. He read his manuals and kept up with the latest on automatic transmissions, He also read his bible faithfully every night. (He was no saint by today's standards... I remember him cursing the house blue, but frankly I '
personally' have issues with todays overtly critical expectations of Christian behavior. But, that is a blog for another time.) My mother would tell me stories... not read them. They were events that happened in their lifetime that were rather remarkable. Like the story about living in a Railroad boxcar when they couldn't find or afford anything else. Then there was the time they once lived in a chicken coup when they went traveling picking cotton (migrant workers.) As you might have guessed my family was... poor. That all changed when my Dad became a certified mechanic. They actually started living the American dream. Did I know much about their hardships?... No, only the stories my mother told me. You see, when I came along Dad was already working at a garage. Soon he even started his own business (Spencer's Garage) and that was even better than working for someone else. As a young man I had to decide what my career was to be. I decided to get a BFA in Fine Art. My Dad hit the roof. He told me that I would starve. That was a bad career choice. I should go into medicine or law. (I would have made lots more money in either of those fields... for sure.) With my BFA and a teaching certification I ended up working in advertising, printing, television, and even taught school for 24 years. I have to say that from time to time things have been hard, but God has blessed me to be able to make a living at the one thing that was my passion. When I retired from teaching I decided it was time to reinvent myself and because my sister and my wife insisted that I publish some of my stories - I did. Now I have two books on Amazon and Goodreads with a Novel hitting the market by Christmas. (Writing was always my avocation while art was my vocation.) When my kids were little I read them stories that I had written... then later I started writing short stories and novellas. I'm exceptionally excited about the adventure story I am currently working on.
Check out my books I'm sure you'll like them.
