I just received the most lovely Christmas gift ...

3 years ago

From my 81 year old father. He has started writing his memoirs, something I asked him to consider doing some time ago, and just sent me the first installment. It is filled to overflow with clear, interesting recollections of his young life, along with wonderful old photos to illustrate the events. I'm a little overcome by how absolutely sweet and charming and eloquent it all is and cannot wait to read more. I have it in Word format, and that's how the rest will be sent to me. I so want to have this published, just a few copies, for my immediate loved ones. I know we have discussed book publishing in the past. Does anyone have thoughts anew on how best to go about this? It's mostly a story book, so something like Shutterfly is not appropriate. I'm not going to ask him to use Storyworth (my mother is actually doing that to write about her life), but just a little bound book containing Dad's stories would mean so much to me.

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3 years ago

last modified: 3 years ago

Wanted to share one of the photos with you of my Dad at 18. He's at the famed Tropicana Club in Havana, Cuba with his then-girlfriend's mother in the pic. The then-girlfriend did not become my mother. He was so handsome! He says it was in this place that being exposed to Afro-Cuban rhythms for the very first time profoundly impacted his life by giving him a style of music that stirred his soul like nothing else. He can still be found in his music room, playing the congas along with his favorite records, usually at stun-level volume.

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Jilly
3 years ago
Oh, goodness, Oco ... love your idea, love this picture and story. He’s so handsome! I know you’ll get great ideas, just wanted to say how wonderful this is. ❤️
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I think it's a swell gift idea and would be pleased to find it in my stocking so I hope your gifts were received with good cheer, Lynn. My friend's son recently had his done and was tickled to find some Australian native DNA in his background. Scandinavian/German/Italian was all that was in the oral tradition of the family, so it was a neat surprise. Our family's Ancestry.com hobbyist received an email from a "surprise" cousin that we did not know we had, after several family members' DNA was registered. Photos were exchanged and yes, there is no way to deny the blood kinship--he looks just like the rest of us, poor fellow. The generation of folks who might have been shocked/hurt by this surprise family member are all gone, and I am glad for him that his lifelong question of paternity could be answered. I can see that it might be awkward for younger families who find out they have siblings they never heard of, but I'm a fan of sunlight in dark family corners-- and I also think it's time that some kinds of families stop acting like those situations never happen "among our kind of people", lol. I also had my dog's DNA done and I'm getting our newer dog's done, too. Very fun to find out what went into these rescue/shelter mutts we love.
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bbstx
3 years ago
Wow! What a handsome dad. Tell him all your imaginary friends are drooling!

DH’s aunt lived in Havana for a while. She met the man she eventually married in Havana. I hear it was quite the place to be!
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Oakley
3 years ago
Try calling a local university press and see if they can do something. Wonderful idea!
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maddielee
3 years ago
Your dad was a hunk. Good for him for starting his book!
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morz8 - Washington Coast
3 years ago
What a handsome dad! Thanks so much for sharing the picture and description of his gift.
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dedtired
3 years ago
Great idea to publish his Memoirs. My BIL did this and used XLibris Press.

https://www.xlibris.com/en

He also was interested in genealogy and published his research using Penobscot Press.
User thanked dedtired
Lars
3 years ago
If you just want a few copies, you could save it in PDF format, and then it would be easy to share with family and friends, and they could print copies (or just certain pages) of it for themselves. If you have Open Office, you can export text documents (which can contain pictures, photographs, images, etc) to PDF. If you want something fancier, you can download a PDF writer program that will allow you to do more editing to PDF documents.
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mtnrdredux_gw
3 years ago
Wonderful!
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Bestyears
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
Wow, kudos to you for pushing him to do this, and kudos to him for seeing it through. What a wonderful, eternal gift.

I can't speak to the quality of this service (and there may be others), but it seems like you may be looking for something like this: How to Print Your Own Book
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DLM2000-GW
3 years ago
Oh MY! What a wonderful gift, something to treasure. And at the risk of being inappropriate, your dad was hot!
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OutsidePlaying
3 years ago
What a gift! You are so lucky he did as you suggested. And he is a very handsome young man.

A little OT, but did you ever read, ‘Last Year in Havana’ by Chanel Cleeton? It’s a bit of chick lit, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and her descriptions of old Havana and life there. She obviously had some insight into both then and now.
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skibby (zone 4 Vermont)
3 years ago
What a treasure. Merry Christmas!
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rubyclaire
3 years ago
Fabulous!

Check out Blurb to see if it may be an option:

www.blurb.com
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pudgeder
3 years ago
What a treasure!!!!

I am envious.
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martinca_gw sunset zone 24
3 years ago
How wonderful, and how lucky you are . He was a looker...bet he is still. AND! The apple didn’t fall far did it?! 😉
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User
Original Author
3 years ago
Thank you all for the kind words and helpful information! I'm looking into the suggestions made and am feeling confident that I can find something that will work for us. I'm eager to read Dad's next installment and have already learned things about him that I never knew. He has always been extremely fiscally conscious, so I was surprised to read that he had a bout of irresponsibility in his early college days that included being more into girls and cars than good grades and his budget. Of course that only makes him more endearing in my eyes, to think of him as a very young man growing and sometimes learning lessons the hard way, as we do.
teeda
3 years ago
What a treasure that gift is! You are so lucky. And he was indeed a very handsome young man! I would love to have been in Havana back in those days.
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graywings123
3 years ago
A treasure indeed!
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User
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3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
About being in Havana, Dad wrote:

"This was October 1958, only a few short weeks until Castro's tanks drove into metropolitan Havana. Members of our tour group were told not to leave the hotel after dark unless we were with the group. Since the distant sounds of gunfire could be heard every evening, this warning was certainly wise.

However, [name redacted] had friends who lived in Havana, and those friends were eager to show us 'their' Havana. So a couple of nights, her friends came by the Havana Riviera and took us to their favorite places. This was exciting - and a wee bit scary - stuff for me. The sound of gunfire sometimes seemed so close. The Revolution was now in Havana. So was I."
nekotish
3 years ago
What a precious keepsake.
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I just received the most lovely Christmas gift ...

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