In 1963, Dr. H. Kenneth Shook attended an auction just four doors down from his apartment in Westminster, Maryland, to buy a typewriter-and instead returned as the home's new owner. As a photograph is snapped of his wife and son sitting on the tailgate of the station wagon that would be used to transport their belongings just a short way down the street, Shook has no idea that one day, that simple photograph will trigger him to write compilation of memories. In his second volume of memoirs, Shook shares true accounts of his life inspired by his many memories of family cars. Beginning with his first recollections at age four, Shook provides a glimpse back into a time when mothers stayed home with their children, televisions did not have a place in the home, and fathers parked the family car on Main Street on a Saturday night to watch the world go by. As he details his coming-of-age journey through childhood, college, military service, and adulthood, Shook chronicles not only his life experiences, but also the purchases of vehicles that accompanied him on his journey through life that included retired police cars, a Dodge Dart, and a beloved station wagon. Family Cars Trigger Memoirs offers entertaining anecdotes that illustrate the important role that family cars take in one man's journey through life. The final portions of this book include memoirs triggered by distant travels and memoirs triggered by other people's memoirs. The author also allows two memoirs from his first book to return for an encore performance.

FAMILY CARS TRIGGER MEMOIRS

Write your memoirs by thinking small! Share your life experiences before they are lost!By H. KENNETH SHOOK

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2012 Dr. H. Kenneth Shook
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4759-0805-3

Contents

Quotations on Getting Hooked on Memoirs.............................vWords of Thanks and Photograph Sources..............................viiAn author's approach to memoir writing..............................ixSeven Key Steps In Memoir Writing...................................xiiiAutos in the early years (1930-1959):...............................3Before I learned to drive a car:....................................3My father loved Cadillac cars.......................................3Uncle Percy and the milk truck event................................4These singing brothers were popular.................................5Parking downtown on Saturday nights.................................7Sunday drives and Burma Shave signs.................................9Rare visits to the ball park........................................10Learning to drive and receiving my license:.........................11My step-brother's Nash coop in 1946.................................11Viewing the Duel in the Sun movie...................................13Owning a license but having no car access:..........................14One high school classmate had a car.................................14The Charlotte Hall School experience................................16Weekends on my College campus.......................................17Rotarian Gallagher does not own a car...............................18Two retired police cars expanded my world:..........................19My first purchase of a car..........................................19Summer employment was a necessity...................................20Pearly Dukes and the migratory workers..............................121Wesleyan University vacation breaks.................................25"The Rose City" welcomed me in 1954.................................26Fort Monmouth welcomed me in 1955...................................31The linkage of two turnpikes........................................35Autos in the middle years (1960-1989)...............................36College employment and early years of marriage:.....................36The new Dodge was a wedding gift....................................36Dr. Jennette's Chrysler Imperial....................................39We were a one-car family in 1960....................................40"Admissions" travel in College cars.................................43S&H Green Stamps and Hanover visits.................................44Some family cars were station wagons................................45The woman driver screamed, "Pig! Pig!"..............................46Family reunions and a Florida trip..................................48Events prior to the foreign car invasion:...........................51A Rotarian friend's Pontiac Tempest.................................51An April Fool's Day happening.......................................52A new job provided a new car in 1975................................53Autos in the later years (since 1990)...............................55A return to classroom teaching and a city home......................55A foreign car invasion thanks to "Ick":.............................55A Mercedes Benz for Carol...........................................55Shadow dog's trip to Wake Forest University.........................56A 1988 BMW caught Ken's eye.........................................59A "gift-car" led to a difficult BMW decision........................60My BMW gift to breast cancer research...............................62A family member was a travel agent:.................................67My fond trip to Turkey in 1996......................................68A trip that travel agents cannot duplicate..........................70National associations covered the USA...............................71International associations cover the world:.........................73A Yachting Fellowship experience....................................76The Rotary Convention in San Antonia................................78"Songs for Rotarians" is #1 on Google lists.........................79The demanding District Governor role................................81Exchanging memoirs over morning coffee:.............................85Photographs of a man and his dog....................................90Lionel Lee's selection of a college in 1948.........................91Was Marsha Green a national threat?.................................95My son-in-law's love for old cars:..................................96A 1953 English film named Genevieve.................................103My brother recalled his first plane flight..........................104A 1970 WMC Faculty Club's Book of Recipes:..........................106Main Dishes:........................................................107Salads And Vegetables:..............................................113Desserts:...........................................................118Encores of Fisherboy Memoirs, Book One..............................125My Pope Pius XII Photograph Session.................................125The Baseball Glove That Had Two Thumbs..............................134About the Author....................................................145

Chapter One

PART I

Family Cars Trigger Memoirs

AUTOS IN THE EARLY YEARS (1930-1959):

If my memory of trivia is anywhere near correct, I recall it being said that each person in the United States can expect to live in ten different homes in a lifetime, and each can expect to encounter a dozen or more family cars. For me, I have lived in eight different homes, excluding college dormitories and army barracks. Counting family cars is a more difficult task for me, but if I include the favorite cars owned by my father and my wife's father, my total number of family cars would reach 17. Since I lay no claim to being a "car person," I wonder what the statistics would be for persons who really love cars. My son-in-law, Rob Reynolds, may have an answer to this question in his memoir in Part III of this book.

Before I learned to drive a car:

My father loved Cadillac cars

In my list of family cars, the first was a Cadillac car owned by my father. We lived at 213 East Patrick Street in Frederick, Maryland, which also happened to be my first home. Dad must have had a love for Cadillac cars, because those were the model cars that he selected to restore to perfect riding conditions. Being a skilled mechanic, he could provide us with an expensive looking family car which did not come with a high price tag. Dad was a farm boy in his youth, and his education was often disrupted by farm chores and other family duties. For this reason, he lacked a high school diploma, and his employment as a mechanic, as a road construction foreman, and as a policeman would cause our family to warrant a low-income label.

Mother, on the other hand, had a college degree from Hood College, located in Frederick, but her college education never led to full-time employment outside the home. Her contributions of cooking, sewing, and piano playing were valuable assets to our family, and it should be remembered that the decision to be a stay-at-home mom was a prevailing opinion until the cultural changes that were brought about by World War II. Brother Charlie and I learned at an early age that we needed to provide most of our own spending money, and we sometimes held two or three jobs, especially...