I cracked Bill.

[Abbey]

89 year old Bill has been very resistant to wrting his story for my book. We settled a couple of days ago on dinner tonight at my house where I could push play on a recorder and get pieces of his life story.

Well...he comes sauntering (actually staggering) in my store today with the journal I had given him. He has hand written ten pages of the most amazing stories of his life. I asked him to do it by decades.

He asked me to read them and give my input as if this what I wanted. I don't think I'll edit a word. He now seems really excited about putting his life down in words.

I'm looking forward to dinner...and I think he is too. This made my day.

Abbey

 

[WhymeMom?]

Hope he dedicates his book to you......what a great thing to do......bet he has some fantastic stories to tell and glad he found you to listen (or read in this case)....

 

[Abbey]

Actually, I'm writing the book...he just is the main character. He should be here any minute! I asked him what he likes to eat and he said...no one can turn down a good steak. So, steak it is. (Unfortunately husband had to run out for propane.)

Abbey

 

[totoro]

What is Bill's story? interesting? How did you find him? I love the extended stories of our elders... so much history. Even the tragedies are so engaging.

 

[Abbey]

What an amazing night. He talked and talked and talked and was totally intrigued by my parrots. (Me on the other hand, wanted to cover them up.)

husband is a history buff, so they hit it off right away.

I've got to figure out how to put all this into some sort of time frame, figure out how to spell cities in Great Britain, Canada, Peru and more, battles he was in, etc. (husband, of course, knows every one of them. That annoys me. ) But, I'm too stubborn to ask him.

Hence...no sleep for me tonight.

Abbey

 

[Lothlorien]

This is the little old man that comes to visit you at the store almost every day right? He went missing a couple of weeks ago. Was he sick?

The book sounds really cool. I can't wait to see some excerpts!

husband is a big history buff, too. He would have latched right on to this guy, too.

 

[WhymeMom?]

Will he let you video tape him telling his stories......just thinking half the alure of his stories might be his delivery. I was reminded of the story of Little Big Man (?).
It was a movie with Dustin Hoffman who was supposedly a 100 year old man who was at Custer's Last Stand.......good luck with any form of capturing his stories.

 

[Lothlorien]

Video taping would probably be an excellent idea. What if your book takes off....just think of it.....You might have the History Channel asking you for rights to the video!

 

[Abbey]

hmmm...haven't thought about the video taping.

I think he was just depressed when he didn't come in for a bit. He does have a neighbor that checks up on him. Bill gave me their number next time I had a 'hissy fit.' (his words)

Abbey

 

[Star*]

A HISSY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~{{:-------< FIT????


Heessssssssssssss hissssssssterical!!!

forget about the illiterate thing - washed after he brings in the tablets of his written word.

 

[dirobb]

abbey,
Isn't funny how the strings of our lives flow. I remember when you were just deciding what oufit to wear for your new job. Now this wonderful man is come by and you're writing stories about him and I'm certain he will be a part of your life now. I am a firm believer that some things just are not "random"... It sounds like you both will enrich each others lives greatly.

 

[Abbey]

A HISSY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~{{:-------< FIT????


Heessssssssssssss hissssssssterical!!!

forget about the illiterate thing - washed after he brings in the tablets of his written word.

True. He is NOT illeterate by any means. I missed my mark on that one. He's just old school.

I spent the better part of the night typing in his story, which is about about 10 pages long so far. This is only the first decade. We've got 8 more to go.

I wanted to edit it, but thought it might be better to keep it in his form. I just rearranged the order of events to make it more chronological.

So, I'm heading off to be Princess Leah again (cinnaman buns on the ears), and to meet Bill with my comments.

I have a new thing for Priscilla. I have this really nice package of raspberry bathing salts that I'm going to put into her cart when she's not looking.

Abbbey

 

[Lothlorien]

did I miss something about Priscilla? She stink? Who is she?

Ditto what dirobb said. How cool is that?

 

[Abbey]

Priscilla is the one who told me to f off when I said, "Hey...how are you today"? She tore me a new one. She's a peach and going to be a tough one to handle.

Abbey