Friday, December 3, 2010

The Passing of Time : Introduction

{Cover}

The Passing of Time

Like a gently flowing stream, Time never pauses.
Like a lonely desert sentinal(sic), The World watches.
Like the rising and setting of the sun,
People live and die.
They overcome the obstacles in their path,
As they overcome mountains leading to newer
And richer lands.

*****

Dedication

I dedicate this book to my mother and father. It is through their love and wisdom that I have achieved the goals I have reached today.

*****

Introducing Myself

At the moment I can definitely say that my feeling for this autobiography is not what it should be. I suppose I should be rather glad that I am having such a wonderful opportunity to write it, but all the emotion it arouses is indifference and slight fear. The fear arises because I am afraid I shall be unable to acquire all the necessary material, and the indifference, because it seems foolish to start a thing so much ahead of time. I suppose, though, that it is the wisest move.
My appearance is not all that spectacular. The color of my hair is an ordinary brown, and so are my eyes. I am five feet six inches tall; I weigh one hundred and ten pounds, and I'm very thin. I dress according to the fad of the day. When the styles change, I change along with them. I have a fearful temper when aroused. Sometimes I am good natured, at other times very bad. My conduct at all times depends on how I feel, and my disposition, I guess, is average.
Some of my traits of character are inherited from my father, some from my mother, although my mother (says) I inherit all the bad ones from my father. Oh yes, I was born on July 5, 1926.
The above is a brief description of myself to give you an idea of what I'm like.

*****

Between the covers of an unassuming folder with bent corners and water damage is my Grandma Ruth's autobiography, a history up until 1943, carefully typed on what once were white pages. I never met my Grandma Ruth, she passed away in 1950 just 5 days after giving birth to my dad. I was always curious about the woman I was named after and when I started reading this I felt like she was writing it just for me, her candid and honest writer's voice, indicative of her time and age. The beauty of it and it's connection to my ancestry is priceless. I am sharing this here more for posterity and for my small but significant tie to this woman that makes us family. Her history is a part of mine.

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