Memoirs

As we live in a changing and volatile world, these stories highlight everyday situations. Some stories are cheerful and humorous while others tug at your heartstrings. All of the stories are true and are intended to help us as we interact with others.

This set of vignettes is, in fact, a dot-to-dot autobiography. It’s warm, affectionate, diplomatic, and laced with kindness. In a phrase, a perfect reflection of the man his granddaughters know. And his friends and associates over the years. Now, so can everyone else. — Dr. Jerry Elijah Brown, former head of Auburn University journalism and retired dean and professor emeritus of the University of Montana School of Journalism.

Moments in Time is Jack D. Smith’s second book, written at the request of his two granddaughters, Maggie and Claire Smith. His first book, My Father the Ghost, was published in 2009.

Moments in Time describes the author’s most hated boyhood farm chore, by order of his dad, milking a stubborn old cow that keeps hitting him upside the head with her cocklebur-matted tail. He delights in the minty scent of plants growing along the shady banks of a fresh water creek – the little stuff that makes for the author’s happy young life in his beloved Mount Hope community.

But he also captures the dark valleys of his life, one of them waiting at East Alabama Medical Center on a morning when a doctor would arrive to turn off the life support machines for his wife. As a news reporter, the author invites you to join him in covering a midnight execution in Alabama’s electric chair.

These and dozens of other moments in time are written in a “sitting on the front porch talking” informality that Grandmother Smith and Aunt Eunice Rucker would have appreciated as they dipped Bruton snuff on the front porch of the author’s log house. You will meet some of the people who had an impact on the author’s life. Other than family, that lists includes a serial bank robber, a WW II prisoner of war, a man we called Mr. Bill, an angel in the journalism office, and others you will long remember, as will his granddaughters.

A big city Yankee moves into an antebellum log cabin deep in a forest in the mountains of Tennessee and slowly becomes acculturated in an amazing society. Widder Holler is an account of the adventures and misadventures encountered during the process of learning to be part of a culture filled with unique people.

As I continue to age, I find it harder to remember the things I would like to write about. At least three times in the ensuing years since I last wrote a book, my life has been spared in situations that could have easily gone the other way. I wanted to write at least one or more books before I go over the divide, so this is the next installment in my life and the experiences that influence it.

A Persian Promise is the memoir of Dr. Hossein Sakhai, a highly successful neurosurgeon from Huntington, West Virginia.

At the age of 15, Hossein was greatly motivated by the untimely death of his older brother from typhoid fever. Vowing to improve life for his fellowman and his community, he set for himself the most lofty goal he could conceive. With determination, persistence, intelligence, and a supercharged worth ethic, he satisfied his Persian promise as he became not only an accomplished neurosurgeon but a very successful business entrepreneur.

Despite Dr. Sakhai’s professional success, he was continuously challenged by the culture clash between his Iranian Islamic heritage and his family life in America. After four unsuccessful marriages and many stressful family trials, Hossein, at the age of 85, views his life with clarity and wisdom and pens this memoir for the benefit of his children and their progeny.

A Pastor of more than 40 years takes a humorous look at growing up, finding God, and entering the ministry.

An important book to read, lest you think that knucklehead growing up in your house doesn’t have a chance.

With e-mails inundating us, I think this will be my last personal letter. John asked me some time ago to write about the highlights of our lives, and once again I’m too late. John is gone now and I apologize to him for not doing this sooner. But I do feel that he will somehow be aware of this and I hope that his family enjoys it. This letter will abound in digressions, but that’s the way our lives were.

My Story was written in an effort to capture my memories of the Vietnam War. I arrived in Vietnam on December 19, 1967, as a naive twenty-year-old private, E-3, and left on December 9, 1968, as a disillusioned Staff Sergeant, E-6, with two Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart. As a soldier assigned to Alpha Company, Third Battalion, Twenty-first Infantry, 196th Light Infantry Brigade, I fought the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Regulars (NVA) in the flatlands and the mountains west of Tam KY and the NVA on the DMZ north of Dong Ha. Enemy fire, malaria, accidents, and the scorching heat all took a heavy toll on Alpha Company. The high casualty rate was a constant drain on the company’s experience and the lack of experience produced yet more casualties. On more than one occasion, stupid mistakes cost young men their lives. But at other times, like when we turned back the NVA on the DMZ, I can assure you that there wasn’t a better outfit in Vietnam on that night in May.

The story begins in a world without television, internet, iPads, or supermarkets; where blackberries were only fruit and children had time for play. This is a story many immigrants could tell. They survived with the same resources: hard work, determination, a community of family and faith in God.

In PART ONE read to discover the similarities and differences in the wilderness times your ancestors and mine overcame to find the American dream.

In PART TWO read about struggles and hardships in the twenty first century. People have “wilderness times” in their lives today. Current survival stories can provide hope and strength for those of us in the twenty first century.

In PART THREE, the reader will discover the many ways in which people of Italian descent made a positive difference on society. Although several people are named, it is only a sample of Italians who made a positive impact on our world.

Everyone has a story. After seeing stories shared here, hopefully readers will be encouraged to share their stories with others.

I was born and raised in Philly and this is my life story. A true testimony as to who I am and have become through all roads this fascinating journey has taken me. Step into my world and become intrigued.