Life Lessons from My Father
Things Dad Used to Say by John Fouts Gardenhire
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Father Really Does Know Best!
In this memoir of a father by a son, John Fouts Gardenhire reflects on the 34 key sayings, "Things Dad Used to Say", that shaped his children's moral, social and intellectual development. Lessons like "Walk in Like you Own the Place", "You are not Better than Anyone, but You are Just as Good as Everybody", and "He who does not enjoy his own company is probably right" gave his children the tools needed for functioning in our society as full citizen participants.
Through vivid imagery, highly convesational dialogue and lots of humor these titled chapters will engage readers as they follow the development of the Gardenhire family story in Mud Town, Topeka's "negro" ghetto. Life Lessons unfolds its lessons without lecturing, with love, wit and charm.
Buy the Book!
Life Lessons From My Father is available from a number of online sources ($9.95 plus s/h):
Goldfinch Books, Maplewood, NJ
Click the link to your favorite seller to buy the book.
Who was S. R. Gardenhire?
Born in Alma, Kansas in 1891 Shirley Richard Gardenhire, was an unusual man--grandson of African American slaves, a top Latin scholar who entered Kansas State College in 1909, worked 36 years for the Santa Fe railroad company as a mechanic and never missed a day of nor was late for work.
Regarding his parenting style, he decided at age 16, in the midst of a beating from his own father, to (if he were lucky enough to ever have any) never hit his own children. He raised his three children as he promised himself, loving them, listening to them, respecting their personhood...and never hitting them.
