All About Pocket Knives

That was the title of a book that I wrote while going through a rather messy divorce proceeding. The book initially took me four days of almost non-stop writing(in long hand)nearly 300 pages. I was almost 50 years old at the time and writing was my way of getting through a pretty hard time. The unintended consequences of this marathon writing jag which took place over a Labor Day weekend also led me to re-unite with the woman I was supposed to marry in the first place...... but I'm getting ahead of my story.
The gist of my story was our involvement in the foster parents program we entered into after the loss of our twins(a story for another time). We had become an emergency foster home which had children coming into our home at all hours of the night and staying until a more permanent place could be found.Technically we could only keep them for 3 working days so most of our placements came in on Friday night;giving them a couple extra days to find homes.
Over the course of about 11 years we had about two hundred children ranging in age from 6 days to 16 years old stay with us. Although we were not supposed to have any permanent foster kids,the lack of homes in the area caused us to have 5 that stayed with us for almost 6 years.
Some of the experiences we had in that time I thought might make an interesting book and the combination of my not being able to work due to some serious back issues and the separation(and eventual divorce)caused me to start writing that weekend. After writing in long hand about 300 pages dealing with not only the foster parenting thing but other incidents in my life, I started thinking about Jan;the girl I was originally going to marry. An incident occurred that would fuel the desire to see what she was up to then and it came in the form of an old Hot Rod magazine.
When I first moved to Michigan after the Navy I met a guy and his son at Jan's brother's house one time and was told that he was involved in Ford's racing program. I didn't think much of it until I came across his name in an old Hot Rod magazine article. As I had lost touch with her brother years ago I wondered if I could contact him through this guy.
After searching through various telephone directories I came across what I thought was his son's name and gave him a call. Of course he didn't remember me(it was over 25 years ago)but he did remember that Jan's brother was a musician and he had changed his name but didn't know where he was. He did say though that he might have his sister's number around! He looked around a bit and gave me the number! I didn't even think about why he might have it.
I called the number and Jan answered and could not believe who it was. She was just headed out the door to work(she worked 3rd shift at GM). She asked how I got the number and I told her and she laughed a bit. Turned out the guy I called was her EX-HUSBAND!
We finally got back together at her brother's house(he was living in Indianapolis at the time)and it was almost like the 25 plus years had never happened. After dating for awhile we were married on New Year's Eve at her brother's house. That is a whole other story in itself.
Moving to Michigan again I didn't know what I would do for work. I still had some serious back issues and I doubted anyone was going to hire a 50 year old person with those kinds of medical problems. I had some money left over from a workman's comp settlement but most of it went to paying off the divorce from my first wife.
I started attending car shows in the area with my custom Ford Pinto Cruisin' Van I had painted up and slowly but surely started getting small striping and lettering jobs here and there. I bought my 55 Pontiac wagon and started painting that up and more and more business started coming my way.
And that my friends is why "S**T Happens for a reason but we just don't know the full story at the time". As an aside; the book I finished was put into some semblance of coherence by a good friend who worked for a publisher and he was interested in publishing it.I declined;mostly because a lot of it was really personal stuff and I wanted to keep it that way.
She understood and printed a dozen copies for me anyway in case I ever changed my mind.They inhabit my book case down in the basement still along with the original hand written manuscript.My son will get it someday.
And that is my story and I'm stickin' to it!

Great story K7K! Goes to show, you never know what's just around the corner for us. Live a clean, spiritual life and God will provide EXACTLY what we need, not necessarily what we want, but ALWAYS what we need! Thanks for sharing that with us!

Interesting story Ray, and thanks for sharing it. Re-enforces what I’ve always believed which is that although we probably don’t understand at the time why things are happening, some day we will understand. God is ultimately in control and He loves us.

Ken

Interesting story, Ray. And the path that got you from there to here.

Very interesting story, Ray. Great read.

Ray

I can identify a lot with you. Life dealt the cards and I played them. Today I like who I am and love my wife, my dogs, my knives and the CREATOR Who put it all together for me. Thanks for sharing. jwwood

Awesome story Ray!
I could write a similar story about my divorce, but my new wife (we have been married over 20 years), was not someone I had known prior to my divorce. It turned out we had worked in the same building for different state agencies for about a 10 month period yet we never met until about a year after I transferred from that location to work for a different Federal program.

You are so right when you say that things happen for a reason, but we just don't see the full picture at the time!

Just saw your story Ray and it's a great one. I would love to read your book, but I understand if
your not ready to publish it. I was scared to death with the one I just published especially with
so many of you guys on AAPK that have so much more knowledge about knives than myself. I just
had to finally say do it and don't worry about what others might think. I'm facing the same thing
with my next two books I'm working on, but I've done it once and I can do it again. Whatever you
decide your friends here are with you.

Another interesting story Ray! Thanks!

Fascinating.