Author: Charles William Wrightson

ISBN: 1460910958

Lucky is the person who has a special family member as Charles William Wrightson, who could be described as a keeper of memories-one who shares stories of parents, grandparents, great grandparents and friends.

His Stories for Oliver describing his growing up years in the 1950s and 1960s in Baltimore could easily be the memoirs of millions of baby boomers growing up in the USA and Canada during this same era. However, anyone fortunate enough to read or hear about these tales will carry away with them fond memories and a sense of history during some very interesting times.

Many of us will probably ask what is the point of dredging up your past, which at times can be laborious and even painful. Furthermore, what do you hope to accomplish? As Wrightson descriptively and perceptibly illustrates, , creating your memoirs forces you to take stock of who you are, who you used to be, how you arrived at your present destination, and, also it serves as a reminder of your own mortality. He succinctly sums up his life by asserting: “ I reflect with a complex mixture of gratitude, regret, anger, and amusement on the path my life actually did take.” It is these adventures that depict all of his feelings and aspects of his life that he is able to pass unto his family, children and grandchildren-a personal legacy, in the hope that they will read, cherish, and perhaps learn something from them while eventually passing them unto their own offspring.

Admittedly, although writing your own memoirs may not be of great significance to anyone else other than your family members and friends, (and that is probably why they are not exactly best-sellers, unless you are a celebrity), they nonetheless can prove to be a wonderfully revealing and cathartic experience for the writer, which is probably the case with Wrightston.

Divided into two parts, Wrightson offers bits of his early childhood and goes on to present some of his reflections and philosophical musings concerning such themes as parenting, friendship, his father's values, and many more providing his readers with a great deal of insight and inspiration. He even tries his hand at poetry and ends with a few thoughtful and beautiful poems.

Reading these memoirs, readers will no doubt get the feeling that Wrightson has certainly paid attention to everything, including his first business venture, where he learned the principle of demand and supply, his kindergarten experiences, his first major league baseball game he attended, his boating experiences, as well as many others ventures that he has detailed and that we can easily identify with, particularly if we grew up during this same era. And what makes them all the more interesting is that they do satisfy our curiosities.

To add depth and color to his memoirs, Wrightson manages to mix a collection of events, happenings and people in his family with wit, humor and wisdom. Readers meet many of his relatives and friends whom he interacted with over the course of his sixty years and the influences that they had over him. Also thrown in are the many events of the 1960s -an era, where those of us who lived through, can agree that it was certainly interesting times. No doubt, reading Wrightston's memoirs you get the feeling that his writing of his memoirs must have been a labor of love-something he truly enjoyed. It also serves as an incentive for readers to reflect on their own lives and follow Wrightson's lead in recording their own personal histories that can be passed onto their offspring. What a wonderful gift!

Click Here To Read Norm's Interview With Charles William Wrightson