When you get to a certain age birthdays get you thinking about the past. When you are young
you can’t wait for the next birthday and the new things you will be allowed to do, then suddenly it
happens – and birthdays come to close together and make you remember the things that will not come
back.
Sixty four years ago my Dad took me to the local store and let me pick a toy, I chose a yellow
race car. That car is still in my office and depending on the day it can trigger a flood of memories. Next
week my Dad would have been 120 if he were still with us, and that will bring another torrent of
memories.
Just yesterday I was talking to Jim Harrison and he recalled playing for the Leafs with Eddy
Shack who passed away this passed weekend. Jim told me that there was another great bunch of stories
lost, “and we do have some memories, but it is not him telling the stories.”
I have had the comments before and made some efforts to record more of the stories from the
past, but this time I have decided to to something about the stores that are fading away and not being
recorded. Most of you know that I help people write books, and those books range from self- help to
memoirs to legacy to cathartic but not I am going to add a new dimension to what I do.
I have not yet decided on the name but my business will have a new vision by August 1. It might
be called The Yellow Racer in honor of that little car, but it might be called something else. The name
won’t be as important as what it intends to do.
The new division will be about recording those stories, and getting them to some kind of print, it
does not have to be a published book, it might be a book that only has 20 copies made for grandchildren.
The intent is to capture those stories before they are lost and the format is not as important as the content.
No, I don’t have the details worked out but I will have by August 1, that would have been my
Dad’s birthday, and I wish I had more of his stories but I don’t. Just like planting a tree the best time was
yesterday but the next best time is today.