The Other Book of John

John Geen

Description

The true story of how an uneducated boy emerged from poverty and the obscurity of an Ontario farm to realize personal and professional accomplishments.
Did John's belief in God influence his life?
In June 1933, Canada was in the depths of an ongoing Depression. As the third child born into a poor farm family working a hilly fifty acres littered with boulders, John Geen grew up amid a turbulent childhood where he learned to go without and relied on his faith in God.
In a retelling of his life experiences, Geen chronicles his often obstacle-lined road to future fortune that began in the stubble fields of Manitoba harvesting wheat. He dealt with a cantankerous old rooster, school adventures and influences, and misfortunes that tested him in ways he never imagined. As he leads others through his varied experiences, Geen details his path as he dropped out of high school to marry the love of his life, started a family, secured jobs without academic credentials, relocated to the United States, and overcame seemingly insurmountable odds to attain professional success.
The Other Book of John is the true story of how an uneducated boy emerged from poverty and the obscurity of an Ontario farm to realize personal and professional accomplishments.

Sujets

• Personal Memoirs
• Biography
• Autobiography

Informations

• Publié par: LifeRich Publishing
• Date de parution: 25 novembre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781489745071
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

THE OTHER BOOK OF JOHN
REMEMBERING MY HOME AND NATIVE LAND
JOHN GEEN


Copyright © 2022 John Geen.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
LifeRich Publishing is a registered trademark of The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc.
 
 
LifeRich Publishing
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.liferichpublishing.com
844-686-9607
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, King James Version (Authorized Version). First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic Reference Bible, Copyright © 1983 by The Zondervan Corporation.
 
ISBN: 978-1-4897-4505-7 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-4897-4506-4 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-4897-4507-1 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022920659
 
 
 
LifeRich Publishing rev. date:  11/22/2022
CONTENTS
Preface
Introduction
 
Chapter 1 Me and God
Chapter 2 The Dawn of Knowledge
Chapter 3 Fairy Tales Fade
Chapter 4 My Ebbing Childhood
Chapter 5 Next-Door Neighbors
Chapter 6 Our Other Neighbors
Chapter 7 My Time of Decision
Chapter 8 The Harvest Excursion
Chapter 9 Breaking the Chain of Inevitability
Chapter 10 Winnipeg—My Home-to-Be
Chapter 11 The Dawn of My Career and My Future
Chapter 12 The Courtship of Nora Penner
Chapter 13 My Career Has Begun
Chapter 14 The Road to a Utopian Life, Mile One
Chapter 15 Life and Family in Edmonton
Chapter 16 Winnipeg: “I’d Like to Stay Here”
Chapter 17 The Road Home
Chapter 18 The Okanogan Experience
Chapter 19 My Return to St. Adolph
Chapter 20 The Erickson Manitoba Story
Chapter 21 Loss of an Opportunity
Chapter 22 The Indian Head Family Experience
Chapter 23 The Coming Exodus from St. Adolph
Chapter 24 My Salmon Arm Stories
Chapter 25 New Horizons
Chapter 26 Our Vancouver Experiences
Chapter 27 Life on Lulu Island
Chapter 28 Going Back—to Ontario!
Chapter 29 Passing the Litmus Tests
Chapter 30 Christmas at Home
Chapter 31 Me and Love
Chapter 32 Recomposing Our Lives
Chapter 33 Starting Over
Chapter 34 More of the Brockville Story, 1962–1964
Chapter 35 A Need for a Place of Our Own
Chapter 36 My Rise to Significance
Chapter 37 Beating an Addiction
Chapter 38 Our Home on Murray Road
Chapter 39 The Rest of the Brockville Story
Chapter 40 A Reluctant Decision
Chapter 41 Leaving the World We Knew
Chapter 42 Our Life in Middletown
Chapter 43 Commitment to USA Residency
Chapter 44 Another Move to Another Life
Chapter 45 Our Johnstown Days
Chapter 46 Our Maturing Family
Chapter 47 The Trail to Our Final Home
Chapter 48 My Waning Career
Chapter 49 Family Life in San Angelo: The Early Years
Chapter 50 The Cottage of Hope and Glory: 11193 Twin Lakes Lane
Chapter 51 The End of Bondage
Chapter 52 The Transformation
Chapter 53 The Star Promenaders Story
Chapter 54 Nora’s Final Romance
Chapter 55 The Return to Square Dancing
Chapter 56 The Final Curtain
Chapter 57 Reflections of John
 
Epilogue

I dedicate this book to Nora, my late wife of sixty-five years. She was subjected to hardships that no person should have been expected to endure.
I know she rests in the hands of God!
PREFACE
I did not know myself until I began to write my memoirs.
Now I don’t like me nearly so much!
T his was written solely for entertainment and because, as my youthful capabilities fade, I really don’t have much else to do. Readers will neither learn secrets of life nor gain insight into social protocols. I, the author, am not a life coach, a philosopher, a prophet, an academic, a clairvoyant, or an intellectual. I am, in fact, a high school dropout.
My life began before there were automatic transmissions in cars, ballpoint pens, televisions, miniskirts, pantyhose, Viagra, zippered flies on trousers, and many other amenities of modern living. In my early years, I lived without electricity, indoor plumbing, disease preventative medications, and a wristwatch. While I hesitate to call myself a pioneer, I have seen life changes that range from amazing to alarming. It is my hope that my life story will be read by a generation who can relate it to their great-grandparents, or even great-great-grandparents, who endured similar times to give them the legacy of life they enjoy today.
In my earlier days, the government was not a charitable organization. It did not provide for the welfare of its citizens. Citizens worked to provide for themselves. The government benefited.
In my story, names may have been misspelled or substituted because I forgot them—or deliberately changed to protect the guilty and deliver me from lawsuits.
INTRODUCTION
For I am the voice crying in the wilderness.—John 1:23
T his book is about me, John Geen, who as an unschooled boy emerged from poverty and the obscurity of a poor Ontario farm to eventually gain a measure of celebrity and accrue a small fortune in investment assets. This book is not to brag but simply to call attention to the fact that with reasonable effort, personal sacrifice, and a bunch of luck, it can be done.
The Other Book of John will dwell mostly on things long etched in my mind. One cannot select what one remembers, but I can select what I write about. I have tried to keep the line between factual memories and wishful reminiscences from blurring.
Writing memoirs is like entering a confessional with the cameras running. There are many specifics one does not wish to reveal about oneself, so I may forgo a few details. During my life, I was constantly led into temptation and not always delivered from evil. Suffice to say that during my sixty-five years of marriage to a wonderful and enduring woman, there was a time and a reason for each of us to stray from the expectations of a normal marital relationship.
My early career involved long-term absence from the home. A beautiful woman left alone without affection emits an aura of desire that will be detected by men with an instinct and strength to pursue. The need to discard a chaste existence has been embedded into the nature of woman since Eve ate of the apple.
Likewise, a traveling man, upon entering geographically remote communities, will be perceived by local womenfolk as an opportunity to expand the tribal gene pool. A woman’s will to stalk and entice is equal to a man’s will to sow the seeds of life. The instincts of species survival are instilled in every living thing.
An understanding of these basics of nature is the needed foundation for forgiveness. Forgiving transgressions was an essential ingredient in our sixty-five-year marriage.
I will begin with a story about me and God. Religion has always played a part in my life, even though I do not subscribe to its rigid rules for communal behavior. The Bible is one of the greatest novels ever written, and its teachings and societal guidelines cannot be, nor ever will be, surpassed. Churches have held the Christian community in spiritual servitude for twenty centuries by demanding absolute belief in specifics that are, at best, questionable. This has resulted in the rejection of spirits, apparitions, and divine retribution by the masses.
Jesus was a courageous individual who obviously believed His self-sacrifice would benefit mankind for all time to come. Even as nails were being driven into Him, I doubt that He was aware of the improbable powers that would ultimately be attributed to Him in scripture. The gathered throngs of his time may have accepted the scriptural claims of mind-defying miracles; the scientific awareness of today’s peoples does not allow for the same.
Witnesses to His many miracles obviously did not undergo any objective cross-examination.
Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.— John 15:15
CHAPTER 1
ME AND GOD
Of one thing I am certain: I will be the last to die during my lifetime.
W hen people perceive that they do not have a great deal of time left to look forward, they tend to look back.
I often muse about what I believe or what I don’t believe, and in both cases, I wonder why. I am never exactly sure when I did or did not believe in this or that. I am not even sure when I became an analytical, ecclesiastic cynic.
In early childhood, there were two books that competed for my faith: the Holy Bible and Grimms’ Nursery Rhymes . Yes, I had no doubt that the cat played the fiddle and the cow jumped over the moon. I really believed, without a doubt, that there was a little old lady who lived in a shoe, and I had deep sympathy for Little Bo Peep who lost her sheep. I truly had faith.
When we attended our little village church each Sunday, the Reverend Beazer would proclaim the merits of Jesus Christ loud