Overview

Two young kids, a brother and sister, are about to start grade school in a small Navy base town in East Texas after the close of World War II. Their parents share their plan to move from town to a small ranch, and promise to get the children their own ponies, a dream come true! Both mom and dad quit their jobs at the local newspaper. She stays home with the kids, and he buys a honky-tonk beer joint and runs it day and night, across the street from the shipyards.She learns about alcohol and spends increasing amounts of time tucked away inside, isolated, and withdrawing. One neighbor describes the children as being almost ""feral."" The father's meanness grows from threats to mental and physical abuse. Finally, after years of this, the family breaks apart when the son drops out of high school and runs away. And that is how the story of my life begins. The rest of my journey to becoming a college graduate, a teacher, a glass artist, a singer-songwriter, and an author will take decades to achieve. Along the way I learn that before I will ever be of value to others, I must find value within myself.

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""Jon Bunn's fine memoir is a rarity among the burgeoning tide of unimaginative, formulaic, self-serving autobiographies, diaries, and apologias of politicians, five-minutes-of-fame entertainers, and self-aggrandizing CEOs and 'finance bros.' Bunn provides, instead, a candid, self-written (and well-written) account of an uncommon common man who, in the course of seven decades, has literally raised himself, and (driven by insatiable curiosity) mastered the art of stained glass, skydived at county fairs, developed a hands-on knowledge of the natural world (particularly in the swamps and bayous of East Texas, Acadian Louisiana, and the strip mines and quarries of Central Indiana). He also earned a master's degree in theater at Indiana University, wrote a couple of novels, wrote a number of poems and song lyrics, and survived a planned triple-bypass heart surgery that went to a quad-bypass in the operating room. Apparently, he's also a fine freshwater and saltwater fisherman! My favorite portion of Bunn's memoir comes about midway through and deals with his admission into Indiana University, where he went on to capitalize on every educational opportunity that adequately funded education policies provided for at the time."" Shaun O'L. Higgins Media executive, film curator, and author/co-author of Leadership Secrets of Elizabeth I (2000) Vachel Lindsay: Troubadour in the Wildflower City (1999) The Newspaper in Art (1997) Press Gallery: The Newspaper in Modern and Postmodern Art (2005) Fellow alumni, BHS Class of 1966""Iwas so touched by your memoir. The main takeaway for me is that you have opened up your soul to present a very honest authentic view of your life. My belief is that everyone has a story to tell, but most people either cannot or don't want to tell it, usually because it is too painful, but as Socrates said, 'the unexamined life is not worth living.' Not sure Itotally agree with that sentiment, but hey, he was Socrates, I'm not. Some of your initial musings bring back memories of a bygone era, because of course we were born around the same time. Eating paste (Inever did, but knew kids who did), building things (Iconstructed an alligator bath for the alligator Iwas going to order by email), making things with a lead mold (Ialmost electrocuted myself doing that as a child), picking up pop bottles to get some small change-the things that kids will do when left to their own devices

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