Miscellaneous . . . The Book: Preserve Family History

A collection of family stories from Rockford, MI to Liberia, West Africa, to south FL, to east TN.For approximately ten years, I've stuffed various writings into a file folder labeled, Miscellaneous. It had poetry, responses to various questions I'd read and answered, random thoughts, ideas for future writings, greeting cards that I'd saved, and on and on.I was amazed, and thrilled, to find everything included in this book: copies of my cousin Gary DeBoer's poetry, our son Fred's story about his son Gerrit's first deer, my sister Darcia's essay re a great leader, our father Darcy Porter, that was part of her M.A. degree. Husband Ron's sister, Donna's memories of applying to medical school, and at first being rejected because she was female, and son Fred's "Perfect Chemistry" about falling in love with his chemistry professor's daughter.Then there is the story about the secret hot dog sauce. My first cousin, Harold Bailey, Jr., had given me a copy of the famous Hyde's Hot Dog Sauce, that his father had created. He was OK with sharing the recipe, but most of the family wanted it to remain the "secret sauce." His daughter, Robin Macqueen, wanted to honor her grandpa by sharing his story . . . and the book also includes the famous, once secret, recipe. This book also offers ideas for the reader to preserve his/her family history, including "Ten Steps to Writing a Family Memoir" and "Great Gift Idea is Born," capturing the story surrounding one's birth.