Category: My Journey
Secret Heroes
I arrived at the Detroit airport on a hot and humid afternoon in July 2011, but I wasn’t there to sightsee or to wander the asphalt streets of a city in the throes of financial decline and economic desperation. I was on my way to meet Ritchie Boys. I would be part of a reunion…
Nonfiction Morphs into Fiction
When I began talking with Herman about his experiences, I had already enjoyed some small success as a writer of stories and articles for the youth market. Naturally, my first thought was to turn his adventures into a nonfiction book for middle-grade readers. However, because during most of the story Herman is in his early…
The General
“Call me GG,” he said. “That’s what my friends call me.” GG, a retired army general and a Ritchie Boy, was the executive director of the local United Way in Sierra Vista, Arizona and he had arranged for us to meet in their comfortable conference room. While my daughter, Erin, was setting up her camera…
The Vagaries of Memory – Finding the Truth when Oral Histories Vary
I have a dear friend who always quotes his grandmother as saying, “There are three ways to tell every story—your way, my way, and the truth.” I suppose if three or four people tell the story, there are that many more versions. Putting them all together in a true way is the job of a…
Joy at the National Archives – Research and Primary Documents
As I worked on my manuscript, I continued to immerse myself in movies, novels, and all kinds of nonfiction about WWII—from books to online articles, from the German documentary titled The Ritchie Boys to Lucky Forward by Robert Allen—but I still felt inadequate to write the chapters about Herman’s time at Camp Ritchie and his wartime activities in Europe.…
Getting the Story – Oral History from Herman Lang
Separated by the breadth of America, he in New York and I in California, my uncle Herman and I didn’t meet until 1969. I had been teaching art to middle school students for a year, and I needed a break. I packed my Volkswagen van with camping gear and…
Family Secrets
I was born during World War II and raised in southern California where I spent my childhood reading, drawing, whiling away days at the beach, and being nurtured by my Grandma Clara. I knew nothing of my father’s family story other than his childhood in Germany and sudden emigration to the United States. Then, the…
Discovery
I loved Venice — brightly colored air, sparkling water, and spires gleaming in the sun. My sixteen year old romantic heart dreamt of the day I would return and kiss a boyfriend in the shadow of Saint Mark’s Basilica. Even the presence of my mother with her rules and my little sister with her tears…