Hard Copy

I started writing these blogs of mine with the intent of recording my thoughts and memories. I have tons of pictures of the ancestors but very little of their writing. A few scraps of paper and a postcard. My maternal grand mother died shortly after giving birth. I have a postcard she sent to her father when she was a child. The salutation says," Dear Papa " and for some reason I found those two words made a personal connection for me. Just a small piece of what one may consider insignificant information, she called him Papa.
Even though the technology existed there are no audio tapes or movies of any of my Grandparents and precious little of my parents. A lot of still photographs.
Photographs are wonderful things, but often need explaining by someone who was their or knows about them. My Great Grand mother was good about writing on them, who or what the picture was, but I have many that do not.
With that in mind, and my love of running my mouth,I began this journal of life. My life and my thoughts. I got inspiration from others doing the same thing. I do believe we each have a story to tell. I am hoping to write a book one day and have started on that project,although not in earnest. I have a few ideas about it.
Everyone in my immediate family is well aware of my blog. I saw to that ! Probably  drove them a little nuts with it too. All have politely tolerated my incessant talking about it. In fact,my son and his wife gave me a gift certificate for Father's day to blog2print. This service will take your blog and print it in a book format,including binding,and ship it directly to you. It is wonderful. I got to design the book and personalize it. I specified what I wanted printed and had complete control of the process.
I just received it in the mail the other day. It is great and I am very pleased with the result. I will definitely continue to do it with more of my blogs. It is worth every cent. Even though I know I paid for this it just seems like I had a book published. Well,I did. The first edition run was one copy. Pretty rare book !
There is just nothing to compare to a hard copy. Sure it is all stored digitally on the net and my computer, but computers can crash. Baring an unforeseen disaster,fire or flood, that book should be around for a long time.
Only thing I forgot was to include the authors name. Yup, only says by Ben. I will write inside, using my best penmanship, the pertinent details. Great Grand mother is probably chastising me right now. Write on the back an explanation.

I think it is only volume one anyway. I think I just heard the rest of the family breathe a collective sigh.

Inside pages

Front Cover