Why I Want to Write a Memior

I am a 76 year old man who may have a child with my 30 y/o wife. I would like to have the child learn from my mistakes, and to glean the positive aspects from my experience.



My life was not easy. At age eight, I had to testify against my mother in court. My father won custody, and because he couldn't afford to keep us, he sent us three children to an orphanage during the Second World War. Mean nuns, poor food, loneliness, and bullies were my daily fare.



At seventeen, I dropped out of high school to join the army paratroopers. The Korean War was over when I got there in 1956, but Seoul was still a bombed-out shell of a city. My loss of good friends, due to landmines, still haunts me. Poverty in Korea at that time made an indelible mark on my soul. Teen-age girls selling sex so the family could eat, Kimchi made with the most plentiful meat; rats, and the American army shooting children who were climbing over our fences to get food from our garbage cans. This happened at night when one could not tell if it was a North Korean trying to infiltrate or a person seeking food. The infuriating thing about the child killing was the chilling comment, by the officer in charge, "Don't freak, she was just a gook." War is not glamorous!



My memoir will show my life as an adventure. My hitchhiking throughout North America, Europe, North Africa, and Asia presented me with wonderful experiences. I also hopped freight trains to cross the USA. Some of the highlights of these adventures were teaching in a one-room school with no electricity or running water in Canada (grades 1 through 8). This school was a hundred miles, on a dirt road, from the nearest town. I also taught English in Papua New Guinea for 2 years, China for 4 year (I have many stories about China in 1990s), and other countries for a year or less. Missouri was made into an adventure by building a house from scratch with oak trees cut from my property and cut into lumber by a portable saw mill. The entire house was built for under $1,000.



Marriage has provided me with an unusual insight into relationships. My six marriages with very different cultures and different personalities have given me a wealth of perspective. I never married a bad woman and am still friends with all of them. I am having the best time of my life now in Thailand with my wonderful Thai wife.



Maybe other people would like to hear my story other than my future child. One must remember when bad things happen: "What doesn't kill us makes us stronger." Friedrich Nietzsche



Joseph Skinkis        [e-mail]