Dumb Dickie: A Memoir of Learning, Growth, Hope, and Blunders

A look back at 80 years of dumb mistakes... Dickie makes many blunders in his life, starting with his own conception--shocking his parents by being a boy instead of their hoped-for girl. Throughout his childhood in the 1940s and early 1950s, from riding on the bumper of a car to being shot with a 12-gauge shotgun, Dickie survives numerous close calls with the help of his ever-present guardian angel. In the ensuing decades, Dickie chooses the wrong career path, nearly dies repairing a car engine, gets into a financially devastating business with family members, and makes plenty of other foolhardy decisions. Dickie's life experiences intersect with world events around him as he awkwardly stumbles upon the world's stage. Yet he learns from each experience, growing into a man capable of helping others. He evolves from a naïve and gullible victim into a take-charge leader. In this heartfelt and humorous memoir, Dickie shares the wisdom he gained, sometimes painfully, over the past eight decades of his life. Through his journeys and travails, he developed a realistic but hopeful philosophy on life, learning to look inward and rely on himself to solve problems. Laugh, sympathize, groan, and commiserate with Dickie as he navigates difficult situations, weird coincidences, annoying family members, brushes with death, and personal tragedies. A lifetime of blunders... leading to a future filled with hope.