Life Lessons from My Father

About the Book

Life Lessons from My Father is a presentation of sayings that my father used as he raised the three of us in Mud Town, Topeka’s own black ghetto. The sayings were designed to provide us with the personal and social skills that he understood were required for kids like us to function comfortably—individually and publicly. He worked, grounding each of us in our own self-esteem. He lived to see the effect of his efforts, and he was pleased.

Customer Review

Hal Lockard, The Capital-Journal
A former Topekan appeased his daughter by compiling an anecdotal collection of his father's sayings and how they applied to everyday situations. The result can benefit parents and children both. Life Lessons From My Father: Things Dad Used to Say by John Fouts Gardenhire, a 1951 graduate of Topeka High School, turns out to be a historic review of one black family's experience in Topeka's "Mud Town."

Fouts grew up with a brother and sister under the guidance of Shirley Richard Gardenhire at 807 Wood in East Topeka. His book reveals a lot about the elder Gardenhire's education, occupation and optimistic views on life.

The project began with a telephone call from Alissa, his daughter in Maplewood, N.J., who told him, "Dad, I want to talk to you."

"And when a kid says that it means either they're in jail or they need money," Gardenhire said. He was relieved to learn that she wanted the two of them to write a book recalling of phrases his father and her grandfather, would say.

"She talked, and I wrote," Gardenhire said. The finished product came out in about six months, and 19 publishers rejected it before Xlibris put in print in February.

The end result is pared down to about 35 sayings, but he offers an additional 25 or so in an addendum for readers wanting more.

It's all good advice.

Shirley Richard Gardenhire was born in 1891 in Alma, graduated from Kansas State College in Manhattan and worked for the Santa Fe Railway until retiring. He died in Seattle in the 1970s, and his obituary wasn't published in Topeka.

The author graduated from The University of Kansas in 1958 and taught English for many years at Laney College in Oakland, Calif. He moved to Maplewood, N.J., to live near Alissa and his grandson. "If there is any kind of heaven after this, it will be peopled with grandchildren," he says. Among the sayings that are treated with explanatory anecdotes are "Read the newspaper," "Be on time," "Study Latin," "Discipline your children" and "It's a poor dog that won't wag his own tail." It makes for easy reading that can be handled a little at a time or all once. Amazon gives it a five-star rating, and it can be ordered from Barnes and Noble Booksellers or Borders Books and Music.

"Its something I hope people not only will enjoy but will learn something from it," he said. It's something expectant fathers might want to take a look at.
— Publisher

About the Author

John Fouts Gardenhire was born and raised in Topeka, Kansas, and graduated from the University of Kansas at Lawrence in 1958. He taught English at Laney Community College from 1969 through 1999 and has published several books among which are Understanding Sentence Analysis, Reading Analytically, Thought, Tillie’s Big Day, and The Gardenhires’ Christmas Cookbook. An avid letter writer, both personal letters and letters to editors, he has also written articles both for Forum, California’s Academic Senate journal and for Inside English. Mr. Gardenhire reads, does volunteer work, gardens, cooks, travels, plays bridge, plays the piano, and politics. John F. Gardenhire 33 Concord Ave. Maplewood, NJ 07040 973-763-0456