Letters That Moved My Father (2020)
by Romayne Kazmer
Available on AMAZON
This book is dedicated to my father, who was so moved by the letters I wrote home from my year abroad that he saved them in his safety deposit box…That is where they were found when he died in 1970.
from the Preface
NEW! AUDIOBOOK EDITION
You can now listen to Letters That Moved My Father, as recorded by Grammy-nominated performer Carolyn Striho.
The Story Behind My Adventures
Having just finished reading Bill Clinton’s book wherein he says that everyone has a story, I realize I too have a story. The story I am going to tell you is the year that changed my life. It is the year I can recount to you because my father saved all the letters I wrote home from my year studying abroad in Switzerland and Norway. My father was a hard working successful businessman and not the type to show much emotion over the normal events of my life but these letters touched him. After I returned home his friends would relate to me the events that I had experienced in Europe as told to them by my father. When he died my letters were found in his safety deposit box.
Where do I begin? In 1959 as a sophomore at the University of Colorado, I was home in Glen Ellyn, Illinois for Christmas break. During this vacation, while in the shoe department in Marshall Fields in Oak Park, Illinois, I met some nuns from Rosary College nearby. Rosary College was one of the few schools that had student exchange programs in Europe at that time. They told me about their program abroad for college students. I was fascinated by the program and wanted to go. Where did this decision come from I do not know. Neither of my parents, relatives or friends had ever been to Europe at that time or was planning to go. I grew up in a typical Midwestern town where I was unaware of racial or ethnic differences. To me people were all pretty much the same. Through political connections of my mother’s I was able to find a space in this program. I was destined to go.
Follow My Blog
Get new content delivered directly to your inbox.
THE AUDIOBOOK IS HERE!
You can now listen to Letters That Moved My Father, as recorded by Grammy-nominated performer Carolyn Striho.
Carolyn’s recent album Afterthought was on the Grammy Awards First Ballot for Best Rock Album in 2018. Carolyn’s won 12 Detroit Music Awards, including 2 for Outstanding Pop/Rock Songwriter and two for Outstanding Album. and a Billboard Award. Carolyn’s alluring delivery with a powerful rock and roll gypsy sound has hypnotized crowds for years onstage and within her recordings and bands.
Carolyn has a recent book, Detroit (Maiden Energy) street princess poems & lyrics, which is a volume one of Carolyn’s writing reaching deep into stories of growing up in Detroit and a music lifetime. The book was on the Amazon best new sellers in October 2019 and a best seller at Horizon Books Traverse City 2020.
Detroit (Maiden Energy) also received great reviews from NPR Detroit’s Ann Delisi, Billboard Magazine’s Gary Graff, former Detroit Metro Times editor Brian Jabas Smith, Hour Detroit’s Jim McFarlin and more. Carolyn’s poetry is also featured in Respect: The Poetry of Detroit Music which includes Nikki Giovanni, Aretha Franklin, Jack White and so many great musicians and poets. Carolyn has performed on tour with Patti Smith and with Don Was, Was (Not Was) with Carolyn’s band Detroit Energy Asylum, and in England with Yoko Ono, Steve Earle, Tori Amos, Sinead O’Connor, Grace Jones and so many iconic artists. She’s also played with The Slits, The Ramones, Iggy Pop and the list goes on!
aquarius press 