Anecdotes to Dote On
Random Remembrances of Random Times
by
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FIRST OF ALL, whether I was going to have a life was questionable. My biological father, Jerry McMahon, was courting my mother, Marjory Card, whose interest level in this process was neither hot nor cold; it was closer to lukewarm. Jerry had been a college athlete in both basketball and baseball—in fact, he had played in the minor-league chain of the Cleveland Indians. He had thrown out his arm pitching a double header and never progressed further. He had, however, become the general manager of radio station KIT in Yakima, Washington, at the height of the Great Depression. He made the princely sum of $500 a month, considered quite significant for 1934.
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About the Book
For Barry Hansen, looking back in time shows him that success in life is the continuous collection of memories that make you smile. Anecdotes to Dote On is an anecdotal biography that begins with Barry’s recognition that he is only here because of a double dribble—a memory that makes him smile, which he shares now. Anecdotes to Dote On offers you a window into Barry’s memories from boyhood through adulthood. His boyhood during World War II was highlighted by sitting for many hours in the copilot’s seat of a B-17, with occasional breaks to pretend as a bombardier, trying to focus on a Norden bombsight. Interspersed was his introduction to the making of Hollywood movies and a fascination with being in the audience of the biggest national radio shows—like watching TV before there was TV. Barry also shares his good times at college (often at the expense of his GPA) and the unexpected career path that propelled him to a fifty-year-or-so career in international cargo transport, mostly by air. Barry’s anecdotes relate to events that he encountered, traveling to all of the world’s continents—except to the one where penguins outnumber people.
About the Author
Barry Hansen was always told by acquaintances that he should write a book, though the real motivation for Anecdotes to Dote On was a request by his children and teenage grandchildren. Barry chose stories about his personal experiences, stories that were humorous and positive, stories about friends and people he has met, and stories he was told that he found interesting and entertaining. The randomness umbrella allows him to write what he remembers when he remembers it—a privilege one invokes at age eighty-three.