My Barnes and Noble Presentation

I stood in front of about 100 people at The Villages Barnes and Noble yesterday.  This is what I said.

Those of you who are married, or have ever been married, would you please raise your hand? Take a look around.  Most of us have our hand raised.  Now if you were engaged to someone else the day before you got married, please raise your hand again.

If my wife was here, she’d have her hand raised.  On September 10th, 1971, we stopped for a beer after work at a little bar where we had stopped several times over the prior two years. We had just begun our third year of teaching.

She was engaged to a guy named Mike.  We had dated for about a year and a half.  She took an interest in Mike the prior spring, and I didn’t like the competition, so we stopped.  On that September day we were discussing her sister, Kathy’s, recent wedding.  Ruth started to cry, went to the restroom to compose herself, returned, started crying again, and when I asked “why”, she said, “I don’t’ want to marry Mike”.  I fired back, “How About Me?”  We were married twenty-two hours later.  That’s the first story in my book, Pondering Life’s Lessons.  It’s a great story and it continued for fifty-one years and sixteen days.

Pondering Life’s Lessons is the first book I’ve written.  I started writing a blog on November 19, 2017.  I’ve posted a story every Wednesday and Sunday since then. Tomorrow morning, I’ll post my 667th story.  Each one takes about five to ten minutes to read.

I started writing so that my children and grandchildren could hear the stories that I learned in my youth.  My first blog was called Ed.  It’s about a friend of mine, Ed, who turned 100 on the day I posted the story.  I have a draft of a story that I’ll post this November when he turns 107.

This is the introduction to my book.

I’ve listened to and told stories all of my life.  My dad was my original storyteller.  He spoke from experience and recounted memories from growing up and living life.  He was a simple man with simple tastes.  He was honest in all of his dealings, and he loved children.

I became a storyteller because of him.   I loved listening to him and family members recount “remember when” events.   Eventually, I started to tell my own stories and retold stories that I’d heard from others.   Early on I discovered that is was best to tell true stories.   If I told a lie, I’d have to remember what lie I told and who I told it to.  If I told the truth (as I remembered it)  I could tell the same story to anyone who cared to listen.

I’ve told my stories for three main reasons: to make a point, to entertain, and to ensure that the story being told became a part of my personal history.

I’m a baby boomer who grew up in the suburbs of Detroit. My mother and father both came from large families, so I had several pairs of aunts and uncles. I knew both sets of grandparents and had them in my life for my early years.

I am the oldest of three children. I had several cousins and much of my family’s social life centered on family gatherings in each other’s homes. We celebrated every holiday together with potlucks, picnics, and birthday cakes.

My favorite part of each of these gatherings was the evening. I was the second oldest of the group of eight cousins who gathered most often. As evening came, the younger cousins went to bed while the adults did adult things. Adult things included playing cards, drinking a beer or two, and telling stories. No TV, no cell phones, no personal devices of any kind.

The stories were remembrances of days and events they were happy to recount and share. Most were joyful tales. There were many laughs and, I expect some exaggerations.

The best part for me was to be able to “stay up”. Staying up, meant I got to listen to the stories. The stories I heard were a verbal history of the events that formed our extended family. Over the years I have retold these tales and added several of my own.

As my own children have grown, I realize that a family’s “story” is its legacy for future generations. This book is an attempt to retell these stories so that others may share a laugh, gain some insight and discover that each of us, and our experiences, should be celebrated. While I expect most entries will be associated with my seventy plus years, I hope to share some insight through the stories I recall from “staying up”.

And then there’s the back cover.

Robert Tebo thought about writing a book for a very long time.  Thinking and doing are two different things.  Rather than write a book, he started a blog in the fall of 2017.

Pondering Life’s Lessons is a compilation of several blogs written over the past five plus years.  The first section focuses on his marriage to Ruth and the beginning of his family.   The second includes his extended family and friends. The final section tells his story after Ruth’s unexpected death.

He never anticipated writing the stories in the final section, but life doesn’t go as we expect.  We get what we get and learn to live through it as best we can.

We all have a story.  We live it in bits and pieces each day.  If we keep it to ourselves, it dies with us.  Life’s lessons are too important to let that happen.  If his stories remind you of yours, please share them with those you love.

When one of my readers found out I was sharing my book at Barnes and Noble, he wrote this review.

I think these are the reasons we all write, Bob. You have expressed that more profoundly than anyone I’ve read. It’s about connecting, overcoming differences, feeling safe and secure, loving and being loved. Thank you.

And another wrote.

In the last two days, I reread Pondering Life’s Lessons. I read it without such haste – took time to ponder myself. I laughed and I cried – lots of emotions stirring within me and leaving me with a desire to slow down and absorb moments of my life in a more meaningful way. For that, I thank you. I am a very private person and must allow myself to open up and not be afraid to share my feelings with the people I love. Interesting, isn’t it? I don’t know you and have allowed your life stories to reach me…. I just wanted you to know.