Bast's Record ~ Paperback ~ V W Smith

The Recovered Notebook of Michael Tadlock's Memoirs A Note by Michael Tadlock II Fate enjoys her little jokes. Like everyone else, I thought my grandfather Michael Tadlock had concluded his memoirs in the year 2016. He certainly left behind a fascinating account of the first 115 years of his life. Naturally, we wondered why he did not continue his autobiography beyond that point especially since he lived for 35 more years Maybe he was mindful of Emerson's adage that (if the story goes on long enough) ultimately every hero becomes a bore. As far as I know, my grandfather never committed that offense. Indeed, for the span of years that they encompass, my grandfather s memoirs are remarkably succinct. An important aspect to telling a good story is knowing where to end it. So, perhaps Grand Michael felt that in 2016 he had found both closure and-to the basic pattern of his life-clear perspective. That's what we all assumed. Then-ironically, after the publication of my grandfather's memoirs-a notebook on the later years of his life was found. It turned up in one of the desks that belonged to Grand Michael. These pages had somehow fallen out of a drawer and lodged behind it. The paper had yellowed with age, but the ink had not faded, and the handwriting was unquestionably my grandfather's. My wonderful wife Laura found this document when she finally decided to devote a day to cleaning and refinishing my grandfather's antique oak desk. I don't know why this material was not entered into the computer files. Or maybe it was, then subsequently deleted. In any event, we never found any copy of this material. I have transcribed it faithfully here, exactly as my grandfather wrote it, with nothing either added or deleted.