Life Lessons

By Jacqueline Hopkins

A chance discovery. Words of wisdom buried in a box of papers.

Prior to his death, a father shares his life lessons through colorful anecdotes of a well-lived life. Some are humorous, some profound, on a myriad of subjects from hot peppers to cars to lying. This assembly is a daughter’s tribute to her father’s recollections on lessons he learned, sparking her own retrospection.

Are the life lessons you have learned important to you? Do you live by them? Let’s chat about them on twitter - #LifeLessons

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jacqueline Hopkins
• Release date: Dec 29, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310073274

Jacqueline Hopkins

Jacque moved from Sitka, Alaska in 2012 to follow her husband to the ND oilfields, but her mother's health precipitated a move to Idaho where she took care of her mother until her passing. Jacque has been writing since she got out of the US Navy in 1988. Since about the late 1990s, life got in the way of her writing and was shelved until the editing of her niece's novel inspired her to pursue her love of writing again. She likes writing mainstream fiction, murder mystery, romance, and historical romance. She writes nonfiction under the name J. R. Hopkins, romance under Jacqueline Hopkins and will be writing under J. R. Walton for her mystery and a psychological thriller she has in mind. There are so many ideas and characters roaming around in her head, wanting to be set in Alaska and other places Jacque has lived, such as Oklahoma, Colorado, Idaho, Washington, Iceland, Connecticut, California and Hawaii where her daughter was born.

Book preview

Life Lessons

J. R. HOPKINS

Copyright © 2013-2014 by J. R. Hopkins (Jacqueline Hopkins-Walton) and Stephen H. Hopkins

Cover Design: Jacqueline Hopkins-Walton, photo taken in Sitka, Alaska from Japonski Island while author was walking from SEARHC hospital back to town.

ISBN:

ISBN-13:

A chance discovery. Words of wisdom buried in a box of papers.

Prior to his death, a father shares his life lessons through colorful anecdotes of a well-lived life. Some are humorous, some profound, on a myriad of subjects from hot peppers to cars to lying. This assembly is a daughter’s tribute to her father’s recollections on lessons he learned sparking an interest to reflect on her own lessons learned.

Are the life lessons you have learned important to you? Do you live by them? Let’s chat about them on twitter - #LifeLessons

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to my father,

Stephen H. Hopkins,

without whom I would not have learned my life lessons.

FOREWORD

My father, Stephen, was a writer too, but he only wrote for himself. To my knowledge, he never had anything published, though I’ve seen some of his attempts sent into minor publications. In July 2012, my sister and her daughter went to Alaska to clean out our parent’s house to ready it for sale and they brought back possessions that still meant something to our mother. One of the items my sister found was a paper Dad had composed, entitled Early Life Lessons and How I Learned Them. My father wrote the paper about eighteen months before he passed away in November 2005, and I’m not sure if he had intended to publish it.

I’ve retyped his lessons in the order he wrote them that late night long ago, when he couldn’t sleep, and I’ve made some editorial changes where I felt they were needed. First, you will see his Life Lesson as ‘Stephen’s Life Lesson’ and then you will see ‘JR’s thoughts’, which are my comments about that life. Now that I’m older and I look back on my life and the way I was raised, reading my father’s life lessons and about his beliefs, I’m not so sure where my influences came from—some from him, probably, but some also from the people I’ve met throughout my life who have meant something to me.

I have included a poem written about my father when he retired from Potlatch Corporation, but I don’t know who the author is, as it wasn’t signed. I’ve assumed it was written by a fellow employee.

~ An Okie in Idaho ~

He started out just teaching school,

World history and math.

He’s worked as a boy’s counselor

Up in Alaska, how about that?

He’s traveled the nation betting on dogs

But that did not really work out.

So he worked for reclamation

Till Potlatch found him out.

He came in May of ’65

To write a model or two,

He wrote linear code for Bud and Bill

And a sheathing lathe system, too.

He talks of Oklahoma, he says it sure is swell,

But he loves these mountains in Idaho

Especially if it’s snowing like hell.

He has suffered many adventures

Like drilling wells that were dry.

When pollen season rolls around

He can have big tears in his eyes.

His most recent work was planning

And I guess he did OK.

But retirement was his big plan.

He is going to Dixie to stay.

So Steve, please don’t forget us

As you mount your snowmobile,

Because we’re going to miss you

As you’re roaring around the hills.

Good Luck!

Author Unknown

January 2004

I’m sorry to say that the following paragraphs are all true, and I’m telling the best my memory will allow. I never thought I would ever, ever put this on paper. Just couldn’t sleep tonight. If I ever gained any morals or ethics, this is partly how I got them. Maybe this explains why I never got above the Dean’s Honor Roll in college. I’m a slow learner. Stephen H. Hopkins

Chapter 1 ~ Between Pretty Colors

Stephen’s Life Lesson ~

One of the first hard lessons dealt to me was when the family visited some neighbors. I may have been four or possibly five years old (1937/1938). The neighbors had some beautiful red fruits strung on the side of their house. I had never seen anything quite like them before. All the pretty red fruits I had ever seen were good to eat. These particular fruits looked much like strawberries.

I had a strong hankering to eat one, but I knew I shouldn’t come right out and ask. It was bad manners to ask for food at someone else’s home. Naturally, I snuck around when no one was looking and plucked a nice red (but small) one off the string, snuck it in my pocket, and ran out behind the barn. I took it out, looked at it, and bit right into it. Maybe I chewed two or three times before the effects took hold. I knew I would no doubt get a spanking for doing such a thing, but no matter—I needed my mother really bad.

The trip back to the house was much faster with me screaming my lungs out. Mother probably thought I was dying, for I know I certainly thought so. I don’t remember the remedy she gave me, but it may have been a combination of sugar and butter.

That lesson was quite literally burned right into me. Don’t bite every pretty red thing that looks good. Later, I learned that some green things are also to be left alone. Come to think of it, maybe some other colors should give you reason to pause. Fleshy tones for instance.

Life Lesson—definitely do not put pretty things into your mouth without first knowing what they are.

Red Habanero peppers my cousin Dan grows

to make his own Devil Dan’s Hot Sauce

JR’s thoughts ~

I’ve added the photo of some hot peppers my cousin grows to make his own hot sauce. I believe my father