Fridays with Landon: "Another Time...Another Place"
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About this ebook
The words contained within the covers of this book are intended to speak to some of lifes ups and downs. Life encompasses a multitude of components that require daily maintenance and/or managementand your judgment in those areas will drive the direction of your existence. Life will, sooner or later, introduce you to the good, the bad, the ugly and everything in-betweenhumor, joy, sadness and the always-present mystery. The author believes the words in this book to be universalalthough not universally spoken nor acknowledged.
Richards odyssey has been continuous from the denial of his rural Arkansas roots to his acceptance in Phase Three. While the Greyhound bus physically transported him away from his disdainand provided the escape from his dysfunctional family, the relocation only skewed his perspective. California was a world apart from Arkansas, and without an education and/or a craftlife would severely test the authors fortitude and determination. It would resemble a scavenger hunt as he chased his always-moving, always-fading demons for personal understanding.
This book began simply enough as letters to his son (the second of two from the authors second marriage) who was/is also seeking self-understanding. The son was serving prison time for drug usage and drug-related crimes stemming from twenty years of abuse. Added to that, his son, Landon, is afflicted with epilepsy and the combination (epilepsy and heroin) can produce deadly consequences.
His sons first letter not only requested that his father correspond with him, but that he fill in the gaps of his lifehis words were, Dad, I know nothing of you before our family. The father was taken abackhe had rarely, if ever, thought about his past lifemuch less verbalized it to others. Initially, as he reflected on the request, he wondered if he even remembered anything about his pastor had he buried it so deeply (through denial) that he would never be able to resurrect the information that his son was requesting.
The book chronicles the authors early years in Arkansas and his own drug abuse during his twenties as he struggled in California. The book reveals the authors insecurities regarding his lack of a formal education. How he created a faade to conceal his perceived deficiencies as he managed a challenging career (the majority of those years at the supervisory level) within the oil industry.
One cannot read just one of the letters, encapsulated between the Foreword and the last page, and fully comprehend the purpose and/or intent of this collaboration between the writers present life and his long-buried past.
RICHARD MCKENZIE NEAL
About the Author: Richard McKenzie Neal One should never equate education and/or intelligence to wisdom… Richard was born in Hope, Arkansas (Bill Clinton’s boyhood home), in 1941 and his father was gone prior to Richard turning two years old. He never knew the man, but attended his funeral as a sixteen-year-old. Before boarding a Greyhound bus for California, at seventeen, Richard knew two stepfathers and a number of others who were just passing through. During those teen years, before succumbing to the beckoning allure of the outside world, Richard worked at an assortment of low-paying jobs. Summers were spent in the fields…picking cotton and/or watermelons and baling hay. He also worked as a plumber’s helper and a carhop at the local drive-in burger stand. After dropping out of school, eloping and landing in California, he soon realized how far out of his element he had ventured. And without the guidance of his “Constant Companion,” Richard would have spent a lifetime floundering in a sea of ignorance and ineptness…and his books would not exist. Richard’s first book (Fridays With Landon) was driven by his son’s life-altering heroin addiction. He had hoped not to author a sequel, but left the book open-ended due to historical concerns, which did in fact…resurface. For 25 years the family has endured the emotional highs and lows associated with the chaotic, frustrating and more often than not…heartbreaking task of rescuing one of their own, from the always ebbing and flowing tide of addiction. The unintended sequel (The Path to Addiction…) was triggered by a mind-numbing relapse after 30 months of sobriety. The second book was then written to bring closure…one-way or the other. The author advanced several possible scenarios for the ending of that book, but only one of those possibilities was favorable. His third book (The Long Road Home…) is a philosophical journey that we’ll all experience as our time here begins to dwindle. The fourth book (We the People) was driven by what he saw as the dismantling of America and the circumventing of its Constitution. Additionally, the ominous cloud of socialism and a New World Order looming over Washington motivated him to speak up, in spite of political correctness’ muzzle. This, the fifth book was written to confirm and document the realities of those fears and concerns chronicled in the preceding book. While those fears and concerns were driven by the current administration, his nightmare now is the possibility of that same administration being returned to office, for another four years, in 2012. He has grave apprehension regarding America’s future should the unthinkable happen. All five books were written after retiring from a rewarding, thirty-six years in the oil industry. Our success should be measured by what we gave up (what it cost us) to obtain it...and not by what we accomplished and/or accumulated.
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