The Singular Travels & Adventures of Manfred Munch and His Relatives Vol. 1

By Gary Bunde

Manfred Munch is your typical Renaissance man. With extensive experience as a farmer, treasure hunter, spiritualist, and astute observer of the human condition, Manfred—Manny for short—will inspire you to lead the life you've always wanted to live. Fans of O. Henry, Dr. Seuss, Rudyard Kipling, and Dave Barry will enjoy this collection of tall tales from the southland. Less Redneck Riviera, more Florida Cracker Country, you'll return to these tall tales often for a laugh.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Mar 31, 2014
• ISBN: 9781304999603

Book preview

The Singular Travels & Adventures of Manfred Munch and His Relatives Vol. 1

THE SINGULAR TRAVELS & ADVENTURES OF MANFRED               MUNCH AND HIS RELATIVES

Volume 1:  Stories from My Life

Gary R. Bunde

[e-mail]

Published by Great Bundini Publishing

Copyright © Gary Robert Bunde 1990

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, shared in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any way or by any means without the prior permission in writing of the copyright holder.

ISBN 978-1-312-02138-9 

This book is dedicated to Virginia, my wife, who supports me completely but wonders where I come up with these stories; to David, my son who is an extraordinary artist; and to Ingrid, my daughter, who wonderfully designed this book.

Contents

1. Manfred Munch, the Magnificent.

2. The Perils and Pleasures of Farming.

3. My Family’s Most Accommodating Chickens.

4. How We used a Geyser to Protect Our Farm from Fire.

5. Producing Parody Pumpkins.

6. My Prize Bull-oon.

7. The Natural Glass Factory.

8. Florida Blue Northers I have Known.

9. Cherubim and Seraphim, my Religious Mules.

10. Nature Canned Polar Tuna.

11. Catching the Spin-Tail Blue Racer.

12. A Case of Mistaken Cannibalism.

13. The Car Swap.

14. He Sold a Shovel.

15. The Treasure Hunt

16. The Ghost of Whistling Waldo’s Dog.

17. How to Conjure up a Ghost.

1                                                         MANFRED MUNCH,                                THE MAGNIFICENT

My name is Manfred Munch—Manny for short. I am the great, great grandson of Baron Munchausen, and although this may not mean much to you, my great, great grandfather had some of the most singular adventures and did more unusual things than anybody could ever imagine.

For example, he was once out hunting in Russia when he saw a large deer. He was out of bullets but did have some cherry pits left over from lunch. He shot at the deer with the cherry pits and one of them lodged in the head of the deer. The animal was able to leap away and several years later grandpa again came upon the deer. He knew it was the same deer because it had a cherry tree growing out of the center of its head, right between its antlers. The cherry pit had evidently taken root, and was bearing a large crop of some of the sweetest cherries my great, great grand pappy had ever tasted.

Another time he was caught in a blizzard and could not find a town. He tied his horse to a post and went to sleep in the snow. When he awoke, he found that all the snow had melted and that he was lying on the ground. He could not see his horse, but he could hear it. He looked up in the sky to find his horse hanging from a church steeple. Evidently the snow had completely covered the town, but had melted during the night. What he had thought was a post was actually the weather vane of a church steeple and his horse was still attached to it. He cut the reins with a shot from his gun. His horse landed on his feet unharmed and they were able to continue their trip.

My great, great grandpa had many similar, extraordinary adventures which he recorded in a book, but he left out many stories about the relatives that went before him. And in addition he didn’t know about me and my remarkable exploits, or about some of the other relatives that came after him.

It has therefore become my duty to continue the story and to inform you of what I and my relatives have done. In this way you will know the answers behind a lot of questions that a lot of people ask. I have recorded all of this in three volumes.  This book covers me and my immediate family.  Volume two tells of the adventures of many of my relatives, and volume three elaborates on both.  This book tells you:

How my family saved our farm from fire using a geyser and used the fire to make sausage.

Why eggs are sold in dozens.

How we grew pumpkins to look like corn and corn to look like pumpkins.

Every word in this book is true! There is a lot of information in history books that contradict what I have written down in this book but this is because writers of the history books have never consulted with me. Their sources of information were wrong but now they know the truth.

My relatives came over to America in