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Brown Paper Bags Narrated by Nora Steuber-Tamblin ISBN 1-891429-13-2 Memoir/Critical Analysis, 91-pages $9.95 |
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Faces and memories frozen in my mind are all that is left of them. I can still hear the anguished cries of children when strangers entered our home tearing it apart. I remember the taste of my father’s tears as they tore me from his arms. I still see my brother and sister’s faces, their eyes stare from cars speeding away. In moments, watching from a car’s back window, I see my father standing broken and alone. As the car speeds away, my home, my family, everything I know and love disappears into clouds of dust. Looking back at our lives, I realize now, that our parents spent quality time with us. In an era when men typically left child rearing to women, our dad did not. He taught us how to gather mushrooms from the woods, plant a garden, weed and pick potato bugs to save it. We believed at the bottom of our strawberry bowls were his whiskers from working so hard and that swallowing a watermelon seed would make our tummies swell up very big. We raised chickens and rabbits and though it was difficult, we ate them when they matured. Dad taught us about nature. We learned, that spiders and bees are our friends. He told us to always respect them, their purpose in life is to help us, not scare us. Teaching us about the wind and rain, he explained how the leaves on trees change, to warn us of impending storms. We drove Dad crazy always wanting to go for walks to learn more about nature’s way. In our cellar, fruit was fermenting into wine as cabbage was turning to sauerkraut. We never went hungry for there was always something growing or cooking. Mom loved music and reading. Many afternoons, we spent lying on the ground, staring at clouds listening to her stories. She taught us on rainy days to make our own stories by each of us contributing something. They were not great, most times, they didn’t even make sense, however it was fun creating them. Between our parents different interest in life there was little time for discontent. Many friends visited our house most of whom, had accents. They were Ukrainians who were just arriving to America. Most of them were working their way from Ellis Island searching for relatives who had arrived before them. They stopped at homes such as ours for food, lodging and information in locating their families. In exchange for this, they brought Dad news about his country and letters from relatives or friends back home. ... |
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Brown Paper Bags Narrated by Nora Steuber-Tamblin ISBN 1-891429-13-2 Memoir/Critical Analysis/Family, 91-pages $9.95 |
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Good Karma Notes Ever had someone do you a favor or nice deed, and they wouldn’t accept compensation for their act of kindness? Maybe just wanted to wish someone good luck? Or have you wanted to spread sentiments of decency and hope between people? Here’s the answer – Good Karma Notes. These rare, hard-to-find notes the size of dollar bills emerged in Georgetown, Texas and are exclusively offered by Armadillo Publishing Three packs of 75 $9.95 |
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The Story Behind Good Karma Units It was a few days before Christmas Eve in 1997 when Larry Simpson was invited to a bash at the Don Snell's (www.donsnell.com) Georgetown Texas studio, where there was to be a gift exchange. Having just returned to the States from Spain, Larry was shy of resources, except his machinery for producing publish-on-demand books, so the gifts had to be something within his means and abilities. One of his expressions of gratitude had always been, "I owe you a thousand good karma points," so to demonstrate his pleasure with the invite and to bring something original to the party, Larry created and produced what are believed to be the world's first good karma notes. |
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Original 1997 Good Karma Notes |
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Good Karma Notes Three packs of 75 $9.95 |
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Current Good Karma Notes |
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Encouraged, Larry spent the rest of that year in pursuit of a better design, which evolved into the current one. Although it was whittled down to "One Hundred Good Karma Units" and "Nation" was changed to "Realm," the notes still bear the original words, with added "What Goes Around Comes Around" and varying serial numbers. Also added were Peace, Yin-Yang, Locust Blossom and Tai Chi symbols, along with a tiny Crescent, Cross, and Star of David secreted in one of the illustrations. Lucas' Zeus transformed into a traditional engraving bordered by astrological signs guarded by a serpent, over a background of tiny "Good Karma" words. The back has a modified 19th century engraving integrated with an Aztec sundial and Athena holding a note bearing the words, "Good Karma Unit" as a gift from the Muses, with Child Future trumpeting the arrival of a new dawn. |
