Preamble
“The next best thing most like living one’s life over again seems to be a recollection of that life, and to make that recollection as durable as possible, by putting it down on paper.”
Benjamin Franklin said it well, proving his point by writing one of the most durable and readable autobiographies in print today.
The idea has merit. I am bold enough to attempt such an effort, if not for my own satisfaction only, but to provide a story to pass on to my ten grandchildren, not one of whom was born in the country of my birth, Australia, nor, indeed, where their own parents were born.
I am therefore setting my hand to the task of writing my memoirs, which will demand brevity for I have lived long years of a wonderfully happy life. I am asking your indulgence if you should detect my penchant for Oxford English spelling, and bent toward the Australian vernacular in prose and occasional verse – that’s my heritage. Should you have cause to squirm under the assault of waffling, that fault lies in my genes, and is apparently irreversible.
The value of so personal an exercise as seeking for my ancestors, and writing my earliest memories of the past, must be left to others to determine. The delicious sense of achievement or the galling awareness of failure must belong to me alone.
With such acknowledgments I now invite the reader to travel the journey with me. The best I can hope is that you will stay with me to the end.
Frances L. Brandstater
Redlands, California.
1976
