My love of writing comes from my mother Velma Rhoads. She only had an eighth grade education and was a product of Missouri poverty, similar to Appalachia. From that came a neurosis stemming from sexual abuse as child and fear of close relationships. I am speculating since she never opened up to anyone. Under her skin and beyond her frown was sensitivity only revealed in her poetry and drawings. Her influence is reflected in my sister and myself. Kay is a playwright and has always had a way with the pen. Shari, my wife says Kay's letters were so interesting that she should be a novelist and later in her life she began to express her feelings in her plays. Hers are more in dialogue than in poetic pentameter. My first poem was in the eighth grade when Georgi Malenkov became the Russian Premier, and (in my late 20's and early30's) I began to write poems about my photographs. This form of artistic expression captured my family's attention and I became the photographer/poet for all our functions. M y obsession grew to the point that any time I was in the car by myself with my tape recorder I would recite a poem from a word. During a period when I started my own business and I was on the road for hours, the tapes filled up and Jane my secretary would put them to paper. My love for life is from my wife Shari of 55 years, our four children Christie, Kimber, Kip and Kelli, twelve grandchildren Alec, Celena, Blake, Nick, Derek, Chad, Tyler, Leah, Paris, Fallon, Nathan, Troy, and now a great grandson Carter. Shari and I have a goal to live to the ripe age of 120 and celebrate our 100th wedding anniversary by being healthy, happy and prosperous. This is reflected in my poems, business and faith.
