The Stories in My Life By David C. McGuire
These stories are for my grandchildren, and their grandchildren. It's a scrapbook of memories, and while the Table of Contents is in chronological order, I wrote them as they occurred to me. I hope you enjoy this look into scenes and stories from a Kansas boy, looking back across the years.
Newer Stories in Red Font Last Modified: Sep 9 2002
Chronology Of Our Parents' Lives And Livelihoods		v
Chronology Of The Lives Of David & Katherine McGuire		v
The Automobiles We Have Owned		1947-2001
Averting a Possible Family Disaster	Morrowville KS	Fall 1929
My Early Experience with Parachuting	Morrowville KS	Fall 1929
My Xylophone and Early Band Experiences	Beattie KS	1932--1935
A Terrible Tragedy for a 5th-grade Boy		April 1932
Uncle Noah Acquires Three Stray Dogs		Summer 1934
My Hero: Grandpa Charles Elmer Galley	Beattie KS	1927--1935+
Being a Stand-Up Rider on a Circus Horse	Beattie KS	Summer 1934
Catching Baby Rabbits and MORE On The Galley Family Farm	Osborne KS	Summer 1933
A Summer on Grandpa's Farm	Osborne KS	Summer 1936
Snowy-Day Winter Fun	Beattie & Barnes KS	1935-38
My Maiden Flight in an Airplane	Axtell KS	August 1934
Our Huge, Wonderful Home in Beattie	Beattie, KS	1930 to 1935
A Bike, A Scooter and A Sled (James' story)	Beattie, KS	1930 to 1935
A Kid Brother Grows Up		1935 to 1942
Aunt Nelle Rogers: Our Depression-Years Angel		1935 - - -
Boyhood Haircuts		1925 to 1940
Flossie: Our Good Jersey Cow	Barnes KS	1935 to 1943(?)
Into the Chicken Raising Business	Barnes KS	Spring 1936
Omar Knedlik's Sousaphone and the Barnes City Band	Barnes KS	1935 to 1938
Scarlet Fever Comes to Our House	Barnes KS	March 1937
Escape From Another Family Crisis	Barnes KS	Summer 1937
Our Conversion? (James' story)	Barnes KS	Summer 1937
Depression Years: Making Money Selling Scrap Iron	Barnes KS	Summer 1936
Woodcutting Bee: Firewood for Church and Parsonage	Barnes KS	Winters '37-'38
An Unfortunate Triple Date in Our 1929 Oldsmobile	Barnes KS	Late May 1938
Early Experiences with Phonographs		1930 to 1938
Hunting Cottontails with Dad, James & Benny Bob	Keats, Hoyt	Winters 1938 to 1942
My First Shot With a 12-Gauge Shotgun	Keats	Winter 1938
A Date With a Girl Who Was a Real Knock-Out	Winfield	Christmas 1940
The End of the Depression For Me	Keats	Summer 1941 vs. Summer 1942
Chronology of My Military Assignments During World War II		1943 to 1946
Remembering Identification Numbers	Keats	March 1943
Getting Married on Three Two-day Passes	St. Augustine FL	June 1944
The Mortar Incident	St. Augustine FL	June 1944
Good Old "Terra Firma"	Japan	November 1945
Acquiring a Set of Noritake China	Japan	March 1946
The Return of the Samurai Sword	Korea/Denton	1945, then 1980
"We Stood Where Jesus Stood" article by C. C. Isely, War Correspondent		April 18, 1946
Two Letters from Willis McGuire to His Sister Augusta Williams		1917-1918
An Exceptionally Brilliant Idea: The GI Bill for Veterans	v	Sept 1946 - August 1959
One of the Isely Boys: That's David McGuire		August 1946
Katherine Lands a Teaching Job	Ann Arbor MI	August 1947
The Trombone Slide I Left Behind	Ann Arbor MI	Nov 1947
The Unforgettable Trip to the Rose Bowl	Ann Arbor MI	Dec 1947
My First Teaching Position	Anthony KS	August 1948 to September 1950
Charles Christian Isely: His Final Months	Dodge City KS	1875 - 1949
Lost: Our First Baby, A Boy	Anthony KS	March 1949
The Celebration at the Birth of David Charles, Jr.	Anthony KS	April 26, 1950
Climbing Old Fuji	Japan	July 4, 1951
An Installed Napalm Defense Around Yoke Base	Korea	Aug 1951 to Feb 1952
The Rat in Our Foxhole	Korea	October 1951
"Washing Machine Charlie"	Korea	Fall 1951
Four Days of R&R	Tokyo, Japan	November 1951
Tossing a Hand Grenade With Intent to Kill	Korea	November 1951
On Patrol with my 57mm Recoilless Rifle Squad	Korea	December 1951
The Enemy Artillery Observer That Got Blown Away	Korea	January 1952
About my Bout with Malaria!...ME?	Korea/Riley KS	Aug 1951 to January 1953
Profane Language: Forbidden in the McGuire Household		-- Always --
The Teaching Job at Spearville KS	Spearville KS	Feb '52-June '52
Coordinator of Music in the Planeview Schools	Planeview KS	Sep '52-June '55
The Percussion Cabinet Story	Planeview KS	1953-54
It's a Girl, Doctor? Did You Say It Was A GIRL!!?!!	Wichita KS	April 26, 1953
The Wonderful Brighton Years	Brighton CO	Sep 1955 to June 1958
Clarinets and Shotguns: At the Pawn Shops in Denver	Denver CO	Winter 1956-57
Our "Almost" Move to Anchorage, Alaska		Spring 1957
Our Year of Residence in Hoosier Courts	Bloomington IN	June '58-Aug '59
A New Academic Degree AND A New Baby	Bloomington IN	April 29, 1959
In Beloit: Three More Wonderful Years	Beloit WI	Sep '59-Aug '62
Rarely Heard: A Bass Drum Solo	Beloit WI	January 1962
Almeda Elizabeth (Cook) Isely: Her Final Years	Topeka KS	b. 1878, d. 1966
The Move to Denton TX: How It Happened	Beloit - Denton	Apr '60-Apr '62
Getting Started in Denton	Denton TX	June 1962
Canvasbacks Galore: At The Slidell Wild Duck Shoot	Slidell TX	Winter 66-67
The Fantastic Two-Story Tree House In Our Back Yard	Denton	1966 to 1976
Evidence of Heavy Rain in Topeka	Topeka KS	Spring 1968
The Death Of Our Mother: E. Belle (Galley) McGuire	Topeka	b. 1893, d. 1972
The Decline Of Our Dad: Willis Chester McGuire	Topeka	b. 1891, d. 1973
Willis Chester McGuire: Music Lover		--lifetime--
A Remarkable Coincidence: Democracy Comes to UNT, and Enlightened Theology Comes to First Methodist	Denton	1968 to 1971
Jesus Freaks In MacArthur Park	Los Angeles CA	March 1970
A "Peak Experience" for a Father: The Honorary Doctorate	Winfield KS	May 1975
Favorite Humorous Stories Involving Little Children	Wichita to Denton	v
Torching, Scraping, Sanding & Painting: The Big House on Oak St.	Denton	Summer 1973-1976
Catching A Live Pheasant By Hand (and Other Pheasant "Tails")	Russell KS	January 1975
The Tor Family Flees Cambodia and Lands in Denton	Denton TX	1977 to 1982
Ron Tor: The Trials and Tribulations of Becoming a Man	Denton TX – Stockton CA – Las Vegas NV	1977 to 1997
Old Blue: Adventures with Our Texas Pickup Truck	Denton	1978 to 1991
Mike Isely & Jonathan Bell: Mighty Tarantula Catchers	Denton	June 1978
Surprise: Getting Six Quail On A Duck Hunt		December 1979
Mary Tor Arrives on the Bathroom Floor	Denton	January 1983
Two Unforgettable Wild Turkey Hunts		April 1, Late '80s
How Tim's Career In Medicine Got A Jump Start from Ethel Reeves		January 1989
Flounder Fishing with Bill & Jo Morgan	Corpus Christi TX	Novembers 1990 to 1992
My Favorite Sporting Vehicle and The Bass Boat		1985 to 1995
The Largest Trout I Ever Caught		Summer 1989
The Most Trout I Ever Caught In One Day		Summer 1992
Highlights of Our Trip to Europe		May 1983
Our Trip Through the Iron Curtain and Back		May 1983
A Lecture Of a Lifetime at St Thomas Church	Leipzig, Germany	May 1983
Going Solo For An Unforgettable Goose Hunt		January 1984
David Jr. Meets Jane Langer	New York City	February 1985
Our "Photo" Introduction to Jane Langer		April 1985
The Wedding of David to Jane	Lansing IA	Sept 1985
Tim Meets Jody Williams	Waco TX	July 1985
The Wedding of Tim to Jody	Denton TX	April 26, 1986
Personnel Information Form at Retirement Time		January 1, 1987
Chamroen "Ron" Tor Knows Crawdads		July 1987
Will D. Cooksey: The Negative/Positive Grandchild	Denton TX	December 1994
The Legacy of Our Bur Oak Tree	Denton TX	1990 to 1997
A B-17 Bomber in Carl Thompson's Stained Glass Window at FUMC	Denton TX	Spring 1991
Fishing The Entire Conejos River	Conejos River, CO	Summers 1989 - '95
The Mermaid on the Upper Los Pinos River		July 1995
The Singing McGuire Family		1950 to 1997
Katherine's Stroke	Denton TX	Sept 29, 1997
How I Was Given Permission To Swear...	Denton TX	November 1997
Katherine's Year of Rehabilitation		Oct 1997 to Oct 1998
Getting Settled in Our New Home-Away-From-Home	Denton TX	June 1, 1998 to the present (2001)