The Mind Body Project
The Mind Body Project
From Family Stories To Published Book: Kim’s Journey To “The Fence I Walked”
We welcome Kim to share how a private family project became a published book of 32 short stories about rural 80s childhood, strict love, and big family moments. We dig into why she wrote it, how she finished despite overwhelm, and what readers are feeling now.
• origin as a gift for kids and her mom
• vivid sensory writing that triggers nostalgia
• 80s country freedom and the tank as a swimming hole
• Jerry Walker’s rules, love, and work ethic
• short chapters for non-readers and busy lives
• entire book drafted on a phone in Notes
• overwhelm, quitting tendencies, and accountability
• formatting, deadlines, and the last-mile push
• cover symbolism and the title confusion
• journaling through memoir and reframing mom’s service as gratitude
• universal moments across generations and reader reactions
• ebook, paperback, hardback live and audiobook in progress
• local book signing details and community support
• request for Amazon reviews to reach more readers
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Please leave a review because I've sold a bunch of books and I have seven reviews
Welcome to the Mind Body Project Podcast. After over a decade in the health and wellness industry, Erin realized that our bodies change only short term unless our mindset changes for long-term success. Both our mind and body are forever linked. We are continually building up new ideas and tearing down old ones in our construction zone we call our mind. After this podcast is over, make sure you give it a like and a share. And please subscribe and review this podcast. I would now like to introduce you to your host, the man connecting your mind and body to create a limitless life, Aaron Degler.
SPEAKER_00:Welcome back to the Mind Body Project. Thanks for taking a little time to join me today. I have a special guest today. I have an author today. She has written a brand new book entitled The Fence I Walk, The Childhood I Cherish. I'm excited for her today. I'm excited for this author because it is none other that I end every episode with about what I tell her every night. It's Bomb of the Ninth and Double A Out. And it is to my wife, Kim, who is our guest today, to talk about her new book, The Fence I Walk, The Childhood I Cherished. So thank you, Kim, for joining me today.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you.
SPEAKER_00:And if you're watching this on YouTube, we're just actually just set up in our house. So we are got everything out to set up in our house. And if you're watching on YouTube, you probably see our dog tango right there behind us. So we're gonna talk a little bit about kind of where the idea for the book came. Uh what and we kind of we're gonna dig into the process a little bit because our process is very different, as you'll find out. But we'll talk about a little bit. But welcome, Kim.
SPEAKER_03:Thank you. Thank you for having me.
SPEAKER_00:You're welcome. So let's kind of talk about why what what uh what's made up of the book? In other words, there's a lot of I mean, you knocked out what 32 chapters.
SPEAKER_03:Yes, it's all short stories, 32 short stories of just memories of my life growing up to about a little past junior high.
SPEAKER_00:And what we're recording it right now is in our house, which is a tenth of a mile down from your house that you grew up in, but we're all in the same we're in the same pasture that we talk about in this book over and over.
SPEAKER_03:It's the same pasture that that my memories happened. And when did that what the the what's the earliest probably I think the earliest memory in there is around 1982. And so I would have been eight years old. Yep.
SPEAKER_00:And and her and I are much different because I don't have a very good memory. Like not, I just like don't remember a lot. Right from my childhood. And as you read her book, uh her memories are very detailed, very vivid, very detailed. That yes, very and and there are a lot of stories in there that you shared with our kids.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, over the years. Over the years.
SPEAKER_00:They've heard them, they've heard them. There's really not any new stories, and there might be one or two that they didn't didn't know.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So what was the really the purpose for what what did kind of this book start out as?
SPEAKER_03:Well, originally it started out as a book just for our family, for the mainly for our kids and grandkids and for my mom. One for my mom, because I wanted her to understand that I say all the time that I thought I had the greatest childhood ever. And I really do mean that. Like all of my memories, everything, all the stories that I share, I really do feel like, I mean, I was lucky to be able to have had that. And I wanted my mom to get to read those stories and know how much I appreciated how I was raised and the memories they gave us. Because I think, as I know now as a parent, you look back on the times when you did raise your kids and think it was just such a whirlwind and I probably could have done it better. I should have done this and I should have done that. And I didn't remember it that way. I just remembered it as being the best. And so as I would always tell those stories to you and to the kids, and over and over to my mom, I started, I wanted to always remember them and I wanted the kids to always have it because I think they're fun and funny. And I just wanted them to always, no matter what, whatever happens, that they would always have something in writing that they could look back and read. That's what my mom did.
SPEAKER_00:And and so many times we don't have, you know, we share those stories with others, but we don't always write them down. They're not something that they can look back at a later day and go, oh, that's you know, and and I think that's a real gift that we can give to our family and that you're giving to your mom and and the kids, especially your mom, I think that you can, because you're right, as parents, we think, I didn't do so good a job. Yeah. And and I've told you numerous times as I read it and heard the stories that it's such a gift that you've given to your mom to share with her what how from your perspective, from your memories. Right. Just as our kids have shared some of the things with us that we we think we didn't do so good, and they go, Well, that was one of our best things, and we enjoyed it.
SPEAKER_03:Right. And and there are a couple of things in there that she she probably didn't know about. Might have been a little bit of a surprise to her, you know. Some some of those things that you think, oh, better not tell our parents that she knows now. It's all out, it's all out now.
SPEAKER_00:And and the fun thing is, I mean, as you know, you think of all those chapters, and I thought I was thinking about the other day, and I thought there's kidnappings in there, there is you know, a gambling, there's some drinking, there's some uh motorcycle racing, yes, there's some near-death experiences.
SPEAKER_03:There is, and there's some teenage crushes, preteen crushes.
SPEAKER_00:Pre-teen crushes. I mean, it it's got some love in it, yeah. It's got some danger, it's it's got it all, it's got and some weapons, yeah, and almost a killing from the Oriental tool from your mom. Yes, yes, um, that might involve a cat. It's one of my favorite stories. It is. I love it. So, as we talk about the book, it just came out about a no few weeks ago.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, at Christmas.
SPEAKER_00:At Christmas, at Christmas, because you it took how long did it take you to write the book?
SPEAKER_03:I started, it took about 10 and a half, eleven months to write it. So um a whole year, almost a whole year.
SPEAKER_00:And so as we talk about your writing style, all except for the very end when we had to put it into a document to be able to get to get how we needed to get on Amazon and all that. How did you write the book? What did you do everything on?
SPEAKER_03:I wrote the whole book on my phone. Everything was done from my phone.
SPEAKER_00:Which we've talked about that that's something I could have never done.
SPEAKER_03:In the notes app.
SPEAKER_00:In the notes app, like yes. So when we had to get it all in like a Google document, I had to get you to move it from your notes into a Google document because the whole book was written in your notes. From in my notes. From the dedication, from the acknowledgements to the chapters, table of content.
SPEAKER_03:Yep, all of it was in my notes section with everything else in my life. Just in my notes section.
SPEAKER_00:In your notes. Yes. If your phone had somehow messed up, you would have lost the whole book.
SPEAKER_03:The whole book. Yes. Yep. Good thing there's the cloud.
SPEAKER_00:And and and really uh it started out kind of when you initially started back in February of last year. You you started making some black chapter headline uh titles. And you came up with what, 13 or 14? Yes. And you said, I don't know if I have many more than this.
SPEAKER_03:Yes. I tried to think of all the stories that I love and ideas, and then I put chapter ideas in my phone, and then I like you said, I had and I knew I had more, I just couldn't get them out. But as time went on, we'd be like, oh, and remember, I can remember this, and then and and the thing about it is I still have so many other stories. But even though it might have all those stories, it doesn't necessarily mean they're gonna get a chapter because I might not can remember all the things that I need to remember for specific chapters. There were several things that we did that I would have liked to have made in the book, but I didn't have I couldn't recall enough things to make it my own and and present it the way it needed to be presented.
SPEAKER_00:And and when you what what was your primary goal for as you thought of those stories? What was just the primary goal? I mean, really, when you wanted to write write those stories down, just for our kids and grandkids and mom.
SPEAKER_03:I was not going there was never an idea of I'm gonna publish a book for the world to see my stories ever. That was not the idea.
SPEAKER_00:Because really, as you wrote it down, and so really it kind of came out of you wrote them down, so how are we gonna get them in some kind of format?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I'm just thinking I'm printing them all off and handing them to them in a folder.
SPEAKER_00:Say, here you go.
SPEAKER_03:There was some page protectors.
SPEAKER_00:But through wearing binder, even that it would have worked, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:So I have recipe book like that. So I felt like, you know, if it's not broken, don't fix it. I mean, you could do that. So that's just kind of how I thought it would go. But when you live with someone such as Aaron Degler, and he says, I think that we you should, I think you need to make this a book.
SPEAKER_00:People will read it because why did I tell you I thought people would read it?
SPEAKER_03:Because you would come home at night and I would be so excited about a chapter that I wrote. And it would, and and and this was kept secret from anyone.
SPEAKER_00:You and I were the only ones that knew.
SPEAKER_03:We were the only ones that knew, so I could only talk to Aaron about it. And so I couldn't bounce ideas off of anyone but him. So he would work all day, come home late in the evening, and I would have to say, I want to read you this chapter that I made today. Because it might take me half the day to get my words into the way I want them to sound, because I wanted it to be authentically me with the exact language that I use to talk, which is not be different than everyone else. I didn't want someone to read it and think, it's not even how it's not her. She, there's big words in there. She would never use big words. So I wanted it to be me. He would come home in the evening and I would you know listen to the story, and I would some of the stories that would read him would bring up such emotion from him, from sometimes of big laughter to many, many times of it ended in tears with me either crying as I'm reading it or you crying as I'm reading to you, which would then make me cry. And you just felt so much emotion from it and started saying, I think you need to share this with people because I think it will resonate with others about maybe they didn't plant 12 rows of okra, but they may have worked in the garden and it would bring up those same memories.
SPEAKER_00:And and and that and and your feedback that you've gotten because the book's been out for a few weeks, and those that have commented or or messaged you or shared with you, what what are they saying that it that it brings up?
SPEAKER_03:Emotions and nostalgia and things from their childhood that maybe they had forgotten, or I can remember when I grew up in Bowie and we did this, and you know, just it just brings up all of their memories that they had too. And they may not be this, that they're not, because they're not, you know, but they're not the same memories that I have, but it can take them back to because just in in the book, I talk a lot about the way like I can remember how my nanny's house smelled and how it felt. And I wanted to convey that in the book because or walking into Don Carter Lane's in Fort Worth to go bowling, how it felt, how it smelled and how it's kind of dark. And because I feel like when you use those words like that to describe all of the senses that you felt in that time, that's gonna bring that to to the reader as well, and and be able to go, I remember that. When the skating rinks smell like, you know, things like that.
SPEAKER_00:When you're a kid, really, and you said growing up in the 80s. Yes. And really, we didn't have a whole lot of supervision, especially out here in the country where we live. It's like you go outside and come back in when it's dark. And and that's from running around the pasture with snakes everywhere, running around the the tank. Some might call it a pond, depending on where you live. It's called a tank, but we call it a tank, but it's a body of water that you're jumping in, you're swimming in.
SPEAKER_03:I mean, that was our swimming hole. That is where we swim in.
SPEAKER_00:There's no fancy swimming pool.
SPEAKER_03:It was Yeah, we weren't going to town on most days that we wanted to swim. Mom wasn't gonna take us to town every time we wanted to go swimming, so we swam in the tank. We had a dock. It was like a jumping board, diving board.
SPEAKER_00:And and so all those things, I mean, those that grew up in those times have those same memories, they're similar to how they did those things, and and and it's always nice. I'm not I always try to read, but always say, you know, this is gonna be the year I read a book a month, and the year ends and I don't, and I've just come to kind of terms that I'm not a big reader. Right. It's just not how I take in information. But the one thing I do like about your book is they're each chapters, there's 32 chapters, and they're very short. And so that it's in you can read a chapter and within five to eight minutes, and and really the neat thing about it is if you follow the story, if you follow, read each chapter in order, you get a sense of who Jerry Walker is.
SPEAKER_03:Which is my dad.
SPEAKER_00:Which is your dad. And he's always referred to in the book as Jerry Walker.
SPEAKER_03:I mean, I call him my dad a lot, but when it's usually Jerry Walker wasn't there to play. He was you were he was stern and he was not gonna raise some. He he wasn't gonna raise him. He was not gonna raise some floozy. That was the goal. I'm not raising no floozy. And so, I mean, there were strict rules and different roles between my brother and I. My brother was two years older than I am, and he had a whole different set of rules than what Jerry Walker's daughter was gonna have rules, and that there wasn't I never thought of it as being this is so unfair. I think so much anymore your re society makes it be so politically correct, and you need to do this and you need to do that, but that's not the time that we were raised, and it was just a different time. And when I do refer to him as Jerry Walker, it really is for emphasis that he is the one that ran the house. And whatever the rules were gonna be, they came straight from Jerry Walker, and that's the way it was gonna be. And you weren't gonna mess around with that because you you would learn real fast that you were gonna be warned once.
SPEAKER_00:And it's really the house that you grew up in that it's dad went out to work every week, mom stayed at home when your dad was gone some during the week when he got home. If anything happened and y'all got in trouble, then you got in trouble again from dad. You sure did.
SPEAKER_03:And out came the belt, black whack, get in line. And as I say in the book, he could I mean that belt would come off in a blink of an eye, and you knew you were fixing to get a whip. But as I always say, and as I said in the book, there was not a single whipping that I don't think I deserved. Sure, I earned every one. There might have been one, and I say that that probably wasn't my fault, it was more Steve's, but I won't count it. Yeah, I won't count it against my dad because it he just didn't know. But I am thankful and grateful for the way that I was raised. I think it molded me into who I am, and I'm appreciative of it. You know, we had a dad that was super strict and and stern. And then the mom, my mom on the other side, was, you know, and even though dad was super strict and super stern, I was a daddy's girl, and I got all the love for him. I mean, he was as even though he could be so strict, I mean, that's where I wanted to sit in his lap, you know, I want to sit and watch TV with him, and I want to go and do these things with dad, because I was a daddy's girl, but my mom, she was the caretaker, and she was, I mean, it's still to this day will love bigger than anyone, anyone in our family.
SPEAKER_00:And and as you read the book, like, you know, if you you can read individual chapters, you can mix around, but if you read them in order, if you read it from beginning to end, you get a real sense of who your mom was, yes, who your dad was, how life looked out here on Jerry Walker Road. Yes, before it was called Jerry Walker Road. Before it was called Jerry Walker Road. Yep. But have what was it called before?
SPEAKER_03:We were just a Route One Box 74 basically.
SPEAKER_00:Just a route.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, we didn't this what you know, we didn't name the road until 911 came about. So then we had to name the road, and that's where it came from, Jerry Walker Road, because he had lived out here the longest.
SPEAKER_00:He was out here though.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And that's how long we've been here. I mean Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I've lived out my yeah, my whole life.
SPEAKER_00:So whole life. And and it's just um and too it each story is ended too, each chapter is ended with a little bit of a reflection.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:For the most part, I I do think most of them are ended that way. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Just a reflection on the story and and how how it left you, how it left you feeling. Yes. Because it really is an emphasis on how you cherished it. And cherished it not only as a child, but now how you look back on it and see what it really meant, and maybe some of the lessons that you learned from those moments with your dad and that time with your mom, um, with family and cousins and everything, playing it holidays and poker games going on, smoke being filled, drinking going on, hooting and hollering.
SPEAKER_03:Cigarette smoke.
SPEAKER_00:Cigarette smoke. Yes.
SPEAKER_03:Yes. When I say I had the great where I think I had the greatest childhood, and I and I do, I stand by that. It wasn't just from my mom and dad and my brother and I and my sister when she was here. It was our whole extended family. My aunts and uncles and my cousins were a huge part of my life. Yeah. And we got together every holiday. And my cousin my cousin Mike and I were the youngest out of our out of the ones that were there. And they I just looked at looked up to all of them, looked up to all of the older ones, and was I just wanted to. be like them. They took care of us. And you know, like you said, I mean, there could be an all-night poker game going on in the living room of one of the houses. I mean my aunt texted me today as she was reading it and said that she was surprised that we were just out gallivanting through the forest in the woods while they were inside playing poker. And and she didn't I mean I know that they knew that at the time. It wasn't like we had snuck out where but she said I guess we just didn't even think about the snakes being out there and all that. I mean we were just out in the woods and and she said I told my son I guess we were too busy trying to win money playing poker. I mean they just they were having their time and we were able to have ours and they were my cousins were just such a huge part of my life. We gathered for every holiday and I I think anymore that the world misses that because when they when you get together now it's it's rushed and there's phones and kids don't go out and play like they used to and so there's that nostalgia of looking back at that and thinking the world was so simple then we could go out in the woods and be out there for hours at a time playing some game we didn't even have a name for but we made it up as we went and that's how we spent the whole afternoon where you won't see kids do that anymore these days. And it was just important to me. And in it and it did I mean it was just it's a huge part of my of my life.
SPEAKER_00:And and you want to do just give them to the kids and your mom but now the world gets to read about your childhood. Yeah and and know who we all are and know yeah know who everybody is and and no aside from that because I did encourage you to publish it to get it out for the world because I thought it would make memories and and I think that's important too because it's it it was a big that's a big challenge for you to I mean to open up to let others it is very big in yes because I it's a lot to let people in and to know. Because as as we approached the the goal was to have it done by Christmas um was to have it done give it out to Christmas and we had you you had started back in February of last year writing it worked on the stories um I come home we'd go on vacation anytime in the car you'd read me the stories and I'd hear them and we were I mean I was knocking them out left and right.
SPEAKER_03:Those stories were getting done.
SPEAKER_00:Yes and I mean there'd be other I mean I come home and you have a new story and then a couple days later you have another story and and as we kind of got closer to November we had a wedding but things got a little bit busy with the holidays and things started to slow down. And you still had a couple more chapters to do um you still had those stories and you had a few more things to kind of finish it up. And again the goal was and at this point we still had to get it formatted to be able to to submit to we couldn't just put it in the in the uh page protectors no we couldn't just print it out I mean it it was a it still needed a process to get this done. As I took some time off. As you but but of course we were having weddings and different things for holidays but then following that is what I'm kind of getting to is that some of your anxiety that overwhelmed you sometimes it made me stop. It made you stop.
SPEAKER_03:Yes and I had luckily told a couple of people to my friends that I like the week a couple of weeks before yeah I think I think we're at a at a Friendsgiving that we were Friendsgiving and I had told them that was going to surprise my family with the book. Because at that time we're still we're kind of going yes we were kind of right on track we needed to get a couple more chapters done and then I have a well a couple of things I have a habit of just quitting things when I'm done I'm just gonna quit it and leave it not when you're done just not when not when I'm done not when the project's done when I'm done I'm just gonna go I'm done with that now. So that's my life in anything hobbies anything I'm gonna do it and do it and do it and then done or I'm gonna eat this food every single day for five years and then I'm gonna walk away I'll never eat it again. And so I know that about myself that I'm a I'm a quitter and that was my hesitation to do in the book to start with because I was afraid I would quit which is another reason why I didn't want to tell anyone because I didn't want to be held accountable to anybody but you so at Friendsgiving we had told our friends that we that I was that I had wrote a book and then I had to say well no I actually finished with it yeah but I planned to be yeah and I quit and I couldn't I just couldn't do it. I knew I needed about I had about three or four more chapters and I knew that and I knew I all I had to do was just just to sit down and do them but it seemed so overwhelming to me and at that time I had thought even if we even if I got the chapters done I don't think that I could get the process that we could get the process done in time so we weren't going to be able to do it and have it as a huge surprise and an unveiling at Christmas that I wanted to do. So then I decided to stop and I just couldn't even think of it. I just I didn't I didn't want to do it. And Aaron would ask me how is the book coming along and I'd be like yep I still have a couple more chapters to get and I would just keep telling him that over and over I would just say yeah I just have a couple more chapters to get never changed in number because I wasn't doing anything about it. And then my friend Crystal sent me a couple of texts saying are we going to get the book done in time for Christmas and it was at that moment that I thought you just go you have to start again. So it took a lot because when I get overwhelmed just going to be done. I I don't I'm not gonna I don't want to do it so shut down. Yeah and so with that project whatever the project could be the day it doesn't necessarily mean a project. If the day seems overwhelming I'm gonna quit it I don't want to do it. So uh I won't and so that's why it was a huge deal to finish and so once I looked at my chapter ideas again and well figured out okay if I could just pull from these that I know for sure I have enough in me to get that done. And then we started checking on well we Aaron started checking on all the process to get it published and then he kind of was like okay well we need this and I need you to get and then I was like oh we're gonna have to start I gave you some deadlines we got to have it by this we gotta do this. Because he was like asking things that I didn't have and so that's what we did. And then here she is.
SPEAKER_00:Here she is and so it it really and the surprise and unveiling happened at Christmas. And it and it did all get done. I mean it was a very tight schedule and we barely got it all done within a few days that we got the book and got it you know in our hands and because of course again at the holidays Amazon's a little slower was taken along and so it was just a real process but kind of want to share that in process because I think so many people that can relate to that of overwhelm of shutting down and it really is sometimes the importance of others to help encourage us to believe in that that we can get done because as as as if you can get the book on Amazon and if you're watching YouTube you see the book here next to us that was everything from from front to back was your creation from everything. From the cover to the title to just every and every part of that cover is intentional. Yes every part's in very intentional it it has a meaning um as you read the story you'll understand the little girl the three wheeler the fence the house just the dirt row just everything in there it really summarizes the story and and you think well why put a a three wheeler on on a cover but the three wheeler shows up a lot the three wheeler's a main character and even if at a little typo about the three wheeler if you read it it says it was a Suzuki 50 it was not it was a Suzuki 125.
SPEAKER_03:So if you're reading that and thinking how's all this happened on a little bitty 50 it didn't happen on a 125 I just had my numbers mixed up and sometimes when you're on a deadline you don't have time to be like oh hang on because we were there were some issues at the end and we had to chop chop.
SPEAKER_00:We had to get it and and and from editing to everything you I mean there was on me editing reading it I mean because I couldn't share it right with anybody basically took everything you gave me and we submit it to be able to get it in the in the form we needed it to submit it to Amazon and everything.
SPEAKER_03:Because I didn't want any of my words to be changed. So I didn't I know that the process of writing a book is you then have people read it and then they're gonna give you their opinions and I understand that and that might have you know helped in the little misprint there but I didn't want my words to be changed because again I don't use big words to talk. I don't my vocabulary isn't of a you know highly educated person. I use it's just not who I am. I'm a very basic person that has very great memories and so I as our daughter said when she after she read it it was like sitting across talking to you like everything in there sounded just like you but it almost didn't happen because it shut down so that's exactly how you wanted to portray it you wanted to sound as you read the stories if you read as you read the stories and if you talk to you you go okay that's the same person that's the same person.
SPEAKER_00:In all her awkward glory. Yeah in all of her awkward glory you may not see some of the awkwardness in the writing but if if if you talk to her in person you know sometimes in her head she may be talking to you and it's don't be awkward don't be awkward don't be awkward but you know it's a it was a process and and it's one of those things that it's an amazing thing that you can do now that you can write a book you can get those thoughts you want there's a bunch of different tools to help with that to get that done and it's possible. And it's and and we got it done with days to spare. We did um our our plan was to wrap it and everybody opened it up at Christmas all of our family.
SPEAKER_03:Yes and I think a couple of our kids knew for sure that I had been working on something a project is what I would tell them. I got to work on a project today. They'd be real careful with my words because they didn't want any so they kind of knew I was working on something they didn't know what it was. So they knew that there was going to be a surprise my mom had no clue. She I didn't and it became very very hard because as we sat and have margarita Monday and with friends every Monday but not every Monday but once a month well we might change it to every Monday. Seemed like every Monday but that's a good idea and to hear them this past week as we talked about it and they said they've they I have within this last year told many of these stories to them at Margarita Monday and it but it never dawned on them until they read it like she was telling them because that was in my head fresh because I'm working on it. And that would be the same way with my mom because I my you know I did tell my brother he had read a couple of chapters before because I needed to be able to say like was this and and my brother has a memory like you do he doesn't remember a lot of things but I needed to be able to say do you remember when we did this or that and so it had told him towards the end as well that I was working on it. But I had to work through those thoughts and my so as I would talk to my mom on the phone daily that I and we might bring something up and it would be so hard not to let it out back that we didn't and we surprised them all.
SPEAKER_00:And we did and it was very exciting when you know when you have an idea it's just an abstract and it's an idea and then you start putting those into words you start putting them in your phone and then when we when we got it to how we needed it all together and we got to see it kind of in a format that looked like a book format to submit to Amazon and then then once we got it in our hands it was like this is real. Like like I wrote all the words in here and it's forever down and and and then it became even harder because we probably got it about three or four days before Christmas before we gave it before we had our Christmas yeah we got it three or four days before Christmas but we had our Christmas after Christmas. So and then it was really hard because you because now we had it in our possession. All of them all of them and it was really even harder to keep keep quiet because you just wanted to tell everybody and and let them read those stories just because it's a lot of fun and and as many mentioned you you get to laugh you get to cry you get that sense of nostalgia you get that sense of memory of of maybe when you were a kid in the 80s or or nineties or when you had family like that it just and it brings all sorts of memories back.
SPEAKER_03:It does you and and sometimes you laugh and cry at the same time in the same chapter.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah and and as we record this you can get on Amazon it is an ebook and heart hardback and paperback and we will be working on within the next week getting it on audibles. Yeah so hopefully in the in my voice in your voice yes so from the time of this recording to hopefully in the next month yeah um as we record this and tell them what happened on my my little sample what did you tell me after after you act when you listened to my little sample we were sending it for audible so so again we had to kind of we have to find somebody because it's a whole process and we're not sometimes that that's beyond our scope. Right. And so it's quicker sometimes just to have somebody do that put it format it together and be able to submit it. So I found a freelancer that could take take what you record put it in the right formats and all that to to submit to audibles and as I listened to it after they sent it back to me I I told you kind of loosen up kind of like just like you were reading it to me I'm at the kitchen table or in the truck when we're going on a going somewhere just read it to me naturally.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah just read it like you would read it to me. So this past week what have you been practicing I've been practicing reading my book out loud again I've been reading my words I've been reading my words and because when I would read it to you at night I would be so excited because just retelling the story out loud from the words that I wrote was like reliving that every time and it is emotional my dad's not alive anymore. My dad passed away in 2005 and so it is emotional for me because those memories wouldn't have existed without him and they're the reason he's the reason why I have them him my mom him and my mom and so to then get to relive that is it is just emotional but to be able to tell it to you after I've wrote a story I get you know that poker night stories you know I was so excited to read that because I wanted you to hear the excitement that I had in it or the last chapter in the book about the fence you know it's emotional and I could while I was reading it to you it's naturally coming out what my emotions are but as I read it to the world I feel like I need to be all permanent proper so on day six no and I gotta take a breath put myself back there.
SPEAKER_00:So so it's a it's a it's a process. It is a process it's work it's it's work.
SPEAKER_03:And when I first started writing the book we were doing book club at that time and we talked about journaling and I said that this was the probably biggest form of journaling I had ever done because so many of my stories as I wrote them I realized why I'm the way I am about a lot of things. Not that I think oh I got a terrible child I had the best childhood. I'm just saying that I can take a step back now and go, that's probably that's why I like that or that's you know why I'm that way about that. And I felt like it did some good.
SPEAKER_00:And and and that's a good point. I mean journaling I mean it it kind of turned into a form of your journaling by telling your stories and sharing and it is it's it's a good way as a reflect go. Because sometimes again what when when we just think about them it I think it has a different impact on us.
SPEAKER_03:But when we write them down I think the biggest one of that was the story I wrote about my mom waiting on my dad and that always was a trigger for me to be like make him do his own things he can make his own play from the time I was a little girl always being like literally let him make his own play I will never do that. I will never do that. And she waited on him and us all her life I'll never wait on a man. Yes and and she still does that today she will still do that but I never put it together ever because I always told her I would never do that. I will never do what you're doing and I didn't put it together until I was writing that I do those same things. I don't necessarily well I do make a plate. I don't it yeah it's different though it's not you don't sit down and be like I'm home. So so in your reflection as you wrote that why do you believe then that your mom did that because at that point I realized she wasn't doing it because she had to she did it as an appreciation for him going to work every single day for over 40 years to the same job and her staying at home with us and being a stay at home mom. And it I felt like at that point I could take a step back and see myself in that and it's more of an appreciation of I I get to stay here and raise our family and do all the things here while you are gone providing for us. And it was probably her way of just appreciating him like I appreciate you. We don't have kids at home. And anymore. Anymore. And I get to be a stay-at-home wife. And so I want to do those things to help make your life easier because you've worked all day. So I think that that was such a big moment for me to be like, oh, I I do those. I do that. I didn't quite realize that. I said I would never do that, and I do.
SPEAKER_00:And and and and then through that, I mean, it was really a started out as a gift to give back to our kids and to your mom and family. But I think too it was a gift to yourself.
SPEAKER_03:A big one.
SPEAKER_00:At 51 to go, now I I kind of see some things. I kind of realize I can see myself there.
SPEAKER_03:I can see some of the things that I did that weren't quite what I should have done, or you know, celebrate the things that I did that I'm proud of. You know, my dad instilled a huge work ethic in both Steve and I. And because he, like I said, went to work every single day and you just stayed at your job and you did your work, and he was a hard worker and he had us work hard. I mean, we worked hard out here.
SPEAKER_00:And but also had a lot also there was an amazing balance of there's a lot of fun.
SPEAKER_03:There was a lot of fun in the party.
SPEAKER_00:Because you said he was always the first one to the party.
SPEAKER_03:He was always the first one to have fun and do, yeah. We didn't we didn't get to the high school years and the after high school years. We had good times out here because he wanted to be in the middle of all the party. And we didn't get to that. We won't. But he enjoyed us, he wanted all the kids to come here. We had a good time.
SPEAKER_00:Just like when there was a snow day, who loved it the most?
SPEAKER_03:He did. He let's go out in the snow, or let's go pull cars out in town that pulled, you know, got off the side of the road. He had the most fun doing those things. And this, there was a lot of work. And yes, there was a lot of rules. And yes, I couldn't talk to boys on the phone. But it gave us a lot of values and work ethic and structure, but also at the same time a balance because we had a good, we had a good childhood and we had a good time. Always.
SPEAKER_00:Always good fun.
SPEAKER_03:It was always, yeah. I mean, we might not laugh at the time, but as you look back, we did, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And and and sometimes interesting things is sometimes mistakes come out to turn out really good things as we talk about finalizing the book. We had talked about that title you and I had, The Fence I Walked, The Childhood I Cherished, and it was on that cover.
SPEAKER_02:What is the title?
SPEAKER_00:The Fence I Walked, The Childhood I Cherished. And so, real quick, to share a little bit of our awkwardness sometimes. Just before we started recording, we had a lady come and we were selling something off marketplace. And so she was picking it up. Stranger. A stranger. And she comes in and into where we have our all of our podcasts, all of our setup set up.
SPEAKER_03:And with these big lights.
SPEAKER_00:We got big lights here in front of us. All this, I mean, it's a whole production here. And she goes, Oh, what are you doing? And and and Kim says, Well, I just wrote a book. And she said, Oh, well, what's the title? And and then Kim says, The Fence I Walk, The Childhood I Treasured Treasured. And I'm in the other room going, No, that's not it. That's not the title of your book. And then she thank goodness catches it. She goes, No, that's not right.
SPEAKER_03:But why do I have trouble with the title?
SPEAKER_00:So because going back, that was the original, that is the name. It is. The fence I walked, the childhood I cherished. And so we worked on that cover. The title, everything. The last what you'd sent me was that, what we talked about. And so we sent it to get all compiled. Yeah. And you're looking at it, go, that's not the title.
SPEAKER_03:It's not the title of my book.
SPEAKER_00:Huh? I said, that's that's what we talked about. You said, No, it's supposed to be just the childhood I cherished.
SPEAKER_03:Yes. Which is what it is in my head.
SPEAKER_00:Which is what it is in your head. So if you ever talk to her and she says, What's and you ask him what the name of the book is, she's gonna say the childhood I cherished.
SPEAKER_03:Because I renamed it.
SPEAKER_00:And and you renamed it and never told me.
unknown:And I forgot.
SPEAKER_03:I forgot to tell him that I changed the name, and I just wanted it to be the childhood I cherished. But the fence I walked is very important in the story, which is what we came up with in the beginning. But then I decided it seemed wordy, and I wanted it to just be the childhood I cherished, but I forgot to tell you before you turned all the papers in.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:All the papers.
SPEAKER_00:So we turned it all in. And and so and she had put the childhood I cherished in all the copyright, all the different places. So then we had to change everything back.
SPEAKER_03:Everything because it was gonna be more work to change the cover to everything I had changed inside than it was just to go in and change all the copyright and all that on the inside.
SPEAKER_00:So so this is the name it almost wasn't. Um The Fence I Walked, the Childhood I Cherished. And and the fence I walked is just an important part of the last chapter of the last chapter, which which I think is just the best.
SPEAKER_03:That was intentionally the last chapter.
SPEAKER_00:And it's just the best, and that's where the beginning of the title is.
SPEAKER_03:Yes, yes. And also on chapter 25 is a Christmas chapter. I there are several Christmas chapters, but that wasn't intentional. Somehow I just randomly and as I was reading the book after we got it, I was like, Chapter 25 is my Christmas one of my Christmas stories. It's not Jim Beam Santa, but it's how much I cherished your Christmas. But it should have been Jim Beam Santa. That would have been better.
SPEAKER_00:Anyway, what the name of the book?
SPEAKER_03:No, my chapter 25. Jim Beam Santa.
SPEAKER_00:It's not Jim Beam Santa, but that is a chapter in the Jim Beam Santa. Yeah. So I mean, it it's really I mean, there was a lot of funny moments, a lot of stressful moments as we were getting close to the end and getting it, getting it published and getting it done.
SPEAKER_03:And I'm blessed to have you to do all that because I they would have gotten a sheet protector. Because I was like, that seems like a lot of stuff that I wouldn't do myself.
SPEAKER_00:But as we talk about all the time, how'd we do all that stuff? We had to first get you to write it, and then we first got then we we just took it one step at a time. It's one step at a time. And it really is, as we talk about a lot of times in all the different things that we do, it was just an idea.
SPEAKER_03:It was an idea that was one day that I just randomly pulled out.
SPEAKER_00:That was in your head. And and through the process over the year, it is now something, and that's what's so powerful is that sometimes our ideas just stay there, but sometimes we can get them out in concrete into the world. And that's I think what this is. It it came from your mind and your your thoughts and your childhood and your past. And we got it through the process, we were able to take something that was just an idea and put it out so others can read it. Yes. And and we hope because memories are wonderful because they all elicit a feeling. And and in this, you'll the hope is, and I don't want to speak for you, but that you'll have you'll smile about uh something that happened in your childhood. And it may not have been a great childhood, it may just been one thing to go, I like that.
SPEAKER_03:I went to the skating rink too when I was little and I enjoyed that.
SPEAKER_00:Or I had cousins I played with, or I had a brother that, you know, yeah, that's we we we wrestled and we had a good time and we figured out what I remember when we got.
SPEAKER_03:Yes, or I remember when we got a V8, what is that called? VCR.
SPEAKER_00:VCR.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Or VHS goes in the VCR.
SPEAKER_03:Or I remember when we got our own phone line or got our own phones in our bedroom, or you know, all of the things that were so 80s, you know. And even, I mean, I've had even not that generation reach out, but even uh the older generation that has said, I mean, we it was my same childhood, just a generation before, you know, theirs were.
SPEAKER_00:So you're right, it's really one of those that it it it goes across generations.
SPEAKER_03:Yes. And I had someone else say that they read it to their kids that are like younger than our kids, whatever generation that is.
SPEAKER_00:And I get confused with all the letters.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, it was like L. No, it's not, but and she even said that they felt like it was like reading a chapter of Stranger Things. Now, I don't know what that is, but it's some kind of show. And evidently maybe it's set kind of maybe in the 80s or something. I don't really know. But I did think that's funny because every generation can there you can pull something out, and even if it's the the young kids now look at that and think, Oh my gosh, how did you live like that? That it was the best.
SPEAKER_00:It was the best. It was simple, it was just a different time of life, and it was it was good.
SPEAKER_03:Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00:It was good. And I'm proud of you for writing it and coming up with the stories and not stopping. And not stopping and finishing and getting it out. And and the exciting news, as we within a couple weeks, January 23rd, yes, at 6 p.m., we are gonna have a book signing. Book signing at M2B Fitness at 206 North Schmyt Street.
SPEAKER_03:Yes. So if you bought a book to be signing, and I will probably say something awkward.
SPEAKER_00:And so if you bought a book, I mean you can bring it there and and she can sign it. And we'll have a limited number of books on hand to sell. And and some of our ladies at at M2B mentioned that it might even be cool she read a chapter. So we're gonna see if we can talk her into reading a chapter, maybe out of her book. And they thought that ought to pretty neat, so we're gonna try to do that. But that'll be January 23rd at 6 p.m.
SPEAKER_02:Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, we will have a book signing, uh meet and greet, and just be a fun time.
SPEAKER_02:With some snacks.
SPEAKER_00:With some snacks, because we like snacks. We like snacks and drinks. It's a thing that makes our world go round. Anything else you want to share about the book?
SPEAKER_03:Mm-mm.
SPEAKER_00:No? No?
SPEAKER_03:I think you shared it. Yeah, any hard questions.
SPEAKER_00:Any hard questions.
SPEAKER_03:You didn't ask me the title, I would have had to do this.
SPEAKER_00:What is the title and where can they get it?
SPEAKER_03:The fence I walked and the childhood I Cherished. The fence I walked, the childhood I cherished, and you can get it off Amazon.
SPEAKER_00:Amazon. Amazon ebook, paperback, and hardback. And coming soon. Hopefully, hopefully, probably by the middle of February, you can get it on Audibles. I mean, and here you read it.
SPEAKER_03:Or you can get it at the book signing.
SPEAKER_00:Or you can get it. The limited number. Yeah, we have we'll have a limited supply there to pick up. And and please, if if you get it, leave a review on Amazon.
SPEAKER_03:Please leave a review because I've sold a bunch of books and I have seven reviews. Because I think that if they review it, then Amazon will push it out more.
SPEAKER_00:It's really because our heart is, we want people to feel that.
SPEAKER_03:I do, and I don't want it to just be like in our community. I I I want the world to be able to feel those same emotions. We joke a lot about our generation when we grew up about how you sweep that under the rug, we'll just we don't even know. And when we were, we we did. I mean, we didn't do touchy feely feeling moments growing up in our generation, but we had great moments, and I think no matter you can read the book and and find that great moment that you had. And I think that's important.
SPEAKER_00:And and the world just needs more of that. The world needs more joy, it needs more joy, and and that is really our hope. I mean, that's really one of the reasons too. I encourage you to share it with the world.
SPEAKER_03:It makes you feel good.
SPEAKER_00:It makes you feel good.
SPEAKER_03:And it's an easy short read, and you can read it quickly. You could do it like Chicken Soup for Soul, pick it up and read chapter whatever at any time, and then go back and read a different chapter. It's just and I feel like it's a lot like chicken soup for soul books if you were back in the 90s. It just makes you feel good. Every story, I think, gives you a feel-good feeling.
SPEAKER_00:And those of you chapter you say the same thing over and over. It's not just you because it's your memory.
SPEAKER_03:Because I wrote it and it's my memories. It is my memories, and I did write it, but it's that's not the reason why.
SPEAKER_00:And and our biggest reason is for sharing this, for doing the podcast is would we like a few dollars? Sure. But really, the big I'm a stay-at-home life.
SPEAKER_03:Support me. Well, yeah, I mean, I'm not me.
SPEAKER_00:I mean But but it really is to make just make the world if if if we can do something that we put something out in the world that makes it a little bit better. And even for the moment, the the 10 minutes while you're reading a chapter, yeah, you can feel a little bit better, have a smile on your face, or laugh, or a little tear of joy. Of uh I just think it makes that moment better.
SPEAKER_03:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:And and I think we all have little parts um of our life that we do cherish. And then we hope that this maybe ignites a little bit of that and and puts a smile on the face because we just need that more in the world.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, agree.
SPEAKER_00:So go to Amazon, get it, leave a review, leave a review. Like I told you, I'm not a big reader. It took me two hours, I think, to read.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And and I just love reading. I can't wait till audibles because then I get to listen to your uh to your voice. And I mean, I I wrote it and I and you still like I come home and I see the book. I say, What are you doing? I'm reading my book because it makes you happy.
SPEAKER_03:It makes me feel.
SPEAKER_00:And then then you joke and say, I'm practicing reading, so I can do it for audibles.
SPEAKER_03:That's right.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So do us a favor, go pick it up. Do yourself a favor and go pick it up on Amazon in any format that you choose.
SPEAKER_03:And tell me your favorite chapter. Yeah, and and because no one's really ever said, I love the chapter about, you know.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, hands down, mine's about the Oriental tool.
SPEAKER_03:I know it is.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, and your mom giving the cat the Oriental Tool is the best chapter there is.
SPEAKER_02:It is. It is funny.
SPEAKER_00:But there's a lot of great chapters, and and I mean, some of our kids have said different ones resonate with them, so um, it'd be neat to reach out. And they can they can, if they have comments or thoughts, they can message you on on Facebook. That's the best place. TikTok.
SPEAKER_03:TikTok on TikTok.
SPEAKER_00:They can find you on TikTok.
SPEAKER_03:And daily, daily on TikTok.
SPEAKER_00:One of her big things too is is cleaning and clutter and getting rid of all that. And so if you want some, you can follow her on TikTok, and you have a lot of sometimes you get to see her awkwardness on TikTok. Um, it just comes out in the videos, but you get a better sense of who she is and and what she does. And we just would love for you to go get the book for yourself to enjoy, give it as a gift, um, just because it's a wonderful, wonderful thing.
SPEAKER_03:It it's quick and easy and be this the gift you give in 2026.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, you're right.
SPEAKER_03:I did say those words the right way.
SPEAKER_00:Yep, yep. The fence I walked, the childhood I cherished, get your copy on Amazon or join us on the book signing January 23rd at 6 p.m. at M2B Fitness and Bowie. So, any final thoughts?
SPEAKER_03:Nope. Thank you for giving me a moment.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you. Um, I think Tango left us.
SPEAKER_03:So now he's right behind us.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, okay. He's right behind us.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, he's moved.
SPEAKER_00:Yep. So if you watch us, you can see Tango, you can see all the fun stuff. So, but thank you to each of you for joining us as I tell. I usually say as I tell my wife, but as I tell my wife Kim every night before we go to bed, it's bomb of the ninth, double A out.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you for listening to today's podcast. If you would like to connect with Aaron, you can do so by going to ErinDegler.com or find him on social media as Aaron Dagler on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. Once again, we greatly appreciate you tuning in. If you've enjoyed the show, please feel free to rate, subscribe, and leave a review wherever you listen to your podcasts. We greatly appreciate that effort, and we'll catch you in the next episode of the Mind Body Project Podcast.