Shiny Dimes and Wild Rides

How The Book Came to Be

In 2000 I began writing a book called Shiny Dimes and Wild Rides, which would be about the lives of Dr. Glenn and Patricia Chamberlin and a 50th wedding anniversary gift for them. (Their daughter, Barbara Chamberlin Daugherty from Rochester commissioned me to do the project). The Chamberlains lived in Monmouth, Illinois, and during a visit to Rochester in April 2000 I interviewed them to gather material for the book that I –with Barbara’s help - would complete in August. Glen was the son of a pharmacist/farmer, an engineering student, infantry soldier, medical student, family practitioner, and devoted husband and father. Patricia was a small-town dancing student who turned professional and toured with the USO in Europe and the Pacific Rim after World War II. After the war she married Glen, became the mother of three happy children, and somehow found time to obtain two college degrees while being a full-time housewife.

The Chamberlins thanked me for “making their 50th anniversary so perfect, and for giving literary voice to their many memories.” Barbara was delighted with the finished product and expressed gratefulness for the “gentle, guiding touch with which I interviewed her parents.”

Contents

• Introduction
• The Chamberlin Genealogy
• Stories of Ancestors
• Dad’s Family
• Dad’s Childhood Memories
• The Stafford Genealogy
• Mother’s Family
• Mother’s Childhood Memories
• Military Service
• USO
• Courtship and Wedding
• Chicago
• Internship in Indianapolis
• Getting Started in Seneca
• Settling in Monmouth
• Medical Practice
• The Chamberlin Family Farm
• Postscript

Excerpt

When I was growing up one of my duties was to help dust our house. My brother had a job at a little general store in town where on Saturday nights he would sweep the store and get ten cents each time he did it. He would line his dimes up across his dresser. One day I was in there dusting and I saw that he had about eight or nine dimes lined up. I thought, “I don’t get paid for what I do; he’ll never miss one of these.” So I took one of his dimes. Well, later on, somehow or other, he found out that I had that dime. He reported to my parents that he was missing a dime. Unbeknownst to me he had shined each dime with an eraser and had memorized the dates on them. He said his 1928 dime was missing, and sure enough I had the 1928 dime. So my dad wanted to know right away, “Where did you get that dime?” I took him out in the back yard and we wandered around. I found an old tree and said, “I found it in the crotch of this old tree.” He knew it wouldn’t be a nice shiny dime if I had found it in the crotch of that tree. That taught me a lesson. I had to give back that dime.