“I never thought of myself as an author and had no intentions of writing a book, but I love to write, and the response I received to The EDDY Line, my personal newsletter, convinced me that maybe I should give it a try. Friends and family kept saying, “Bill, you should write a book.”
“Where do I start, and how do I do it”? My dear friend, Dr. Carol Nicholson was writing a fictional novel at the time, and she said, “I’ll introduce you to my writing coach in Oxford, England. Well, she did, and that is how it all began. And before long, Sarah Williams in Oxford, England, became my new writing coach. She said, “I want you to write 2,000 words a week, and don’t worry about punctuation. Just write and send me what you’ve written, and then once a week, we’ll talk about it on a Skype call. And that is how I began to write a loosely structured autobiography of an American boy and my journey through life.
I love to write, and also love Hawaii. In 1959, the same year the territory became our 50th state, I read James Michener’s novel, “Hawaii,” and dreamed about seeing the Hawaiian Islands someday. Well, that someday came just three years later.
I enlisted in the US Navy in 1962. I always wanted to be a Naval officer like my father was, but my life was stuck in neutral, and I lacked the discipline to focus on my studies in college, so I decided to enlist in the Navy and satisfy my two year military obligation, which turned out to be one of the smartest decisions I ever made.
1962 – I’m stationed aboard the USS Parsons (DD-949) in San Diego, CA., and soon learn that our ship is about to begin a six-month cruise (‘Cruise’ is a poor choice of words.) to the Western Pacific. We’re told that our first port of call will be Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and we’ll be in port for three to four days. I can’t wait to see what I dreamed about three years ago.
The 2,600 mile journey from San Diego to Pearl Harbor takes about seven days. We entered the mouth of Pearl Harbor, and slowly began to navigate this narrow lagoon harbor. Reminders of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941, and you can’t help to think about what it might have been like to be there that morning.
That historic and horrific event brought my family into the war, and that has had a profound impact on me. World War II shaped the lives of my father, my uncles, and their generation, and dramatically changed the lives of all the men, women, and children in our country and those who would soon follow.
Standing there aboard the USS Parsons, I knew how much the events that had transpired here in Hawaii had already affected my family. Little did I know then how much Hawaii would come to shape my life in the coming decades.
Introducing the Eddy Family – This is where it all started…
Long ago I was told that we’re a product of our environment, and to me the environment that matters most is family. We’re very impressionable when we’re young, so our families really set the tone in our life. Our parents and grandparents, our aunts and uncles are the people that teach us many of our values: Important things like ethics – integrity – honesty, and trust. T hese are the building blocks of our life.
I’ve been exceptionally lucky in the family sweepstakes because two loving and close families provided that nurturing environment for me.
A while ago I realized that I am now the patriarch of the Eddy family. I know the stories of the earlier generations of my family. I have a multitude of hand-written letters, sepia and black and white photos, sketches drawn by my great grandfather for Mark Twain, an American humorist, writer, and lecturer during the late 19th century. I even have an Eddy family Coat of Arms that my grandmother gave me when I was 10 years old.
So, that’s where I’ll begin the story of an American boy, and my highly enjoyable journey through life. My journey continues with new friends, new experiences, and new additions to my family. and providing me with more stories, more love and more laughter…..