About the Book:

The story begins with Mom and Dad. Ada Morine Leslie migrated west with her family from Leslie, Arkansas in the Roaring Twenties. Diamond C. Stanley and his two brothers, orphaned at a very early age, struggled to survive and prosper as boxcar children from Joplin, Missouri all the way to California.

Next is the story of a boy earning a man’s wage at twelve years old to help make the family’s livin’.  Working in the San Joaquin Valley cotton fields and peach orchards, the kid was proud he could contribute.

Through the hardships and loving closeness with mom and dad, touching on siblings and their families, this is a true story of friends, of a family fraying after the death of Mom and Dad, and an Average Joe’s fight for success through many adventures.

With essays, short fiction, and poems by Ada Morine Stanley, illustrations, memorable phrases, inspirational verses, and prose, Mirrors, Monuments and Memories is the moving and funny true story of an everyman from California's San Joaquin Valley, his dust bowl family, and life’s journey from hardship to prosperity. 

About the Author:

Damon Booth Stanley's life has been an exciting 68 year adventure! Beginning at 13 years old, he was a farm laborer, contractor, and crew boss for Dad, a plumber, a sheet metal worker, a scuba diver, a gas station owner, an air conditioning contractor, a plumbing contractor, a swap meet supplier of goods when things got tough, a real estate developer, a general building contractor, the owner-operator of a deep sea fishing business with five large boats, an island owner in the state of Oregon, and most importantly, a husband, father and grandfather. He gives credit to Dad for teaching him a hard work ethic, and has been known throughout life as a survivor that made things happen.