I have been reading a little bit about Dale Carnegie. In my college history classes he wasn't regarded well because he was rich and the rich were not thought of well in the classes I took. But, I think that being rich doesn't make a person terribly bad even though historians right now are looking at the rich of his era with a critical eye. I thought he had some good ideas. The way I was introduced to Dale Carnegie was through my father. Dad liked at one time to listen to self help books and tapes. One of the people he listened to and read was Dale Carnegie. It was a book about influencing people. Here are some of his ideas.
According to Dale Carnegie one way to make people like you is:
1 Be genuinely interested in other people. Real interest is a great form of flattery; disinterest communicates that the other person is boring at bet without value at worst.
2. Smile. It's hard to dislike a happy person.
3. Remember a person's name. After all, a person's own name is the sweetest and most iportant sound in any language.
4. Listen. Carnegie was a great listener and encouraged people to talk about themselves. We all want to believe someone finds us interesting.
5. Speak in terms of the other person's intersts. (This expands on the first and fourth steps.)
6. Make the other person feel important and do so with sincerity. We are egocentric, Carnegie knew, and making other people the center of the universe--even if only during a brief encounter--makes them feel good. And it makes them like you.
Cherie was telling me that I should talk a little bit about my childhood and some of the things that I remember. This is one of the things I remember my Dad telling me, and that is to remember that people like to hear about the things they are interested in.
Dad liked to think about things that he could do for other people. I always remember that he would bring me a box of chocolates on Valentines Day and I would share it with everyone else. When we lived in San Francisco he would bring us all 5 cent candy bars. Back then the 5 cent candy bars were as big as the ones we pay almost a dollar for now. My brothers would like to climb up my Dad too. I think Arlen and Alan would remember this the most.
Mom was always doing little things for other people too. She was always cleaning the house, working on a project for the Primary, driving us to different activities and generally working from dawn until dusk. She sacrificed a lot for us and if she had something she would always give it to us before she had any.
Mom would talk on the phone all day and iron clothes while watching her favorite show...I Love Lucy. On Friday nights we would wheel the black and white TV into the bedroom and watch the Lawrence Welk show. Mom loved the dancing and singing. She didn't watch TV very much other than that. It was a real novelty for us to even have a TV. We spent most of the afternoons outside playing with our friends.
Saturdays were a big day at our house. When we lived in San Francisco, we would get up at the break of dawn and clean the house, eat breakfast, and go to the grocery store. Dad would often buy a big box of oranges and peel them for us to eat. We would have peanut butter sandwiches on wonder bread for lunch while we hiked up one of the mountains nearby...Mission Peak or Mount Templepias.
At dinner time Dad banned drinking glasses at the table because one of us (I won't mention who because they know who they are) would spill their drink all over the tablecloth every time we would sit down to eat. We had two tables, one for the dining room and one in the kitchen. Dad had Mr. Hardy his friend make us some benches for the breakfast area so we could all sit down there.
Mr. Hardy was an interesting man. He was a single adult in our ward and would go with our family on excursions. We went to a park one time and Mr. Hardy jumped in the canal when we saw a little girl drowning. He was able to save her and give her artificial respiration before the fire department came. That was really exciting and scarey.
Dad and Mom were always taking us on adventures. We visited many National Parks, went camping, hiking, and to museums, aquariums, zoos and amusement parks. There were many things to do around San Francisco. I remember going to see the frog jumping contest in Calaveras County. Another time Dad bought us all hiking boots and we hiked to the top of a mountain. Jan cried because she had big blisters on her feet and could hardly walk. Mom didn't like to hike very much and got mad at my Dad for putting her through that.
At the time we lived there the Hippy Movement was in full swing. We went down to Haight Ashbury Street by the Park to see the Hippies. Our next door neighbor's daughter ran away with her boyfriend at that time and joined the movement there. Mom had a comment to us about that. She always did when she saw something that she thought was wrong so that her children knew never to get involved in that kind of thing. We were sheltered against a lot of things going on back then.
Growing up in our household was one adventure after another and I had a great childhood. Thanks Mom and Dad
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