Unfinished Business
The Mother Trucker
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
CHAPTER 1
My Childhood; A Farmer’s Daughter
Born on January 19, I am a true Capricorn--stubborn as can be when I believe in something. It has helped in many ways because I never quit a project. If you doubt that, I will show you how no matter how long it takes. My journey began on a small farm outside Branch, Arkansas. The closest larger city is Fort Smith on the Oklahoma border. I was one of eleven children. Our mother and father made each of us feel special for different reasons.
All the generations in our family are close; we believe that, together, we are strong. Nieces and nephews and their mates and children now carry on the creed of my mother and father. We never fight or try to control one another.
We kid each other, and it is always in good fun. No one wants to leave the room, because when you come back in, everyone sits quietly for a minute to let you know you could have been the object of chatter. No one gets offended. Do not pick on one of us, or you will deal with us all. We never tell each other what to do. We make our own decisions and live by them with support from everyone.
We make telephone companies happy, because if there is illness or good times, we all talk to one another. In two days, the word is spread. Everyone gets updates daily until things have gotten back to normal.
Never have I been bored at any time in my life. I always say, “I came in laughing, and I hope I go the same way.”,/p>
I always remember the story of my mom, Gussie Lee Brown, and dad, Hobart McKinley Shelby--nicknamed Kin—getting married and the decisions they had to make. Daddy knew he had the same eye problem, retinitis pigmentosa, that his mother had and that he would lose his sight as she did at an early age.
They had another obstacle to their plans, since World War I had started, and Daddy was of age. He had to wait and see if he would be called. He was called, but the army would not take him because of his eyesight. It was already too bad. I have the papers that he was turned down.
He was in college studying finance. He knew that without sight, finance was not to be his calling, although he loved it. So they decided to become farmers. My mother grew up on a farm. Daddy grew up with a father who was a Baptist minister.
Formats
Book Details
About the Book
The sixth of eleven children, author Nadine Shelby Schramm was born in Charleston, Arkansas, just as the Great Depression of the 1930s. It was a very different and difficult life. In Unfinished Business, she shares the story of her journey from that small town in Arkansas to becoming a business woman in New York City.
In this memoir, she narrates how, as a youngster of ten, she plowed the fields behind two 1,600-pound horses with her blind father at her side. She learned at that early age one can accomplish anything with will power. Despite many challenges she endured in adulthood, including abuse at the hands of her first husband, she started four successful businesses including Budd Leasing, one of the leading theatrical trucking companies in the United States.
Unfinished Business shares the lows and the highs of Schramm’s life and the lessons learned throughout. It communicates the message that one can rise above their own self-doubt, make changes, and achieve their life’s dreams.
About the Author
Nadine Shelby Schramm has started four successful business and has won several prestigious awards for her business and philanthropic work. Schramm is currently the owner/CEO of Budd Enterprises, a family business started in 1979 and also founded Budd Leasing. She lives in New York City.