Richard Shinkel, 79, still lives on the farm he was born on in Berrien Springs.
“I was a farm kid, and my parents were immigrants from Poland and Germany,” he told me last week.
Shinkel called me up after my last column, “People want to hear your stories,” to tell me about how he was able to write several books about his life, and why he believes others should “start now.”
Now, Shinkel admits he didn’t sit down and think, “I want to write a book.”
Over the years, he and Chuck Nelson, both long-time naturalists at Sarett Nature Center, were encouraged to write about their adventures teaching school children and leading natural history trips around the world.
Shinkel ended up taking a class at the Lincoln Township Library about how to self-publish books on Kindle Direct Publishing.
“The nice thing about it is you don’t have to have any volume to order – you can order one book, you can order 500,” Shinkel said. “And it’s very affordable.”
With the help of their wives, Shinkel and Nelson wrote and published “Nature Nuggets” in 2019 about their lives as naturalists.
After writing out some of his stories for that, his daughter encouraged him and his wife to write about their lives so that their family could enjoy their stories forever.
“We find out too late we didn’t talk enough to our parents and grandparents,” Shinkel said. “Going through my dad’s things when he passed away, I found myself saying, ‘I wish I knew that’.”
In “Just Me,” Shinkel tells stories of growing up on the farm, working at Sarett, starting businesses to make ends meet, raising his three daughters, and exploring the world.
In “My Life as Santa,” he outlines what it was like being a professional Santa Claus for over 50 years – the smiles, the tears and the questions about the reindeer.
Shinkel says everyone has memories that can be enjoyed by others, and starting to tell stories often brings up other memories long forgotten.
“Even if say, Joe Smith is writing or recording his stories for six months and doesn’t publish a book, that’s not wasted time,” Shinkel said. “He’s been busy. He’s telling stories. He’s remembering. He’s had some purpose.”
Shinkel said he chose to type his stories up on the computer, but others have used voice recordings, videos and their own handwriting.
He said the hardest part about putting together the books was the formatting. The easiest part was he is already a subject matter expert.
My conversation with Shinkel lasted an entire hour where I heard some of the stories he’s written about, like getting arrested in Kenya, the family that would come visit him as Santa each year, and the cabin his father built Up North.
Taking the time to listen to others’ stories is just as important as telling stories. You might learn something. You might be inspired. I was.
Shinkel left his job as a teacher to become a naturalist, even though it required a pay cut, because that was his passion.
In his retirement, he still raises chickens and takes care of his farm; is a 33-year member of the Berrien County Parks Board and serves on the Berrien County Land Preservation Board.
Shinkel isn’t a client of Area Agency on Aging, but he might be one day. We’re all aging and may all need to reach out for information or assistance.
We may even just want someone to tell our stories to. And we can help with that too.
As Shinkel told me multiple times throughout our conversation, “start now,” because you never know what tomorrow could bring.