This is a family story, a collection of journals and brief memoirs on family events---birthdays, holidays, vacations, graduations, beauty pageants---tributes to a departed brother and close-friends, and political and celebrity articles published in magazines, newsletters, websites, and a feature article of the writer published in the front page of the Wall Street Journal. The book was written as a primer to encourage current and future generations of the Manzano-Balbuena Family Tree, to tell the story of their lives to their descendants, which will serve as the link between their past and the present.
About the Author: Ben Manzano was born in the scenic town of Santa, Ilocos Sur---a very beautiful city, a comment by Theodore Roosevelt when he was Governor General in the Philippines. His father was a chattel of the ground and his mother helped the family (four children) survival by raising pigs, chickens, and a vegetable garden. While helping his father till the ground and plant rice, corn, and onion, from dawn till sunset, he decided that he won't continue his father's occupation and dream of becoming an engineer. The dream became a reality when he graduated from the University of the Philippines as a Mechanical Engineer. He worked and lived in many places: Staff Engineer with Aras-Asan Timber Co., Manila Electric Company, and U.S. Industries-Philippines (USI) in the Philippines. At USI he was a Cadet/Sales Engineer where he handled sales of Caterpillar Units---Tractors, Graders, Payloaders, and Scrapers. Recently, he published a booklet of memoirs from former employees of U.S.I. He emigrated to Canada and the U.S. where he worked in Vancouver, B.C., Toronto, Windsor, in the former. In the U.S.A. he worked at General Motors as a Project Engineer for nine years and at Chrysler for twenty years where he retired. At Chrysler he was a Project Engineer, Group Leader, and Instrument Panel Meeting Coordinator attended by thirty-plus engineers and managers. While at General Motors the author went to school part time managing his job and school schedule. In 1973, the author completed his Masters Degree in Engineering Mechanics from Wayne State University. Ben, this author, loves photography, reading biography/autobiography, and memoirs of famous people. He loves to write and plan to write a sequel of this book which will cover the entire journey of his life.