Rogan Family History

If I wrote a novel it would probably be a rip off of East of Eden by Steinbeck. My family's been in California for five generations now on each side of the family, maybe four on my mother's. I'd start the story with the history of one side of my family, probably my father's and talk about how they came over from Norway and got into publishing and eventually wound up in San Francisco after moving from Milwaukee to Seattle. I'd write a lot about my Grandfather's generation–– he had lots of siblings, one of which is still alive today. Aunt Verna is one hundred and three years old now. I'd write about how my Grandfather's brother died in WWII and how my Grandfather joined the service and learned to fly. He flew C47s and dropped troops on D-day. There's a couple good stories in there, mostly having to do with my Grandfather being a good guy. I'd also write about my mother's side of the family–– her grandfather was a Sheriff in Nevada durring the Gold Rush and eventually moved to San Francisco in his old age. I'm sure I could come up with a couple good stories about him. My mother's grandmother came over from Ireland durring the famine–– there's also material here. My paternal grandfather met my grandmother in San Francisco. She was a very smart woman, but girls weren't allowed into college, so she became an actress. After the war my Grandfather met her through his brother on a trolley car after work. My Grandfather owned a bakery in San Francisco, right by the Ferry Building, my dad grew up delivering sandwiches with his brother. Right about when my dad was going into high school, they moved from san Francisco to Santa Cruz where my dad and a lot of his siblings have lived ever since. My mother grew up in Lafayette. Her father was also in the war–– he was in command of a ship in the Pacific. After the war he worked for the Justice Department and married my Grandmother. My mom moved to Santa Cruz and met my dad. Now I'm here. I'd probably take a page from Steinbeck and have myself be a character, but stay out of the way of the narrative. There's a bunch of love stories I could tell, there 's also plenty of bad things I could write about, and a lot of American history tangled up in it. I like when writers write about things that they actually have some kind of relationship too–– I think were I to write a novel, this would be it. My family's history has been pretty well documented and lots of people have done some story-worthy things, so I don't think I would have trouble coming up with content. This could work as a series of short stories.