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My dad escaped the iron curtain by hiding aboard his best friends ship (they were merchant marine officers), and a week into their voyage when they stopped near Istanbul, they shimmied down the anchor line and swam 4 miles to the shore in freezing waters, TL;DR version.

I want to honor his memory by writing a book about what lead him to that moment and about that night specifically when they made their escape.

So AMA? I've grown up hearing the story many times, and before he passed I sat down and mined it for as many details as he could recall.

Any questions in this post will help me in writing the book specifically, what people want to learn about and what interests people about the story.

My dad escaped the iron curtain by hiding aboard his best friends ship (they were merchant marine officers), and a week into their voyage when they stopped near Istanbul, they shimmied down the anchor line and swam 4 miles to the shore in freezing waters, TL;DR version. I want to honor his memory by writing a book about what lead him to that moment and about that night specifically when they made their escape. So AMA? I've grown up hearing the story many times, and before he passed I sat down and mined it for as many details as he could recall. Any questions in this post will help me in writing the book specifically, what people want to learn about and what interests people about the story.

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That's good to know! I have stories like this from my mothers side too. My mom and her sister had to share the good pair of shoes to school. Sounds weird, but the highschool grades 9-12 equivalent were taught in two shifts, morning and afternoon. They'd meet at the bus stop and exchange the shoes so the one going to class could have the good pair.

But yeah! we need diversity, and equity, and critical race theory in this country. Fuck my life.