Jack Burger displays a poster featuring the front cover of his new book ‘You Don’t Know Jack.’
Jack Burger never dreamed that he would write a book.
But at the urging of his wife Deb, the man known to friends as Crafty Jack compiled a wealth of stories from his life in the new book You Don’t Know Jack.
“This whole book thing was her idea,” Burger said of his wife Deb, who died three years ago after a battle with pancreatic cancer. “She said that I remembered the stories so well and I told them with such zest and flavour that it would be good to write them down.”
Deb was sure family members would appreciate the written collection, and that others would too.
Burger wasn’t as certain about that as his wife, but knew her advice was usually right so he set about writing them on his computer.
“Whenever the notion struck me I would just sit down and start writing.”
Burger began almost at the beginning of his life, starting with his childhood in Monarch and later Fort Macleod.
To his surprise, the stories flowed and Burger soon had enough material to fill two books.
As he wrote each story Burger would remember others, and when he discussed the book with friends they would remind him of yet more.
“The whole thing of it was I wanted to make sure it was self-depreciating humour rather than picking on somebody else,” Burger said. “I don’t like that sort of stuff.”
In the book’s forward, singer-songwriter Antsy McClain, who performed at the Empress Theatre with The Trailer Park Troubadours, writes about meeting Jack and his wife.
“It started out casually, meeting after a show or at intermission,” McClain wrote. “But as always happens with Jack and Debbie, friends are made fast and before long we were having dinner with mutual friends and I was charmed, like everyone, by their wit, warmth and self-deprecating senses of humour.”
You Don’t Know Jack is organized into chapters titled Monarch, Fort Macleod, Lethbridge, Dan, Work Life, Motorcycles and Holidays, LCC and the ’80s, Jack’s Shorts and Other Interesting Stuff, and Deb.
Burger’s life-long friend Dan Davis has a chapter dedicated to their adventures together, and other southwestern Alberta residents figure prominently as well.
“I wanted to make sure no one was going to sue me,” Burger said with a laugh. “That’s why I took all those stories out.”
Along the way he sought advice from people such as Noel Doherty, a former teacher in Fort Macleod who is also an author who became a mentor to Burger.
Burger’s friend Fred Ehrensvrend, who lives in California, suggested the name for the book.
Early in the writing of the book, Ehrensvrend asked Burger what he was going to call the book. Burger suggested he would leave that detail until the writing was finished.
Ehrensvrend suggested since the stories were all about Burger, he should call it You Don’t Know Jack.
The book’s cover is filled with 353 images, with Crafty Jack and Little Debbie’s faces figuring prominently.
“It’s been amazing,” Burger said of response to the book. “I’m hearing from people who tell me it sounds like my voice when they’re reading this. That’s really flattering.”
“I hope people get a good laugh out of the book, and I hope they know a little more about me.”
“It was supposed to be a fun project and it really was,” Burger said. “The stories I was writing about my wife’s last few days, they were the toughest to write.”
That process helped Burger find some surprising and welcome closure around the loss of his beloved wife.
“Sometimes you just have to say some things, and it was really good. I think she knew that would happen. She always seemed to know what was the right direction for me to take.”
“I miss her dearly.”
You Don’t Know Jack is available at The Macleod Gazette office.
